God Hand - Review

Clover Studios were obviously trying to create something that was both fun to play and laugh at. They failed in both areas. God Hand is a fighting game with sillyness, instead of an intense beat-em up, you get a slapstick beat-em up. Kicking a guy in the balls then kicking him again so hard that he goes flying a hundred meters, it sounds fun, but its surprisingly dull. Even with the context sensitive attacks, like pressing circle repeatedly while your enemy is lying on the ground to continue slamming his face into the dirt with your feet, or moving the analogue left and right quickly and repeatedly so that you can escape the enemies hold on you. Thats really the only good thing about this game, but it has nothing on God of War and by nothing I mean less than nothing.
Oh and you can also press R1 to active a roulette that basically launches a really powerful attack.
The rest of the fighting can be adjustable to your own desires by buying new technique at the end of each area. Unfortunately however, this is not enough. The combat system is no where near as deep as it could have been. Nay, should have been.

The cut scenes all try to be funny, but instead just turn out horrible. The basic story is that you have a really powerful arm, known as the God Hand. Someone else has the other arm but calls it the Devil Hand, obviously he is a bad guy and wants to kill you for your arm.

There are other things you can do besides fighting. After each area you can visit the shop to buy new techniques, items and roulettes. Go to the fighting ring and either practice your moves or compete for prizes. There is also a casino, the only games open at first are blackjack, poker and the slot machines. After a few hours into the game the dog races open up.

Something interesting about each level is that the better you play, the harder the game becomes but the more bonus points you receive, but the moment you start losing the difficulty gets lowered again. It wont make the game too much harder by going up a level or 2, but when you do go up a level or 2, you should be able to handle it.

So the games bad attempt at humour, fighting and depth, ultimately crush this game, which is a shame because it does have some potential.


Available on: PS2
Developer: Clover Studios
Publisher: Capcom
Rating: M (Moderate Violence, Course Language)
Graphics: 7.5/10
Sound: 8/10
Gameplay: 2/10
Lastability: 1/10

OVERALL: 3/10