...Or is it Gene? I still haven't played Okami, and I dunno if I will but something has to be said for the themes of Capcom's Clover studios games. Awesomeness. And wackyness. First we got Viewtiful Joe which was just a little cool game about having it's own sense of style while making fun of old gozilla movies and other toei retro classics, **** like ultraman, power rangers, gatchamen, and all sorts of evoluted post astro boy kind of sillyness. And now what I always wanted, a decent Fist of the North Star game. Well it isn't a Hokuto no Ken game but it's a bit like when Doom appeared, it was supposed to be a Aliens game and then Fox made a wrong choice about not giving Id the license, and so they did what they wanted with no limits attached to an intellectual property. **** I'd rather give Id Aliens back in 93 than giving green light on AvP the movie. At least there's Doom now, right?

I don't think God Hand was supposed to be a Hokuto no ken (now Hnk which is the same as Fotns which is the same as Fist of the North Star) game, however the influences are clear. With Viewtiful Joe we had cliche guys in tights and now with God Hand we have something from the same age and era but way more obscure. Late 70's and 80's kung fu exploitation movies and animes about the almost brink extinction of man in a unknown nuclear holocaust. Let's start with the main character Gene. Gene like all the other Capcom poster boys (except for Ryu) is a character who's always full of **** says pretty corny stuff and at the end of the day he has the skills to back it all up. I'd thought heroes should be a little more humble but it's okay. What's curious about Gene is how something happened to him, like having his arm cutoff, and from that incident, something has been gained, something that would give him the means to save the humanity. Kenshiro its the exact same thing, he gets the big dipper carved on his chest and then he goes off to kill some ugly dudes as he was, and had become, the epitomy of what the society had become and of what the society needed. Like a post modern elitist martyr, like an ass kicking Jesus on a rampage for revenge and vegeance.

2nd curious thing about Gene is the logo he has on the back of his jacket, a cracked skull, split in two vertically. An homage to the Splitting Mountains fist or whatever used by Ken. Seeing that just cracked me up. I swear if i'd ever was going to have a tatoo that would be a it. A split in two skull. All the enemies are cliche post apocaliptic MadMaxesque stereotypes, guys with a gay doubtful sense of style and zebra, snake, giraffe, leopard patterns on their clothing. And don't forget the mohawks. Some of them are just flat out gay like the two first bosses you fight who yell "WOMEN WOMEN WOMEN" while punching :D

While the characters themselves look nice with sharp clean textures and details, the locations in this game are kinda awful to look at. Sure, it's a ps2 game but **** these places you fight in are bland. At least they have got some style and sometimes I almost think that it is on purpose that it looks like some sort of n64 game with a higher polycount. At least, the places you most expect in a Hnk game are there and there's plenty of others, surely detracting from the direct influence it started with to become something else way wackier.

Gameplay wise it's a mix between Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, Resident Evil 4 and even some other game sidescroller beat-em-up game like Streets of Rage cause for a long time I didn't play a game that beared the concept of a beat-em-up so seriously. You enter an area, you punch, kick, stomp, and spank the **** out of everybody and you punch, kick, stomp, and spank your way out some more. It's an awesome game to let go some steam off even if it's rather difficult.

Review coming soon I guess. :x