I've been wanting to play this game for a decade now and I finally bought it on psn, to see how wrong IGN was (the fact they were nit picking stuff like the graphics), however upon playing this game I can say it is very enjoyable to play and even keep, here's why:
Story, theme and characters:
The story is not taking it's self too seriously and there are a lot of moments which are hilarious (e.g. the power ranger duo). The story is some what kept simple, martial art protagonist given the power of god hand to defeat the demons who are after him but eventually his love interest is kidnapped right at the end. Some fans will definitely recognise voice talent such as Darren Norris and Sam Riegel which they do a fine job in this game, however the other are ok apart from some other dialogue that just don't make sense e.g. every big thug says "I'm Alexander the Great!" lol. Since the theme is a parody of any anime (particularly Gene being similar to Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star), many of the bosses have different themes going from fighting bosses such as a masked gorilla, a robot, a demon lady, a rock star, power rangers, gay stripers etc and it get's crazier and I think it works brilliantly.
Gameplay:
At the beginning it was hard due to losing several times to thugs and bosses alike, but unlike any other beat em up, a certain attack works for certain foes and what I like is that you learn from your enemies the second time, once you start getting good at it not only your TP meter allows your to transform into your god hand mode (which allows you to hit your foes with more damage while being invincible) but also earn money to buy new moves or your can sell them, also there's this roulette feature which triggers a menu to choose a finishing move on your opponent in the most cinematic way (but you have couple of seconds to choose), also QTE is implemented when your foe is knocked so your finish them off by mashing buttons (kneeing fat guy's head, rapid punching thugs etc). Though the camera angle and dodge mechanism may be my gripe with this game but it isn't a big issue.
Conclusion:
Overall this game is great, not perfect as I yet explore more of it (only finished the game once and I haven't been into the casino). Now from what I heard about the development of this game what given less time as it was first revealed in April 2006 and released around September 2006 (which is why it looks a bit unfinished) , many people complained about the outdated graphics (e.g. clipping through walls) and camera problems, but to me this is a quality game made by Shinji Mikami and if it was given at least 1 year to develop it would've been a solid game right up there with games like Yakuza and Urban Reign in the same genre, heck make sequels or spin-offs of it since the game is so unique. Sadly such a brilliant game is forgotten and Clover's last game, fans of capcom, viewtiful joe or beat em ups should definitely try it out.
