S1E33 - Godhand

Welcome back to another episode of Disc Read Error, the podcast where every week we dive into the extensive and fascinating library of the greatest selling video game console of all time, the PlayStation Two. I'm Derek Kicker. I'm Ian Golding, and this week, we are punching nuts in God Hand.

God Hand. What a fucking name. That's what I expected from you.

God Hand. God Hand. God Hand.

God Hand.

Had you ever heard of this game before? I put it on the slate, I.

Think you had mentioned it. But I knew nothing about it. Nothing about it.

Nothing.

Not a thing. Not a goddamn thing.

Well, if you don't know anything about it, the audience probably doesn't know anything about it either. So let's start with it was released in North America on October 10, 2006. Sure. So, later release.

Yeah.

It was published by Capcom, of course, and developed by their little subsidiary developer Clover Studio.

Sure.

And directed by Shinji Mikami of Resident Evil Fame. Which is why I know about this game.

Got it. Okay.

So Clover Studios, I guess, was kind of made like, kind of created to facilitate Beautiful Joe Two.

Oh, all right.

Directed by Hideki Kamiya of Resident Evil.

Two Fame So they just spun off just to do a specific game originally.

Yeah.

Okay.

Interesting. And Clover Studio has only did six games, and it is one of I mean, six games, one of the wildest catalogs of a developer. So technically, they are responsible for the first beautiful Joe. It's the same people. Beautiful Joe. Two Beautiful Joe Red Hot Rumble, beautiful Joe, Double Trouble. And all of those games are bangers.

Right.

Okami. Which is also awesome. And recently got an HD remaster.

Bam.

And Godhand was the last game they made, which yeah, it's the game we're talking about.

Yes, sir.

But after that, they would go on and they would take some people from Capcom and they went on and founded Platinum Games, which is still around.

Okay.

And they did. Mad world.

Sure.

Which is a Banger Wi game, infinite Space, and, of course, probably their most famous franchise, Bayonetta.

Oh, yes.

Also created by Kamiyo. It's a prolific gentleman, him and Shinji Mikami. The Resident Evil roots run deep in the video game industry. In fact, Shinji Mikami would do a game for Platinum Games called Vanquish, which fucking whips. And if you can find it, there's a steel book version on the PS Four. That's a double game. Disc. It's bayonetta one and vanquish.

Oh, wow.

So if you can find that sure.

You should fucking pick that shit up, folks.

Pick it up. But this game actually has, like, a weird development history. The origins of Godhead can be traced back to a conversation between Shinji Mikami and Atsushi Inaba, who both worked on the Resident Evil series. And their idea was that action games are too weapon oriented.

Okay.

And there are weapons in God Hand, but there are, of course. I mean, your main weapon is your God hand.

Is your god hand? Indeed.

Yeah. Mccamie was quoted as saying it began in 1999 after I played Final Fight Revenge. I was quite disappointed with the game and thought to myself, I can create a better beat them up experience. And when Shinji Makami feels like he can do something better, magic happens.

Yeah. Truth.

Because Resident Evil is basically him taking inspiration from Sweet Home and then playing alone in the dark and being like, I can do that. Of course. Of course he did.

Yeah. He sure did. Fuck it.

Yeah. Mikami was determined to revitalize the Beat him up genre and that led him to approach atsushi Inaba with a poster of two stylized fists. Yeah. And then Inaba was quoted as saying when Shinji showed me that poster I immediately understood the direction we wanted to take. Our goal was to create a game that showcased hardcore action but our journey took an unexpected turn.

This has got, like, plot twists and shit.

I know, right? The initial plan was to focus on intense action without much horror. But then they did a trailer. So this game was announced at E Three, 2006. And they had a trailer. And I remember this trailer being, like, a huge deal because, A, the combat looked incredible and it was funny.

Right.

And apparently they didn't want the game they didn't originally plan the game to be that funny.

Wow.

And they just did it for that trailer. And the trailer got such a good reaction that they kind of, like, went back and started adding a bunch of humor.

Got it. Okay, so it's like, fucking I don't even know what I can't even think of a movie example that's any good. But when people lean into an audience reacting to something that's not supposed to be funny, but, well, I guess they meant it to be funny. They just didn't mean the whole game to be funny.

Yeah. They meant the trailer to be funny. They didn't mean the whole game to be funny.

Right.

And then here's a quote from Shinji Mikami that I think is, like, a perfect thesis statement for the game. Godhead is aimed at gamers who crave a challenge. We wanted players to feel a sense of accomplishment as they mastered the game's. Mechanic. That sounds like another game that sounds like Dark Souls.

Yeah, very much so.

And again, I mean, we Dark Souls everything, but we'll get into the comparison with Dark Souls. But I would say that that quote from Mccamie is, like, the perfect way to describe this game.

Yeah, I think so.

The visual design didn't really have a specific style in mind except for they wanted to make it look more realistic from Mean because look at all the other games that Clover Studios did. Beautiful Joe and okami. Those are stylized.

Yeah.

Highly stylized.

Yeah.

God hand not highly stylized. And I think you can kind of tell that from the COVID of the game. It's not a rendering. It's like an actual fist punching a guy. A dude. Like an actual dude. Right. And it's very funny because in the promotional material, the fist is going through the guy's mouth, like out the back of his head. And it's super funny because the guy has like a tribal tattoo on and then he has a Capcom tattoo on his back.

Of course he does.

Which is classic. That is classic. And that's pretty much it for the development. It is interesting. I think Clover Studios is an interesting thing. And Platinum Games, I think the evolution from, like, Capcom to where Platinum Games is today is super interesting.

And are they just more kind of less broad appeal is the idea behind these studios. It's like, this isn't our super. Obviously they want to sell as many copies as possible, but it's like for a different kind of than the broad Christmas Day kid gets under a tree audience.

Is that the mean I don't want to speak for Capcom, but I think it's similar to a I think there's probably tax reasons for spinning off another studio to do games that are maybe a little more risky. There's probably also something to be said about diversifying. Like, look at how Microsoft bought Bethesda and all that. Okay, yeah, they're under the same umbrella, kind of, but it's their own studio. But if you look at Platinum Games'library, I mean, pretty fucking wild. They did Bayonetta, they did Vanquish, they did Mad World, which I think are all great games. They did Metal Gear Rising Revenge, which I think is maybe the most underrated Metal Gear game.

Yeah.

It'S not really a stealth game.

No, not at all.

Lashing game. And it's awesome.

Yeah.

They did Transformers Devastation, which I haven't played, but a lot of people say is a pretty good Transformers game. For the PS Three, they did do Starfox Zero and Starfox Guard, the Wi U Starfox games, which aren't the best, but they did Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mutants in Manhattan, which of the modern TMNT games, which there's not very many good ones. This is one of the better ones.

Got it.

But they fucking knocked it out of the park with Near Automata. Have you played that?

I have not.

On PS four. It is fucking awesome.

Really?

Oh, yeah. Awesome game.

Right?

They've obviously done all the Bayonetta games, even the Bayonetta Origins, Soreza and the Lost Demon, but also they're listed as one of the developers of Final Fantasy 16.

Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Interesting.

I think it's interesting for them to do it because then they have their own kind of relationships with the publishers, too. So they've done square enix stuff. Nintendo publishes the Bayonetta Game.

Okay.

They're kind of spot activision. Yeah. Platinum Games, I think, is no longer affiliated with Capcom at yeah, I mean, it's really it's a way to kind of spin out and know your influence felt. And according to Inaba, the core goal of Platinum Games is to make new and original IP and take. I mean, I think they've done mean, they have a really good library. They've had some duds. They've had some duds. But you can't not have duds when you are making games for almost ten years now.

Yeah.

Or more than almost 15 years. Yeah, but God hand god hand is what we're talking about here.

Let's talk Godhand.

Godhand is like a rare game too. Like it is a hard to find game. It is expensive in the secondary market. I got a really good deal on my copy, but it goes for right now. Complete in box, $121. Damn. Loose. So just the disc, $111. So I'm looking at the most recent sold on ebay, $77. Sold loose. Just disc, crazy box with no manual, $120.

Fuck, man.

Okay, here we go. The most recent sale, disc only sold on August eigth, 99, 9500 bucks just for the disc. Damn, that's expensive.

That's a very fucking expensive.

Let's get into the story.

Yeah. Water.

Gene, this place freaks.

I know.

Wait, you don't expect me to mop up, do you? Come on, those guys are cake. Not to mention much sexier than you. Well, your sexy little friends, they're coming for a dance. They're still sexier than you are. Okay, so story. This story is goofy. It's so fucking so goofy. And before we get into the full story of the game, I think we should talk about the opening of this game.

Yeah, let's do that.

A, it sounds Resident Evilly 100% right. The voice acting is goofy. It's this guy, you don't know what the fuck is going on. And this girl walk into a town and he gets down on his knees and it's like water. Yeah, but then immediately forgets that he's thirsty. And then she's like, oh, are you going to clean up this town? He's like, oh, you want me to do it myself or whatever. Meanwhile, you're not seeing any of this town. No, the camera is just on them. And then he makes some weird joke about how these thugs that are approaching them that you finally see are sexier than his companion. And it's so fucking weird.

It's either going to hook you or you're going to throw the controller and be like, I don't know what the fuck this is.

And it sets the tone for the game.

Yes, it does. Holy shit. Does it?

So in the game's lore, a fallen angel transforms into the demon king Angra, leading a horde of demons to invade the world. Yet a man with divine power in his arms rises, banishing Angra, and earning the name God Hand from the grateful people he saves.

Sure.

A human clan forms to guard these mythical hands believed to bestow godly or demonic abilities on their possessors.

Sure.

So you play as Gene.

Gene.

Gene. Which ultimate hero name? Eugene. Eugene, sure. A 23 year old fighter who loses his arm. His arm gets chopped off by thugs, but then he is attached with the God Hand.

He gets that shit, right?

Attached, yes. So he's got a new arm. They call it the Guard Hand, but it's really, like the whole arm. It's the God arm.

Yeah. You need the power from the muscles.

Yeah. So maybe it's like a gun, right? The magazine of a gun itself isn't inherently dangerous, but you load it into the gun.

I like that. See, I like that.

So, like, the arm is the magazine, and it's full of bullets, but then the hand is what's? Shooting the bullets. Shooting the arm bullets.

That's the shooty shooty.

It is the shooty shooty. Then he meets Olivia, a 19 year old descendant from the clan. That sounds weird to say, but the clan that was to guard the mythical hands. And basically she's like, hey, can you do a bunch of this shit? She's the one that gives him the God Hand.

Yes.

And then is basically like, yeah, we got to clean up the town.

Yeah, clean up this town with your God Hand.

This game is broken up into four levels, each with a boss at the end. The four divas. And their plan is to resurrect angra for global supremacy.

Sure.

And they are all hilarious.

Absolutely fucking hilarious.

Absolutely hilarious. And they are bells. Then there's Elvis, right? Who is my favorite, I think.

Oh, I like my yeah.

Okay, so Elvis is he does not look like Elvis.

Oh, no.

He's also Mexican, but he does love cigars. And then there's the circus ringmaster, Shannon. And then Azel, the Devil hand. He's a human possessing another God hand.

Right. He has your other hand or technique. Maybe you have his.

Yeah. There's also, like, reoccurring villains that come around. You fight like a couple gay twins, a gorilla with, like, a Rey Mysterio Jr mask on, a robot warrior, and a rock and roll duo, and it is just fucking wild.

None of this is made. It seems like we might be improving and making shit up to make you guys laugh. If you haven't played this, this is all real. This is real shit in this game.

It's super real.

Yeah.

And there's dwarfs dressed up like Power Ranger kind of things. I remember when I saw the trailer for this, I thought they look kind of like from afar. They look like zero from Mega, man.

Okay. Yeah.

Upon closer inspection, they look a lot like Beautiful Joe.

Makes sense.

Makes a lot of sense, right? And all of this story unfolds, basically through bits. This game moves from bit to bit, and I would say the story is nonsense, but I'm sure there is some deep lore here.

I am sure of it. Sure of it.

But upon one playthrough, it's virtually impossible to follow.

Oh, all of what you've been telling me. A lot of it is news to me.

Yeah. The games, it is wild. It's something, this story, but let's get into the gameplay.

Oh, yes. Azel, as the newest member of the Four Devas, you have better have a good reason for calling us here. I've discovered the one in possession of the God Hand scroll.

So this game is a beat them up.

Yeah.

And I mean that in the best way possible. It is one of the best types of beat them ups.

Absolutely.

And I don't know, I've played a lot of beat them ups. I'm a fan of a lot of them, for the most part. I'll give you a good modern, somewhat modern example that I think kind of doesn't get enough credit. Afro Samurai for PS Three. I love that game. I think that game is a really fun beat them up. This game is an extremely fucking difficult beat them up.

Oh, yeah.

This game is very hard. Yeah, this is a good example of easy to pick up, impossible to master. Yes, it is so difficult.

Yeah. You can do all the moves and you're going to beat a whole bunch of dudes. But you have to manage your health. You have to do a lot of things that you probably wouldn't normally do in a normal beat them up.

Yeah. And so you can kind of level up your combat, but you can also get fucked up and level down.

Yes.

Which is wild. So the leveling is the difficulty. So this game has a dynamic difficulty level. So if you're just whooping people's ass, it gets harder. And then if you're just getting your ass beat, it gets easier. But there's a baseline difficulty, which in itself is pretty challenging.

It is.

I will say that I think this not the first level because these levels are big, but the first stage, the first setting of this game. Yeah. It's kind of a perfect tutorial.

Oh, 100%.

Because okay, so you first start out and there's two guys and you fight them and you're like, oh, this is pretty easy.

You're just punching them. It's just a punch.

Punching and kicking them. And then they're dead and they drop an orange or some cherries. And then you walk forward a little bit and then a big dude pops out, a big old fat guy. And you're like, oh, this is going to be more challenging. And you're hitting him, you're hitting him, you're hitting him. And then maybe he breaks your combo. Right, right. And then does a butt bump, which is funny.

Some funny fucking moves, but you dodge it.

Right. Because how this game works is that you have tank controls. The left stick moves and looks around. The right stick dodges. So you dodge, which is a little weird at first because a lot of most modern games don't kind of do that.

No, it takes getting used to, for sure.

But once you kind of get the hang of that. It's pretty intuitive. So you dodge out of the way and you kick his ass, and you stomp him on the ground, and you get the prompt to suplex him, which, again, suplex. This is Shinji Makami. This is the same fucking year, or this is a year after Resident Evil Four comes out. And obviously the most famous melee move in Resident Evil Four is Leon. Suplexing, people.

Suplex. Yes.

I mean, you can just tell when you're playing a Shinji Mikami game.

Of course, of course.

And then you go in the bar, and then you go out the back door. And this is the first time immediately, I was like, oh, shit. This game is a little more clever than it appears because you go out the back door of this bar, right? And there's a dude with a fucking huge piece of wood basically waiting for you to go through the door.

Yes.

And he absolutely fucking shit out of.

You with it, 100%. He does first death.

First death right off the bat, just, boom, just clubs you to death. So then you're wise to it, right? And that's what this game is. This is where we kind of get into the comparison of Dark Souls, right, is you are going to die in this game.

Oh, yeah.

There's no, yeah, you're going to die in this game. But then you come back and you're like, okay, I got a game plan a little differently now. So you kill the two guys. You kill the big fat guy, but instead of going through the bar, you go around, and then he can't get you. And around the bar, there's a red barrel, which is, of course, video game language for this thing explodes and you can just throw the barrel at him.

Yeah.

And boom, you just problem solved. And you can pick up his two X four and then use it to go beat the shit out of everyone else. So the game does this thing where it will lull you into thinking that you kind of have a grip on things. It's a roller coaster of emotion.

Yes. Oh, absolutely. You never really know where you stand with this fucking game. Yeah.

Because you think you're like, I'm on a roll. I fucking got it. I'm ducking. I'm dodging. I'm beating people's ass. So you go grab the two X four, and then there's a couple of other people, and you beat the shit out of them. And then you go into this bar, and there's three big guys. Yeah, not fat guys, but three, like, strong guys, and maybe you might die.

From one of them.

Okay, come back. And you're like, okay, now I've got full health. And you collect these roulette orbs, and the orbs build up, and you can use them on they call it a God Reel. So you hit R one, and it slows everything down, bullet time style. And you can pick an attack. And the attacks are things you can collect throughout the game and you equip them. So this game also has a certain level, a certain amount of loadout that you can do because you can also hot swap your buttons to do different attacks that you also collect or buy from an in game store. And you can use the God reel. And they're like special attacks. Some of them shoot these motherfuckers into space. You kick them so hard they go into the atmosphere. You can punch someone in the balls, which kudos on this game, the ball punch does not work on robots or women.

Correct.

Which is great.

Yes.

But then also, when you have your tension bar full, you can summon the God Hand and then it's like a berserker mode, right, where you just go.

Off on these fucks.

Yeah. Now, that's not as op as you would think either. So the final building in this first sort of tutorial stage, you go in and the three guys so maybe you've died twice so far, and you kill the three guys. Well, one of them arises as a fucking demon, a crazy looking fucking demon, and will basically one shot you.

Yeah, 100%.

We'll basically just hit you once, you're on the ground, hit you twice, you're dead. He moves faster than you. His AI is pretty good.

It's not bad.

Yeah. And also, as you go through the game, in the beginning of the game, when you're fighting multiple people, they kind of do the kung fu movie thing, right, where they fight you one at a time and the other ones kind of circle around.

That doesn't last long.

Does not last long. And at a certain point, you're dodging more than you're actually hitting people until you can get enough orbs to do a God Reel attack and shit like that. But that's why I think, honestly, if you are not hooked by the end of this first stage, I don't think the game put the game down with you.

Yeah. Put the game down.

If it's not getting you, it might not be for you. Because everything in that first stage only gets amplified yes. As the game goes on.

A taste of things to come in that first stage.

Yeah. And if that is difficult for you, it is by far the easiest part of the game. And in fact, the fourth level isn't even called level four. It's called the die level.

Amazing.

And then that's only on normal mode. Right. You have to beat the game to.

Unlock hard mode, of course, which is that even more amplified.

Yeah. So that's, again, kind of the thing. This is where the Dark Souls comparison comes in. The combat is not like Dark Souls.

Oh, no.

Dark Souls. A lot of rolling, learning how to parry like that. And you can counter in this game.

Yeah.

It's very difficult to find an opportunity to do it. The easiest way is when someone attacks you from behind is the longest a counter prompt will stay up. Yeah, but it's like Dark Souls in the way that Dark Souls is punishing. And you're expected to die a lot, but you are also expected to learn from every one of those deaths. And then you come back and you kind of rework your game plan. You're not going through and just like, one shotting, these bosses. No, you're kind of learning and getting better and getting kind of memorizing fights, and it's very satisfying. You feel accomplished. And this game makes like every win in this game feels like an accomplishment.

Yeah. When you beat a guy that's killed you three or four times, you feel it, you feel good about it.

I think that's what people really like about Dark Souls, too.

Yeah. Accomplishment.

Yeah. Like, Dark Souls is not a casual game and this game is not a casual game. I would not say. And I'm assuming that's why it's so expensive. Right. I remember hearing about it, but I don't remember it coming out.

Okay.

I think this is one of this kind of like, fell into the background and it's probably expensive because they probably didn't sell a lot of copies. Probably didn't make a lot of copies. And again, no reprinting. Yeah. And no remake remaster. And I mean, this was the last game that Clover Studios made.

It's true. Probably didn't do super, super well.

Yeah, probably not incredible. But we'll get into that and see.

Yeah.

But there's a couple really cool minigames. There's a casino, there's a Chihuahua racing minigame, which is funny, super funny. And then there's like an arena mode, like a wave mode, which is good to practice your combat.

Yeah.

Which I think is probably necessary.

Yeah, this game is definitely necessary.

I am not good at this game. I am horrible at this and I love it. And I think that might be like, the ongoing bit of this podcast, is that my favorite games are games I'm not particularly good at.

That kind of makes sense, though, because they make you come back for more.

Yeah. Like, my favorite game of last year by far was Elden Ring, and I am not good at that game. I didn't even try PvPing because people would invade me and just murder me immediately. You're like, oh, boy, I'm like trying to hide. I'm like, oh, no, they don't find me. Yeah, I was very bad at PvP and wow, I was always like, oh, no, I was doing battlegrounds and just like, hiding. I'd be like, yeah, just farming. Farming.

Pick up loot after people have killed each other.

Yeah. The casino is fun, though. Slots, blackjack.

I like the casino the most, probably. Yeah. All the minigames. Yeah.

I think this is a weird game for me because it's a game that I desperately kind of want, like a remake, but I don't think that it would be well received now either.

I don't think that much has changed. I don't think this was before its time. I think it's just an acquired taste more than before its time.

Yeah. I think about the humor of it, and it's like, I don't know if this humor you'd have to completely redo it. A remake of this game might ruin the magic.

Exactly. It might just be better left alone. Like, maybe a remaster. Maybe just redo the graphics, which is.

Kind of a bummer because I would love to play that. I think this game on switch would be incredible.

I think so, too. I think that is the perfect platform for it.

Yeah, I think this would be a crazy switch game, but I just don't think it has the fan base, which is super unfortunate because I think people should play this game.

I agree with that. I do think, though, what you said at the top and just a bit ago is like, if you don't like it right away after the first stage, you're not going to like it. You might as well walk away because it is just a very specific it's targeted at a certain type of person who's going to like this game. And if you like it, you're going to love it. You're not just going to like it. Okay.

Yeah. And I think that might be, like, a perfect way to kind of describe shinji Mikami's post Resident Evil career is kind of like, okay, these are very narrow games, right? Like piano three on GameCube. Kind of a weird game.

Right?

Killer Seven.

Very weird game.

Very weird game. Vanquish is an odd game. Evil within. Incredible game. Also, not for everyone, though.

No.

I did find this. This is super funny because I think the music in this game is great.

Oh, it's fucking fantastic.

It is wild. You know what this reminds me of? Have you ever you know who Mike is, right? Japanese horror.

Yeah.

He's seemingly good friends with Quentin Tarantino.

Of course.

Yeah. He made a movie called Siyaki Western Django. It's a Japanese Western that Quentin Tarantino is in. And the vibe of that this game reminds me very much of that movie.

Interesting. Okay.

And they released this soundtrack for this game, and it's called God Tracks.

Incredible.

Incredible. And probably worth finding. There is a track on it which is a very funny nod to their Capcom overlords called Devil May Sly. There's a track called Battery size. AA.

Beautiful.

Then there's a battery size D as well.

Okay. So maybe extra power. I don't know.

Yeah. There's an anthem of Satan.

Oh, my God.

Please, Mr. Sensei. Gene's Rockaby. Just great.

Just fucking fantastic.

But, yeah, we've kind of sucked this game off. Let's let's see what everyone else thought.

Let us. He's late. Why must fat and slow always apply to Elvis?

He probably stopped to feed that fat face of his.

Oh, BARDONA. May. I gotta be hungry. And could barely move.

So, upon release, this game initially received mixed or average reviews from Metacritic. On Metacritic, it's got a 73 out.

Of 100, which I think exactly proves our point that you either love this game or you fucking hate it.

Absolutely. It did receive almost universal praise for its combat system and an attempt at adhering to an old school brawler formula, which yeah, the combat system in this is the best part.

Absolutely.

Yeah. You can customize it. Yeah, it's great. Critics found that that overshadowed the glaring flaws in its graphics, play, control level design, and camera. So I will say the camera is wonky. It is a wonky camera. But incredibly, that can literally be leveled at, like 60% of PlayStation Two games.

Yeah, for sure.

I could say 60% of all games from the 32 bit era on up until PS Three and Xbox 360.

It took a long time to figure out.

I think 80% of games in that generation of games has a wonky fucking camera. Not everything can be Resident Evil Four.

No.

It's just how it is. Here we go. Official US. PlayStation Magazine opened its review by commenting, godhand is a terrible, terrible game, yet I can't stop playing it. There's just something horrifically appealing about how bad it is in almost every conceivable way. Okay, so that's a weird take. That's a very weird because PlayStation Magazine, they give it a seven out of ten. I think that the story and the voice acting and stuff like that, I can agree. Right. It's good because it's bad.

But isn't that intentional? I don't know.

I think it is intentional. It's camp. It's camp. It's not bad.

It's intentionally doing a thing for the genre, I feel like.

Yeah, but to say that this game is bad in those other ways seems like a skill issue to me, bro. Yeah, skill issue. In Japan, Godhand was listed on Famitsu's top ten Readers Most Wanted for a few weeks, and they gave it one six, two sevens and one six, for a total of 26 out of 40, which is very low. Seems very low.

That seems low to me. Yeah.

There are some good reviews, though. Sean McCabe of four, one One Mania, gave the game score a 9.6 out of ten, stating, I have to say, ordinarily I'd try to balance out my opinion on a game, but with all the negativity this game has garnered from others, I'll just say what I feel. This is the best game of its kind in 15 years, and one of the best games of the 128 bit generation. A genuine masterpiece. That's quite a review.

The swing, though, between terrible, terrible game and masterpiece.

Yeah, it is. Not for everyone. Probably far from that. But I really enjoyed this game and want to make that crystal clear. However, DW of the same site gave it a 5.5 out of ten, stating it's a shame that this had to be Clover's last title. But if God hand was the best they can do, I can certainly see why they're not around anymore. This game is divisive.

Yeah, it is. Holy shit.

This game is the pineapple on pizza of video games.

It absolutely is. You either love this game or you fucking detest it.

Yeah. You either love it or you think that the people involved in it should be in prison.

Yes.

The Sydney Morning Herald gave the game three and a half stars out of five exclaiming like a bizarre mixture of WWE SmackDown and Benny Hill, which is a good that is a good call. Godhand is one of the quirkiest, silliest and funniest games to come along in some time. Absolutely. Maxim famous close to Titty Mag close to, gave it three stars out of five, saying it may lack polish and production values, but like a trailer park hooker, it still manages to be lovable trash.

I love it.

Which okay, so that's one of those things where that dude wrote that. It was just like, Fuck, yeah.

Fuck.

That dude is feeling himself just completely ignoring the fact that he writes for Maxim. Right. This is him thinking this is his fucking Jack Carawack moment. He's like, yes, this is it. My prose stands supreme, and printed that.

Out in large font and framed it in his fucking shitty office.

Hell yeah. Let's be honest here. Maxim is just the predecessor to bullshit like bar stool.

Oh, absolutely.

It's like the same shit.

Shared DNA.

Yeah. And those fucking clowns write stupid shit like that all the time.

Absolutely.

Yeah. The AV club gave the game a C plus and stated, playing this flawed Odball offering is like flushing your neurotransmitters with Red Bull painful, mind expanding, and occasionally laughter inducing. Okay, yeah, okay, sure.

That's about right.

IGN gave it a three out of ten, but ranked the game at number 100 for their top 100. PlayStation two games in 2010.

Fuck.

What the fuck? Independent PlayStation Magazine. There's too many PlayStation magazines listed Godhand among the eleven. PS, two games you need to play but haven't.

Nice.

Godhand was a nominee for best fighting game at the 2006 Spike Video Game Awards, but lost to Mortal Kombat Armageddon. This is a fucking travesty. This is a fucking travesty.

Unbelievable.

Godhand is so much fucking better than Mortal Kombat armageddon.

It's not close.

It's not close at all. Jesus Christ.

Jesus.

Rab Florence, of the Scottish television series Video Guidance claimed Godhand to be one of the best video games ever made.

Okay.

He summarized his review by stating, what an epitaph for Clover Studio. We made one of the best games of all time and it was just a game about punching people.

That's a great fucking line.

That is.

Yeah.

Let's get into the sales a little bit. The game was the fifth best selling game during the week of its release in the country. Selling 48,000 units. This is not crazy, but Capcom managed to ship both ship and sell nearly 60,000 copies of the game in country by the end of 2006. The game is considered a cult classic. Having gained a cult following and generally favorable retrospective reception, the Capcom staff thought about including Gene as a playable character in Marvel versus Capcom Three. They should have.

They should have.

But was replaced by Ametharatsu from Okami in 2010. The game was included as one of the titles in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. I agree with it. Following. I'd agree with it following. Asura's Wrath release, developer Cyber Connect Two revealed that they felt the game would serve to satisfy fans wanting a Godhand sequel.

Oh, interesting shit.

So I got to check out that game.

Yeah, I was just going to say, yeah.

Godhand's frantic combat style still persists in games that Platinum Studios would later release, such as Mad World, Bayonetta, Metal Gear, Rising, and Vanquish Now? I think so. I didn't play this game when it came out, but I did play MadWorld and I fucking loved Mad World.

Okay.

Like, I think MadWorld is a pretty good wi game. I know people shit on the Wi, which never fucking made sense to me.

I never had one, so I can't say. But I agree. A lot of people do shit on it.

It's got such an insane library. I'll stand by this. I think that Super Mario Galaxy is the best 3d Mario game.

Damn.

I think it is better than Odyssey.

Fuck, dude.

Controversial there's that don't add him. But enough of what these fucking losers think.

Boy. Yeah.

What are you ranking this on your patent pending out of 1000 ranking system?

It's funny because I really enjoyed it. It's very difficult. I feel like I didn't get enough time with it to really turn it into like one of my favorite games ever. But I did love it. I think it's frustrating. It's also a lot of fucking fun. It's a good time. It just seems like it's out to have a good time and I'm fucking there for it. So in my patent pending 1000 point rating system, I'm going to give God hand 846 out of 1000 super fucking nut punches. But it doesn't work because it's a girl sick.

Yeah. I think this is a game that could fall into the trap of taking itself too seriously and could kill its own charm. But it doesn't.

No, it does not.

This game. This is a good time.

Yeah, it's a good time.

That's what this is fun. And this is a good solo game to play. I mean, it's obviously only one player, but this is a good game. I don't think this is a great game to be like, I'm hanging out with all my friends and I'm playing, but sitting down on your couch and just playing this by yourself, you could get lost in this fucking game. I did get lost in this game.

I did, too, a little bit.

Yeah. You start punching shit and you die. And it doesn't have that fatigue that some games have where you die and.

You'Re like, Fuck, no. You want to jump right back.

Yeah. You're like, okay, I'll beat these people up again. Whatever. Yeah, you try. Different combos. And one of the things I did love about it, too, is it punishes you for having a bad combination of attacks. So if you set your buttons to an insane combo of attacks, you'll just get fucking trounced by these absolutely. By these demons and gay dudes. But it's just kind of addicting. There's, like an addicting quality of this game where you don't particularly want to put it down.

No, you don't.

You want to just keep going. And it's not for the story, but I was laughing a lot.

Yeah, same. Absolutely same.

Like, all of the bits seem funny, even the ones that are clearly just, like a translation issue. I think they nailed it. I'm obviously a little biased because Shinji Mikami is basically, like, my video game hero, but I don't think that gives it quite the bump that it does on some of, like, he executive produced Resident Evil Zero. Right. So I give that a little bit of a bump. The shinji makami bump. I think this game stands on its own. Much better. I'm going to give this game.

I.

Don'T think it quite deserves a nine out of ten.

Okay.

I'm going to give an 8.75 out of ten.

Damn. So close to a nine.

So close. I think what it is is that I do think the level design could be a little bit better.

Okay. Yeah, I'd agree with that.

It's a little bit barren in places. We didn't even talk about the destructible environment, but that could be a little more useful. I think the UI could be a little bit better, but overall, I think this is a fucking great game.

It's a great game. It's a great fucking game.

I think this is a game you should figure out a way to go and play.

Yeah, that's probably the toughest part about recommending the game. This highly is how hard it is to get and how expensive it is.

Yeah. I mean, what you could do if you already own a physical copy, and only if you own a physical copy, is download Rom.

Yeah, there you go.

We don't endorse piracy, but if you already own a copy and you could do it, just make sure you delete it off your computer after 24 hours.

Right.

That's the rule. That's the Napster rule or whatever.

That's right.

Yeah.

Do it.

Go play this fucking game.

Please play this game. Join us. For me, discovering this game, it's just.

So much fuck and hit us up about it.

Yeah. Let us know what you think.

Yeah. Make sure you subscribe to us on Spotify or Apple podcasts or Google podcasts. Podbean. Whatever the fuck place.

PODhead?

Yeah, whatever. Wherever you get your podcast, smash that subscribe button. Set up alerts. We release two episodes a week every week, with the exception of last week.

Truth.

I mean, technically, we did release two episodes last week. Yeah, well, we one of the episodes was to use you to say that we weren't releasing an episode that day. But that's technically an episode. We don't need that. Follow us on instagram at discrete AirPod. You can follow me on Instagram at Funeral casual games.

I'm at Ian Golding Games.

And, yeah, play this game.

Play this game. Enjoy this game. Let us know what you think of this game, if you get to play it, and we will see you next time. Badaboom. Badabing.