God Hand: My Latest Obsession

I'm just in love with this game. I got it in early October-ish, and I've been playing it ever since. They'll have to use a crowbar to pry me away from my ps2 at this rate.

I'll just warn you ahead of time, this post is not going to have any point to it whatsoever. I'm just exorcising my inner fanboy because I feel the need to do so. If you don't have God Hand, or just don't care, feel free to skip this post.

For those of you who do not know what God Hand is, watch the following trailer:



One thing I especially love about this game is that even though you can have separate save files, the unlockable stuff is universal to all playthroughs. So, even if you want to start a new game fresh, you can do so with all the costumes, CDs, and TV trailers you had in other playthroughs.

And a note on the costumes: thank God someone finally had the common sense to make a game with unlockable costumes that can actually be worn in the cutscenes. I've seen way too many games that offer alternate costumes, then don't even let you see them in cutscenes. Even my beloved God of War did this. At least I can understand that for the hi-res videos, but the normal cutscenes should've had the costumes enabled.

Now, my opinion about the specific costumes in God Hand:

• Karate: Definitely my favorite. It's very bad-ass in the traditional fighting game sense.
• Devilhand: Copy of Azel's outfit. Kind of cool in a trenchy wannabe-badass kind of way. Still, it's growing on me, and fighting Azel while you're wearing his outfit adds to the whole 'polar opposites' thing.
• Carnival: ...Okay, if I never see that outfit again, it'll be too soon. Seriously, I'm not that kind of guy, and neither is Gene. Don't embarrass the poor guy with this thing.
• Olivia's Bunny Costume: I like it. In fact, once unlocked, I can think of no conceivable reason why Olivia should be wearing anything else.

Moving on to other unlockables: As of this moment, I have 3 of the 4 CDs for the jukebox in God Hand. I'm trying to collect all of them because, aside from the fact that I'm a completist, I absolutely love the music in God Hand. I currently have, in order of acquisition,

1. Hit the Jackpot in the Casino
2. Beat the game
3. Beat the game with the 'Kick Me' sign intact

On that last one, I was playing Easy mode. Yeah, I know it's a lame way to go, but doing it on normal or hard would've been impossible. I'm just not that good. I still haven't even beaten Hard yet. That'll be the last CD.

As for the Arena challenges, I just beat #50 today (kill Devilhand on Lvl DIE), and felt pretty good about it. Of course, that now leaves the final challenge: #51. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it and still wants to, but let me say this: The prize money is 99,999 for good reason.

I think the reward for beating all the Arena challenges is just the TV trailers, but still, I think the bragging rights that come with it are more than enough. Especially if I can do it without any cheap tactics like Yes Man Kablam (if you've seen videos of people beating Hard mode bosses, you know what this is about). I probably won't even have the option, since I forgot to get the thing during the Elvis fight and it doesn't seem to be available in the shop.

Alright, that about does it. I'm signing off for now. Peace.