Back at the beginning of the PS2 era, the action game genre was revolutionized by a game that formed out of scraped ideas for Resident Evil 4. That game would be called Devil May Cry and has become a classic that will be remembered for years to come. The series then had a few sequels (the 2nd of which was trashed by fans, while the 3rd was hailed as one of the greatest action games of all time and the 4th is a mixed bag for fans) and the creator of them, Hideki Kamiya, has created other series most of which have done quite well. Viewtiful Joe and Okami are two of my favorites, so it’s easy to see why I was excited about his latest work, Bayonetta. But did it live up to expectations? Lets find out in my review of Bayonetta for the PS3 and X Box 360.
So I wont go too much into detail about the story itself, because honestly I’m still confused after beating the game. But I don’t think that makes it any less enjoyable. You see the story itself seems to be more of a way to create insane senarios for our Heroine, Bayonetta, to deal with in her own unique way. The game feels almost like a satire of the action genre, with overly sexual themes and the kind of over the top action that makes riding a missle like a surf board seem like an every day occurance. The cutscenes are very well thought out though and the voice acting is very decent. The basics of the story? Bayonetta is a witch, she uses guns on her hands and feet, and she brutally destroys the angels that are trying to kill her with her hair that can morph into giant hands and monster heads, and because she is also wearing this hair as a suit, when she uses it to attack she gets more and more naked… Makes sense? Nope. Is it awesome? Very awesome.

- The better your attack the more naked she gets! How awesomely perverted.
But this is an action game, so the story takes a back seat to the gameplay. Lucky for us the gameplay in this game is top notch action from start to finish. Whether you are fighting one of the smaller angels or attempting to conquor a giant cardinal whos size makes you feel like you’re fighting a sky scraper at times, the game flows quite nicely. Something unique to this game is you can equip weapons to both your hands and your feet, and there is a variety of weapons to choose from, ranging from a Katana to a whip to ice skates to shot guns for your feet, and all of them are fun to use.
The action plays similarily to the Devil May Cry series, you have a bunch of enemies around you and you use a series of attacks and dodging (lots of dodging) to get through the hordes. The bosses are challenging but also very fun to beat. Just learn their patterns and dodge at the right times, and you will come out on top. Bayonetta also has a few unique abilities that are useful in certain situations. In battle she can use something called Witch time which allows her to slow time down and get in a few extra hits on the enemies. She also at certain points in the game, has the ability to “witch walk” which allows her to walk on walls and the ceiling. When this mechanic is used its used very well, I just wish it had been utalized more. She also has the ability to morph into a panther and a bird that can glide, which will come in handy at certain points in the game. On top of that, there is a magic gague that, if you fill up enough, will allow you to use torture attacks which will do massive damage to enemies and look pretty to boot. Bayonetta will pull out a torture device, like a guillotin, and you’ll be prompted to mash a button to rack up points, and then you’ll get to see the enemies die painfully. Bosses also have something similar called a climax move, where bayonetta will summon a giant monster (using her weird magic hair) and the monster will proceed to destroy the boss in fun and different ways.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDKlSmM7PEE (here’s a gameplay video, I’ll do this properly when I find out how to)
The game offers a lot for you to do in game, and since it is an action game you will likely be playing through this more then once. There are multiple difficulties, very easy, easy, normal, hard, and non stop climax mode (did I mention this game has a very sexual theme?) as well as secret weapons, extra costumes, and even an extra character to play the game as. On top of that you’ll want to buy all of the accessories that allow Bayonetta to do different things like deflect attacks and activate witch time when you get hit, as well as all the ablilites and the health and magic upgrades. But we’re not done yet, within some of the stages you can find pieces of hearts that will raise your vitality, pearls that will raise your magic more, and portals that will lead you into special challenges. These challenges are definitely challenging and will test your abilities as a player, but the rewards are again, heart pieces and pearl pieces, so to max yourself out you are going to want to beat them. You can also try to get the best ranking in the levels and post your scores on a leader board for the world to see. And if that wasn’t enough for you, there is also a secret boss. So if you want to collect everything you will be at it for a long time, and that’s the way an action game should be.

- Bayonetta posing for the camera! She does that a lot
Now the question you might be asking is, which version is superior? There has been quite an uproar of hate from PS3 fans due to the lazy port of this game, which consisted of worse load times and not as crisp graphics when compared to its 360 counterpart. Lucky for us PS3 owners, a patch has been released for the game that will fix the load times by letting you install the game. The graphics still take a hit but even with that considered the game looks very good on either system. So whichever system you prefer to play action games on really is the right choice for you, though there is still no denying that the 360 version is superior.
Overall this game is an amazing action game and a must have for all fans of the genre, especially fans of the Devil May Cry series. Fans of Hideki Kamiya’s games will also be pleased with the random references to his older games which definitely gave this reviewer a smile. The game is very stylistic in its music, tone, and art direction (though I hope you like the song Fly Me To The Moon because you’ll hear it a lot) and it’s a joy to see the crazy things Bayonetta does just for the sake of it looking awesome. The action is probably some of the best I’ve ever seen in a game, the story is non sensical in all the right ways, and you will find yourself coming back to this game again and again to try to unlock everything. The game is very hard, especially on the higher difficulties, but if you’re up for getting your ass kicked repeatedly only to feel the sweet satisfaction when you do win (and it is sweet) then give this gem a try.
Soapy’s Final Verdict: 9/10