I am very enthusiastic about Godhand, a game that never quite got it's time in the sun but left an impression on anyone that played it.
There is a genre of action games that blends very elements of fighting games and sports games into it's presentation. I seen the roots of it in super smash bros melee but also Godhand. As of late I see this in games such as vanquish, doom eternal and even calisto protocol(the illfated horror brawler game from late 2022). For those games I would refer to them as Trick shooters. There is a fluidity of movement, a flow, a sort of comboed movement that at times needs to be practiced and improved upon iteratively. In a way it's more like tony hawk pro skater than an action game.
Godhand I believe to be a kind of precursor game to this phenomenon, a trick brawler. Released towards the end of ps2's lifecycle around the same time as DMC3. Godhand is very much an oddity in the history of video games. It's an old school brawler set in a 3d environment. It does not have a block button, it has a dodge button and you can flick it very fast and it looks hilarious. You have a wheel of special moves you can use, one of which is spanking your opponents. It's set in the old west, it has a surf rock soundtrack. You can juggle opponents, it's ridiculously difficult. It might be one of the funniest games I have ever played, it's dialogue is like camp kung fu b movie. It's intentionally bad, "you need to feed your brain, not your ass" he says to the fat demon named "Elvis". What makes me liken this game to doom eternal and the like is the fluidity of the game. You do so many things so fast and when you master it, you feel like a God. You combo a guy, see some other guys come at you, dodge everything they do. Hit them with a baseball bat, throw the baseball bat at some other guys approaching. Launching lunge kick into another guy. Kick some guy off the ledge. And all of this can happen in seconds.
I know it might not be for everyone, but this definately feels like a game for me. It's everything I love in a game, it's silly, it's got a high skill cap, performing it feels amazing, there is room for learning and creativity. God bless clover/platinum games, those guys get it.
There is a genre of action games that blends very elements of fighting games and sports games into it's presentation. I seen the roots of it in super smash bros melee but also Godhand. As of late I see this in games such as vanquish, doom eternal and even calisto protocol(the illfated horror brawler game from late 2022). For those games I would refer to them as Trick shooters. There is a fluidity of movement, a flow, a sort of comboed movement that at times needs to be practiced and improved upon iteratively. In a way it's more like tony hawk pro skater than an action game.
Godhand I believe to be a kind of precursor game to this phenomenon, a trick brawler. Released towards the end of ps2's lifecycle around the same time as DMC3. Godhand is very much an oddity in the history of video games. It's an old school brawler set in a 3d environment. It does not have a block button, it has a dodge button and you can flick it very fast and it looks hilarious. You have a wheel of special moves you can use, one of which is spanking your opponents. It's set in the old west, it has a surf rock soundtrack. You can juggle opponents, it's ridiculously difficult. It might be one of the funniest games I have ever played, it's dialogue is like camp kung fu b movie. It's intentionally bad, "you need to feed your brain, not your ass" he says to the fat demon named "Elvis". What makes me liken this game to doom eternal and the like is the fluidity of the game. You do so many things so fast and when you master it, you feel like a God. You combo a guy, see some other guys come at you, dodge everything they do. Hit them with a baseball bat, throw the baseball bat at some other guys approaching. Launching lunge kick into another guy. Kick some guy off the ledge. And all of this can happen in seconds.
I know it might not be for everyone, but this definately feels like a game for me. It's everything I love in a game, it's silly, it's got a high skill cap, performing it feels amazing, there is room for learning and creativity. God bless clover/platinum games, those guys get it.