The story sees a small town overrun by super-strong thugs. A drifter by the name of Jean wanders into town and finds himself in a spot of bother with the bad guys after he tries to defend a young helpless female. Unfortunately, Jean gets worked over by the thugs and looses consciousness -- as well as his right arm. We he awakes, he realizes that his arm has been replaced mysteriously by the fabled "God Hand" -- a weapon of unspeakable power. On the down side, a legion of demonic entities want the hand for themselves, and begin to hunt Jean down. This is where you come in.
The game is set in a third-person perspective and controls not unlike the majority of 3D fighters out there. Jean can spin around in 180 degree increments by tapping the L2 trigger, and moves around in a strafing like manner. With a weak and strong attack system, he can also bust out signature Roulette moves. Hitting the R1 button brings up a timed menu of cracking special moves. Ranging from the mule-kicking Ball Buster to the powerful La Bomba, Jean is more than capable of taking on multiple enemies at once.
When the time is right, he can also call on the power of the God Hand itself. This causes Jean to move at a rapidly increased rate for a short period of time, and lets him deliver crushing combo attacks; the likes of which I've not seen since watching Manga Video's The Fist of the North Star movie. The combo system seems a little button mashy right now, but there's definitely a system there to be mastered.
Juggles and monster combos are entirely possible and it's really pretty silly and satisfying to kick the assess of those naughty thugs and demonic creatures. The demo level had a distinct Mexican city feel, hence my nod to Desperado. It took me about 10 mins to blow through the level and it was pretty good fun. I didn't like the locked strafing approach to movement too much, and I felt like I had to rely too heavily on the 180 spin to get back in the action. The attacks -- in particular the God Hand and roulette -- add a great over-the-top cheesy feel to the game.
While there doesn't appear to be anything revolutionary about the gameplay at this point at all, but I think God Hand will offer a pretty fun romp for however many hours it lasts. Plus, Mikami's pedigree is usually on the money when it comes to this style of game. It's most likely not going to change the face of gaming, but it should give PS2 gamers some good clean mindless fun in Q4 of this year.
