Bayonetta – Smack My Witch Up.

(360 version reviewed) Review By Jordan Murphy

If you haven’t yet seen the bee-hive haired witch strutting around and pulling moves that puts Ulala and Lara Croft to shame then you’re probably still recovering from whatever happened to you on New Years. Bayonetta’s strong, sleek and oversexed character design aims to give us all a new feminine game hero to admire and play with.

The story sees our feisty heroine woken up after a 500 year sleep with almost no memory of who she is or where she came from. As an extraordinarily skilled and powerful witch she fights through the angels of Paradiso while discovering her identity and place in the unfolding plot that involves the attempted resurrection of the Creator Jubileus to reunite the three universes of Purgatory, Paradiso and Inferno as one. The story is often a little confusing, but starts to make some sense as Bayonetta recovers her memories.
But, what of the game though? Not only is Bayonetta stamping her bullet firing high-heels into Lara Croft and other female characters, she has decided to show Dante of Devil May Cry fame how it is really done. Directed by creator of the Devil May Cry series, this game takes that formula and pushes it to the next stage while layering down the sex appeal.

The excellent fight system offers up the use of long distance and close combat weaponry to execute a number of intricate combos. These combos and moves can be learned and practiced during the game’s loading screens which helps prevent you simply mashing the button in the hope of success. Split second dodging will see you enter ‘Witch Time’ slowing your enemies to a crawl allowing you to build up your Magic Gauge giving you the opportunity off with some pretty brutal ‘Torture Attacks’.
Boss fights, like those in similar games such as God Of War and Ninja Gaiden, will make you feel very, very, very small as you engage in combat against over-sized Guardians of Paradiso. At the climax of a boss battle you get the opportunity to perform a Wicked Weave in which we see Bayonetta pull some shapes before letting her hair (which forms her clothing) leave her body to take the shape of a huge demon before discarding with the troublesome beast.

In between fighting there is a little exploration and puzzle solving through the wonderfully crafted fictional city of Vigrid allowing you a breather before you’re next battle. Now and again quick time events are thrown in to make sure you are awake and alert. These will catch you completely off guard at times as they are often thrown in during a lengthy cut-scene and gives you a tiny window in which to react.
Every aspect of the game from the tongue in cheek humour, fight system, distribution of level intervals and items, down to the graphics and animation are tight, fluid and very well-balanced. You never feel robbed or cheated at any time unlike with similar games. The game never becomes infuriatingly difficult.
Hideki Kamiya, has also been kind enough to make a string of little nods to games that have gone before. Shooting gallery bonus stage, a Space Harrier-esque level anyone? There are references to games such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Viewtiful Joe, Resident Evil, Super Hang On and even a remix of track Splash Wave from legendary Sega arcade racer Outrun gets a little time within the game. This is a gamers game and one that everyone should check out.

Recommendation rating : Buy now witches!
All images courtesy of Sega
Bayonetta is available now on XBox 360 and PS3