Fast Action in Witch Time with Bayonetta

Hitting the video game scene last week was a hot little number from Sega called Bayonetta. Bayonetta's impending release was met with a lot of hype, including a perfect 40/40 score (Xbox 360 version) from Japan's Famitsu magazine. With such acclaim being given to Bayonetta, one would have to be daft to miss out, right?

Development began on the Xbox 360 and was later ported to the PlayStation 3. The PS3 port was met with much disdain because of the inferior textures and severe gameplay slowdown. While I played the demos of both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions and noticed absolutely no difference between the two, I still ended up picking the game up for the Xbox 360.

Bayonetta's gameplay style largely mirrors that of the Devil May Cry series; this comes as no surprise, as both games were designed by Hideki Kamiya. In the game, you control femme fatale Bayonetta as you venture through the fictional European city of Vigrid, looking for clues to uncover Bayonetta's muddled past and uncover a plot to alter the universe as we know it. Throughout your adventure, you are attacked by various classes of angelic beings. Using various weapons, magic spells, and special attacks, you are rewarded with bonus points for dispatching your enemies as stylishly as possible. Upon defeating enemies, you collect objects called halos, which act as currency with which you can purchase items, attacks, and various other skills to help you along against the increasingly stronger hordes of enemies.

What was hot:

The combat system was simply beautiful. Gameplay dynamics such as "Witch Time" to slow enemies down to a virtual standstill and leave them wide open as you unleash a combo, torture combos which deal massive damage using devices such as iron maidens and guillotines, and climax attacks which provide an epic way to dispatch the larger enemies and bosses give you an adrenaline rush during every fight.

Following along the same lines, the boss battles are simply epic. Expect to spend 5-10 minutes dispatching them. While the massive bosses are great, personally I found the best boss battles to be against rival witch, Jeanne. There's nothing more exhilarating than fighting a boss with virtually the same abilities as you.

The soundtrack is very upbeat and a bit jazzy, as compared to most games in the same genre with hard rock soundtracks. The overall bubbly tunes really set the mood for this sexy game.

What was not:

Bayonetta's character design is sexy and sultry, but also appears grotesquely malformed; her head seems way too small and her legs are extremely long. Scenes with her standing next to a young child compatriot you meet halfway through the game make Bayonetta look like she's 10 feet tall!

While the soundtrack is fantastic, the song "Fly Me to the Moon" was just too over-played. It was great the first couple of times it was played during a pair of rather epic battles, and hearing it put a big grin on my face, but later it is played in a few battles that were rather insignificant. It was a great song to include, but I got tired of it after the fifth time they played it.

Overall, Bayonetta is a great action game that delivers as advertised. I greatly enjoyed the game because it took the already great formula pioneered by Devil May Cry and built upon it so well that it provides you with a much more fulfilling experience. The demo is available on both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, so if you haven't played it yet, be sure to check it out.

I give Bayonetta an 8.5/10.