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My God Hand review!:

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God Hand: The power of God in the palm of your hand.

Let me just start by saying that Clover Studios (responsible for the Viewtiful Joe series and Okami) have done it again. With that out of the way, it’s time to get this review started.

Clover Studios have had an excellent reputation for producing amazing games ever since 2003 when they produced the hugely popular Viewtiful Joe, with its interesting blend of cell shading and 3D elements mixed together in a side scrolling adventure. Viewtiful Joe (the main character) had many powers such as slowing down and speeding up time. A sequel was produced in 2004, and also received high marks from the gaming community. Recently, Okami was released, and has also been a fan favourite with its unusual look, yet amazing feel and imagination.

The premise of God Hand is that of a straight out fighter, mixed with a fair bit of humour, to combine and form a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously, yet offers players challenge for their money. It’s something of a light-hearted romp through a series of episodes, gaining new fighting moves, as well as God Hand moves, along the way. The fighting system is somewhat centred around the use of the God Hand (a powerful arm which contains the power of God), which holds supreme power and deals a huge amount of damage to any enemy. Unlimited use of such a power would be unfair of course, so a limit has been implemented, as you can see in the image below, there is gauge of orbs which is are used up one, two or three at a time (depending on the cost of the move you are using). More powerful moves use more orbs, and once all the orbs have been used, you can no longer use God Hand moves (such as 100 Fists, which hits your opponent 100 times and then send them into orbit for an instant K.O.), until you replenish the gauge by picking up items. The God Hand moves also reflect some of the humour; take the Ball Buster for example. There’s a laughing track to go with that one!

An enemy feels the wrath of the 100 Fists move. I’ve also marked out the orbs.

The story is rather loose, no explanation is given at the start of the game for your possession of the God Hand, but as the game goes on, all becomes clear. The main character, whom you control for the entire game, is called Gene. He travels with his tomboy ‘assistant’ Olivia, and together they fight for peace (well mostly Gene). Olivia’s tough, somewhat exaggerated nature leads to some funny cut scenes, and you get to see a new interaction between the two every time you complete an episode. I really can’t say much more than this without spoiling things for you, so I’ll let you find out the rest for yourself.

As far as layout goes, everything is clear and simple, the health bar is on the top, and your tension bar is on bottom. To the left of these is your “experience” gauge, however it is only temporary. You get experience from attacking and defeating enemies (your gauge increases) and you can grow a level when the gauge is full. However, if you take enough hits, you will gradually lose experience, and can drop down a level. There is also a level limit. The purpose of this “levelling up” is that every time you grow a level, the enemies become smarter (they will attack in groups more often), and can do more damage with their attacks. It’s truly a challenging game. There is a radar in the top right hand corner of the screen, the function of which should be obvious.

From a graphics point of view, you won’t be disappointed. I’m not talking about anything earth shattering, but they are well made, and easy to see. The frame rate stays nice and steady throughout most of the game, which is great to see, however the game can slow a little when there are lots of enemies on screen. The character models look decent, and fit in well with their surroundings. Some of them are a little samey, but some people believe that this was done on purpose to partially the emulate the style of older games which only featured a few generic enemies. You can describe the game as something of a homage to retro fighting games, which were simple, yet addictive.

As far as the actual battling goes, the set up is in a 3rd person perspective, with the camera positioned directly behind Gene. This may prove frustrating at first (since all you see is Gene’s back, you also can’t see behind you). This makes you prone to attack from behind, but this can be easily remedied by using the special dodging system built into the fight mechanics. The right analogue stick on the PS2 controller has been devoted entirely to dodging, pulling down on the stick will cause Gene to quickly back flip backwards, out of harm’s way. He can also sidestep and crouch using the other possible directions.
You can set up Gene’s fighting moves using a dedicated option screen (as well as which God Hand moves you want to have available), so that he will fight the way you want him to. The fighting system relies fairly heavily on being able to break your opponent’s guard, so guard breaking moves come standard, but can also be modified to your liking.
God and moves are executed by pressing the R2 button on the controller, which brings up a roulette menu (with a time limit), which allows you to choose which move you want to use. Once you’ve made your selection, the move will initiate and all you have to do is watch as your opponent feels the pain.

The Zen Pose, a God hand move which allows you to recover HP. He certainly looks relaxed.

The levels are generally made up of multiple smaller areas, which must be passed in order, each area has its own name which is displayed on the save screen (which is displayed after you complete each area), which also gives you the option of shopping for new moves (and God Hand moves), as well as power ups such as extra health. The area names can be quite funny, and give a clue as to what will be in the area.

There are a host of strange characters to battle through the course of the games, too numerous to mention (and I don’t want to spoil anything). I will however make particular note to a group of guys that you fight, each of which bears a striking resemblance to Viewtiful Joe. There are few in-game references to their past games, you’ll have to see if you can spot them!

Presentation: 8.5/10

The presentation is nice, menus are easy to use, and the game has a nice feel to it. Setting up your attacks is easy, and the layout is functional.

Graphics: 8.5/10 (mostly because of the God Hand moves)

This game doesn’t sport the best graphics you’ve ever seen, but I think that they are very good myself, character design is clear, areas are well designed, and God Hand moves look spectacular! The animation is well done, and fluid. All in all, a good effort.

Sound: 9.5/10

The sound is very good, some excellent tracks are featured, you won’t get tired of listening to this game in a hurry! I really enjoy listening to the soundtrack quite often. I can’t praise it enough.
Gameplay: 9/10

Excellent gameplay, completely customisable attacks, which can be put together for powerful combos. Camera can be tricky, but you’ll get used to it quickly enough. God Hand moves are easy to execute.

Lasting Appeal: 7/10

This is most likely to be a game that you will only play through once, but if you really like the game, like me, you’ll keep coming back every now and then for some good fun.

Overall (not an average): 9/10.

Clover have hit the mark, God Hand is an awesome game, not to be missed.

Well, the Wii has had a sucessful launch in Australia. I was down at Myer on launch day, early in the morning, and was one of the first to get a Wii. I’m very happy with it so far, and the two games that I got with it (Zelda and Rayman) are both very good, though Zelda is the standout of course. I’m looking forward to Sonic: Secret Rings next year as well as WarioWare in January. I hope SSB:Brawl gets released fairly soon, I can’t wait much longer.

admeister out.