God Hand for the PS2 is that "other game" Clover released in the second half of 2006. To put the anti-hype surrounding the game prior to release into perspective, think of Clover's games as if they were Strongbad's Teen Girl Squad. First you have the pretty and popular Cheerleader (the critically acclaimed Okami), the fashionable but forgettable So And So (Viewtiful Joe), and Whats Her Face trying to keep up with the rest of the pack (Viewtiful Joe's sequel and spin-offs), and then you have The Ugly One who has a crush on every boy. After multiple not-so-excited previews, a poorly handled Japanese launch and obscured by Capcom's other fall releases in North America, God Hand is without a doubt The Ugly One, cut from the same quirky cloth as the others, but just not palatable to everyone.

Just like the tragically misunderstood cartoon Teen, God Hand has a style and sense of humor so off-beat you either instantaneously love it or loath it within seconds. Try to follow me on this: The player is Gene, a young guy wandering the desert that manages to get his arm ripped off by a bad guy when trying to help out a cute girl. But it's not all bad as Gene accidentally stumbles upon one of the fantastically powerful God Hands to replace his right arm. So now Gene and Olivia (the cute girl and protector of the God Hands) face off against a series of humans, demons and devils that have their eye on the God Hand. Still with me? Good, those other people that stopped reading at this point wouldn't have enjoyed the game anyways. Let's move onto the game itself

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, God Hand only does a few things really well, but where it excels is what elevates it to the upper echelons of action gaming. If only one positive thing could be said about the game it would be that it is the living embodiment of what beat-em-ups used to be. I say used to be because you won't find your character performing moves in cutscenes that you only wish you could do in actual gameplay (Devil May Cry) or face a difficulty curve that blatantly cheats (Ninja Gaiden). What you will find is sole descendant of brawler genre staples like Streets of Rage, Final Fight, and Double Dragon while using "large than life" fights out of anime influences like Fist of the North Star and Battle Angel Alita. The battles in God Hand pit players against clusters of nameless thugs and allow you to pummel them into the ground in more painful, yet comically unrealistic than you can imagine. The familiar kicks and punches are in there for sure, but when Gene unleashes the absurdly powerful God Hand, the laws of gravity or physics are smashed as you summon a baseball bat form the heavens to whack your foe into orbit (this is not an exaggeration, that's literally what happens). The over-the-top nature of these events are enhanced by a running laugh track that cheers for you with each foe knocked unconscious and boos at any of your missteps.

Now, these flashy moves are all well and good, but if they aren't backed by a sophisticated control scheme and combat system it could all fall apart. Lucky for us, God Hand delivers in ways that similar action titles sorely lack. In a controversial move, the camera remains fixed behind Gene during the action. This in turn gives players a predictable camera to work with while keeping the action up close and personal, Unlike Itakgaki's "masterpiece." The controls are a little unorthodox compared to some of today's action games, but feel right at home when placed next to 16-bit brawlers from back in the day. The sweetest part of all of this has to be the customization options featured through out the game. In a stroke of pure genius, the designers allow the player to map their own combos together, to perfectly tune Gene's assaults. This option alone brings a level of depth that won't be seen in contemporaries today.

While the game's environment design is sparse, director Shinji Mikami (whose works include Resident Evil, P.N. 03, Devil May Cry, Killer7) clearly knows what's most important in this game: characters and sound. Characters feature plenty of detail for a PS2 game and the sound effects offer up an eccentric mix of raw beatings and arcade-styled beeps and bloops. The even more eccentric music featured in the game is composed by Masafumi Takada, who's been responsible for the soundtracks to Killer7 and No More Heroes, which is in many ways the spiritual successor to God Hand. The themes are unforgettable and lively as every genre under the sun is mashed together.

The game even includes some form of gay content for those us with a slight sense of humor. Boarding on "stereotypically offensive" in a way that only South Park could, an early boss fight at the beginning of the game features a pair of "performers" that look like the lovechildren of Elizabeth Berkley (circa Showgirls) and "Siegfried and Roy." Sure, they're complete cartoon buffoons that lust after Gene (I can't blame them on that front), but just like everything else in the game, from poisonous Chihuahuas to the Mad Midget Five, it's tongue placed firmly in cheek.

At the end of the day, God Hand is a game that doesn't pretend to be anything but what it is: a fun game. From illogically big pieces of fruit serving as health pick ups to a bizarre Missile Command inspired minigame, you get the feeling that the team behind it wanted to make something that celebrated the unique language of games. God Hand doesn't want to feature bullet-time cutscenes because it wants the player to do all of the ass kicking in game. It doesn't want your time spent watching, it wants you playing. So if you can get over some of the dated graphics and gameplay assumptions of what action games "should be," God Hand is a treat that should be enjoyed by anyone looking to jump into a game and start beating the crap out of everyone they see.