I, myself, have preordered it like 40 days ago along with FFXII at my nearby EB Games. This is one of the top games I’ve looked forward to this year of 2006.
The backstory is pretty much you’re Gene, some 20-odd year old Joe Schmoe who happens to get his arm sliced off by a gang of lowlies while trying to protect some girl. And the next morning, your arm magically grew back, with new powers (such as spanking women REALLY FAST, and kicking people in the groin in speeds of excess of 70mph). Since you have this new power, you must protect yourself from the many villians who wish to use your power for evil.
It seems like a pretty basic story, not too new; but that’s not the reason people are buying the game. It’s over-the-top humor and soundtrack have people entranced by it; not to mention it’s gameplay. From the trailer you can probably guess it’s a beat-em-up type game. I’ve played it on my friend’s imported PS2 & his imported copy of God Hand, and it seemed pretty cool. One major thing that I noticed is the difficulty. I don’t know if it’s the trailer I linked to, but in one of the trailers it says it is “ball-bustingly hard”, which I can say is 100% true.
It looks pretty fun, and the various anime references (Fist of the North Star, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure) do seem amusing. Some of the moves look really badass, some are funny.
I might pick this up, but I already have to get Devil Summoner and FF12, and decide between Okami and Phantasy Star Universe T_T
God Hand shipped today. I am picking my copy up in about 11 hours. I read the gamespot review and was pleased. 8/10 is pretty good for what Famitsu rated a 60/100 (I think that was it), and surprised by the length of 20 hours for a beat-em-up. What really caught my attention is the mention that the “level up” system is misleading. When you level up, it’s not you getting stronger, it’s the <b>enemy that’s getting stronger</b>. I like this system because it “rewards” good players with an extra challenge.
edit; also if anyone knows if the NTSC version includes the soundtrack or not, please inform me. I ordered the soundtrack some time ago, and I never got it; but hopefully the NTSC version includes it as did the Japanese version.
edit2; my mistake. Famitsu gave it 26/40, GameRankings gave it 79/100, IGN gave it 3/10 (holy shit, disappointing), GSpot gave it 8/10, and some other site gave it 62/100 (what I thought was Famitsu).
