Shopping Basket

Game Played: Bayonetta
Played on: PS3
Person Playing It: Benjamin Davies

Let’s try to get Bayonetta’s ever so slightly bonkers premise out of the way first. You play the game’s titular character, a shapeshifting, voluptuous witch in bondage gear who has guns attached to her high heels and clothes woven out of her own magical hair.

She then tortures and kills her foes while battling in an ancient war through the ages and amongst the heavens.

Get all that? Probably not, but within minutes of inserting the disc your jaw will drop and your misgivings will fall away.

Directed by Hideki Kamiya, the man behind such classics as Okami and Viewtiful Joe, obvious comparisons can be made with God Of War and another Kamiya effort, Devil May Cry.

A third-person action game, Bayonetta tasks the player with tackling wave upon wave of angelic foes, racking up combos between ranged and mêlée attacks, culminating in massive boss fights. We’ve seen this sort of game before, but never with such fluidity or wild abandon.

What begins as a visually gorgeous brawler soon reveals itself to be strategically deep, where picking out the right attacks is just as important as a well-timed counter or dodge.

In many ways, Bayonetta plays out as a homage to the Sega days of old, not just in its many nods to classic titles like Super Hang-On, but in the way it rewards skill and super-fast reflexes. Despite its silky yet daft visuals, it is always totally focused on relentlessly entertaining gameplay.

Kratos had better be watching his back.