Devil May Cry 4 [X360]

By now, most fans of the Devil May Cry series of action games have a well-honed sense of what a DMC game ought to have: Vast bosses, gothic style verging on the tongue-in-cheek, and a difficulty level that's so harsh, it could strip paint at 30 paces. Capcom's latest checks all these boxes, but it's far from the self-indulgent fan-service sequel you might be expecting. Devil May Cry 4 is a rare treat: it's a gamer's game that anyone can enjoy.

For the uninitiated, Devil May Cry's iconic combat system is a complex and intricate beast. Both playable characters, series lead Dante and newcomer Nero, pack swords and guns, but the firearms are just there to let you string together longer combos. Surviving is all about understanding the flow of the game's many, many combinations and how to best string them together into longer and longer chains of destruction.

So forget plot. Forget character development. Forget even trying to finish the game. Devil May Cry 4 is all about exploiting this combat system to its maximum potential. Once you've gotten a handle on the basics, you'll chop through standard demon cannon fodder like they're straw dummies, clearing whole rooms of baddies while hardly touching the floor in the process. It's an electric feeling.

This approach gives the game huge longevity. Not only will you want to run through the game multiple times to unlock ever more challenging difficulty levels, but you'll want to go back and replay earlier stages just to improve your score. (Which, we should add, can be uploaded for the world to marvel -- or laugh -- at.) No matter how good you get, Devil May Cry will still have challenges waiting for you.

Nevertheless, there is no shortage of concessions in Devil May Cry for the new player. You can pretty much button-mash all the way through Human (read: Easy) mode without breaking a sweat. Even Devil Hunter (read: Normal) flatters you at first. Nero's initially basic ability set doesn't bewilder, but players will soon ramp up to the more exotic moves as they gain more experience points, and there are still more difficulty levels to go.

So pros, don't fret. Before long, you'll be struggling through the same hideously difficult Devil May Cry you've come to know and love. About halfway through the game, you switch from controlling Nero to traditional series lead Dante, and everything changes: Dante sports an initially bewildering assortment of swordplay styles, and you can switch between them mid-combo for a breathtaking variety of options.

Predictably, Devil May Cry 4's presentation shines. If you get a chance to take in a couple of its more picturesque locations, you'll be impressed. From Gothic cathedrals to pleasant, leafy forests, it looks fantastic. Barring the odd slight stutter, all the pizazz of the game's huge flights rattles along with no sign of stress. Even the music, so often a stumbling point in Japanese action games, fits the game perfectly; somewhat to our surprise, we even smiled at the occasional cheesy organ riffs.

And the presentation is at its best when you're taking on one of the game's many bosses. You can practically taste the relish of the designers in coming up with outrageous, off-the-wall demonic opponents, and each one has plenty of quirks both in appearance and fighting style. Giant toads, huge snakes, demons on a scale that'll have Shadow of the Colossus looking to its laurels -- you'll love it.

Unlike the previous Devil May Cry games, which have been Sony console exclusives, the fourth game releases simultaneously on PS3 and Xbox 360. Little differentiates the two versions except controller feel, and for this game, the four shoulder buttons of the PS3's pad beat out the 360's slightly awkward bumpers by a nose. Either way, though, you'll be in for a visual treat, and although the camera isn't perfect (is it ever?), Devil May Cry 4's controls are tight enough that you don't necessarily need to be watching Nero or Dante to keep the combos rolling.

Dismissing the game out of hand is easy: the plot is silly, the standard enemies don't vary much, and the level design amounts to little more than battle venues linked together with bland, featureless corridors and the occasional crap puzzle. But that'd be missing the point completely, and it only takes one hit to see why. Nail an encounter just right, ripping through your enemies with all the ferocity of a tornado in a knife warehouse, and you'll understand. You'll sit back as the last body drops to the floor, you'll take in your style rating with a quiet smile, and you'll draw a deep breath as the adrenaline high fades. Man, what a ride.