Bayonetta, from Japnanese-based developer Platinum Games, is Southland Tales the Video Game; you will play for hours, squint your eyes, shake your head, muse at the goings-on, and dive back in. The panoptic online reception ranges from bewildered to amazed: Famitsu awards a perfect 40/40, while Google Chrome releases a Bayonetta Theme, official Playboy promotions allude to some hot chick, and an accessible early level eliminates a "puzzle section." I would love to know what other red-blooded Playboy readers think of Bayonetta in motion. My first thought—crazy Devil May Cry creator creates protagonist who blows kisses, fights Angels, and consumes Demons. Current impression—Bayonetta will win 2010. This is the pinnacle of action gaming, and caveat: not everyone will like it! Bayonetta's jarring start is full of wonder and winces and for the first few hours I grimaced at the embarrassing nuggets of innuendo and pulp that eventually won me over. Press release: Bayonetta is a witch in the future, wakes from a five century nap, fight Things—not sure if they are evil or good—with gunshoes and shapeshifting hair. Wonderful stuff that lightens an exaggerated genre. This game is confident enough for all of the most ridiculous ideas to lull the player into acceptance. Interrogatives turn to imperative, no questions asked.
Bayonetta will make you come to terms. The story is strange and sometimes dull, but immense and encompasses entire realms of existence, and superb writing offsets the narrative camp. Bosses relish in their defeat against Bayonetta's Awesome Power, happy combat defeat, no death cries or vows of vindication. Characters fill in their clipout stereotypes wonderfully. While the world-weary weapons merchant Rodin counts your money, he confides future hopes and pride in his work, and receives bodily damage retrieving weapons from Hell. Characters and world mythology are fleshed through extensive documentation in-game and vividly spoken and written cutscenes. The small, well-developed cast fill the screen: Kratos and Alighieri retaliate against a wrong, period, while Bayonetta is simply looking for a good time, and meets brisk enemy introductions and frequent weapon reveals with cracked knuckles and a smile. The emphasis is on creativity and sensationalism without histrionics and when you break yourself away from Bayonetta, you will tell friends your Pure Platinum medal status.
This lightheartedness encourages marvelous combat. New players can hold down a button and automatically generate combos full of dashes, slides, air raids, and juggles. Of course the thrill, and monetary payoff, come from spiced battle of two separate weapons (flaming claws, samurai swords, missile launchers, whips, semi-automatics) and untouched health. Bayonetta has five difficulties, with the highest eliminating Witch Time, which slows enemies and projectiles to a crawl for a few seconds; in addition to the ridiculous number of unlockables this ensures extensive replayability. Encounters are an amuse-bouche of isolated groups of enemies, and ranked medals provide rings as currency. Combat is accessible and reliable: Bayonetta dodges with a right trigger pull—in the midst of air, dash, charge or attack; enemies will not attack from off-screen; Torture Attacks, special moves that instantly kill all but the fiercest foe, takes precedence over enemy attacks, and players can tap buttons during Torture's for extra showmanship and rings. These tweaks free up your mind from the menial so you can concentrate on combo experimentation, dropped enemy weapons, the strands of hair on the giant stiletto squishing a winged foe. If immersion is a bullet, Bayonetta never reloads.
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