|
God Hand is all about tough love. There are three difficulty settings, but easy and hard just locked in the opposing ends of the game's dynamic range. In normal, as you dish out chin smacking beat downs, the difficulty meter will rise, with levels 1 2 3 and DIE. The higher the level, the more damage an enemy will do, the more often they'll block and evade, and the more they'll reach for the hardest hitting moves in their arsenal. Get smacked around too much and the meter lowers to make things a little easier on you, though you can always bottom it out by using the grovel god reel. Don't think that even at level 1 this game is a walk in the park though. You will die. Often. But I never got too upset, because Clover did what I've been wanting and begging for in these sort of games since the beginning. You have infinite continues at your disposal that drop you back to the previous checkpoint, but more importantly you get to keep all your stuff! Got a 1000 coin before you bought it? It's still there. Got a god reel use from a crate? Still have it. Got a new technique after beating down a demon, and then keeled over an instant later? Now you can equip that skill, and teach the level who's boss. The levels themselves tend to be short as well, so you're never too far from saving your precious progress. Having the camera locked behind Gene is another thing I've always wanted, though you can still get blindsided if you don't watch your radar.
The problems with God Hand are easily summed up in its casino, where it's high risk for little return. Skill will go a long way in getting you through this game, but luck and money, or lack of it, can screw you over in the end. During a level, there are a number of crates and other objects that can be cracked open for the occasional random power up, from healing fruit to restoring your god reel. Random is the key word here. Sometimes you'll be desperate for a little life boost, and you'll get nothing but nearly worthless 200 coins. When new moves and abilities cost an average of 8000-12000 and new moves appearing all the time, you're going to need a lot more change. The pay outs at the casino are just too small, and the controller breaking arena battles reward you with mere chump change. So the majority of your non-busting heads time will be spent at the dog track, betting on colorful pooches with names like Mikami's Head and More Cowbell. Bet the low odds and you'll eventually get the money you need, but it's tedious all the same. Made worse by having no way to heal or refill your god hand power between stages, sometimes forcing a continue right off the bat.
God Hand is everything I've dreamed of in a beat 'em up since first playing Final Fight more than a decade ago, set in a bizarre world of Fist of the Northstar meets Benny Hill. There are still great things about this game that I haven't mentioned, like the over the top voice acting and the detailed character models with free flowing animations that do so much to bring this Frankenstein creation to life. It's obvious that the game didn't have a huge budget behind it, but a lot of care and attention was devoted to producing a true fighting god among lesser brawlers. |
