God Hand
How can a game that looks so bad feel so good?
Published: October 12, 2006
Speaking of gambling, between missions there is a light casino in the game, as well as a shop and a sparring arena that lets you test out move combinations with unlimited God Hand and Roulette moves if you so choose. The shop offers more moves (you can also find them in chests during the regular mission), the ability to upgrade life and tension meters, and, later on, some Roulette Attacks as well.
The casino is mainly just slots, blackjack and video poker, though you can earn the right to enter the High Rollers' Club if you've banked 100,000 in cash, and the slots do offer the ability to pick a prize from one of three chests on the ground floor.
So then what you have is a no-frills classic beat-'em-up, light on compelling story (though the story was certainly interesting enough to me that I wanted to see what would happen next, even if I more or less knew) but heavy on the ass whooping. You've got mini-bosses, major bosses and a familiar breakdown of levels, though these can seem terribly barren and repetitive at times.
There is one liiittle issue that some might have with the game: it can be brutally hard, but even here I wasn't really dissuaded (and normally I can't stand especially difficult games). Mostly this was because the game never felt unfairly difficult; I just didn't time my dodge properly or didn't figure out an enemies' pattern. I finally understand the appeal of technique-based fighters like Ninja Gaiden and the Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition (I still maintain to this day that the original version is fundamentally busted); while I wouldn't put GH up against either, it's still a solid investment in refining moves.
If there is one part of the game that's undeniably flawed, it's the visuals. It's not just that the environments look almost original PS one-era dated and bland, it's that during the cutscenes you can see that the models are solid and detailed. The animation, too, makes every punch feel incredibly satisfying; things like rocking a guy with a flurry of blows and then rocket-kicking him into a wall all have weight and heft to them. But then, in explicably, the game doesn't bother to keep the camera from clipping through walls when the panhandle/tank-style controls have Gene rigidly spinning in place (the right analog stick is reserved for side/back dodges and the more advanced duck/sway system if you press if toward an enemy with proper timing).
Luckily, the audio is much more meaty. Punches and kicks have a thickness to them, and the grunts, whistles, taunts and yells barked by the main character and his enemies are all nicely well done. As mentioned before, the cutscene delivery is all done with a great tongue-in-cheeck sort of campiness, and it matches the more outlandish parts of the presentation perfectly. The music is even better, at times coming in bursts of twang and jazz, and nearly always mixing up between levels (even the mid-mission interludes are different). It really is a nice treat for the ears.
God Hand is destined to be one of those games that will polarize folks. You can already see it in the reviews the game is getting; some either don't get it or just didn't connect with the style, while others gleefully dove into the campiness. I, obviously, fell into the later category, relishing both the approach and the old-school charm that was built into the game. The first time you unload a huge barrage of kicks and then launch someone into the air only to kick them skyward where they wink out of view with a little chime, it's impossible not to grin at least a little.
No, God Hand isn't for everyone, but if you've mourned the loss of the classic brawler, don't whip out that hanky just yet. There's still life left in the genre, and this game -- not to mention its mere $30 price tag -- show that it can be done in 3D. Now, if they would just give the graphics the same treatment as the cutscenes and the combat, it would be a perfect example of how to do the genre right.
