Genre: Action
Year: 2014
Developed by: Platinum Games
Published by: Nintendo
Platforms: Wii U, Switch
#147
Feeling Like: Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow
As good as Bayonetta was, the sequel was that much better. Gone are the drab greys and browns, replaced with vibrant, bright colors everywhere. Each stage felt like a playable party, complete with every trick in the book. I’m not sure where you can go from punching God into the sun, but nobody would complain that Bayonetta 2 was a step down from the original. If anything, it’s even crazier; combat is fluid, the presentation is improved, the controls are air-tight. If the character of Loki wasn’t so freakishly irritating, this would be even higher on the 500. I know complaining about a character in a Bayonetta is like complaining your soup didn’t pave your driveway, but it’s worth mentioning.
The flow of combat is thrilling, a visual drug. As soon as I dodged an enemy attack and went into “witch time”, I swear a different pleasure centre in my brain unlocked. The more choice that a hyper action game gives the player, the better. In Bayonetta 2, you’re given umpteen weapons and abilities; the more you put into the game, the more you’ll get out of it. Meaning, the more time you invest into practicing combos, abilities and weapon switches, the more fun you’ll have. Weapons aren’t just weapons either, they soon turn into screen filling purple instruments of death. At times you won’t even be able to keep track of what’s going on, but you’ll hone in on Bayonetta to ensure you’re not about to be hit by anything and you’ll be mashing attacks to ensure your impossible torture devices continually munch away on evil angels. Plus, you can get a chain chomp! Om nom nom.
The set pieces are terrific, completely off the wall which is exactly what I paid for. I don’t want any subtlety in my Bayonetta games. Whether you’re tackling enemies on top of a speeding train, or trying to tame a demon dog while surfing along a tidal wave, it’s all here. The contrast between some cut-scenes that involved Bayonetta and Jeanne talking about shopping and then the heavens opening up resulting in you shooting some unholy spawn in the face with your stiletto guns while on a fighter jet gave me major psychological whiplash…but it’s also dope as hell. If it works, it works.
I preferred everything in Bayonetta 2. The vibrant graphics, the better enemy variety, the 1 on 1 fights with bosses, the interesting locations and the combinations available to me were all a big step up from Bayonetta.
Well, almost everything.
Loki, one of my least favorite characters in recent memory, nearly killed my desire for the game. He’s got this stupid annoying voice and face. And haircut. What’s with that dumb hoodie? He always says “love” with a terrible accent. He’s in nearly every cut-scene. Couldn’t stand him. I was desperately hoping he’d turn out to be a bad guy, so I could wallop him with my whip, but no luck. Thankfully, the gameplay was so sublime that it was easy to tune him out, but I did skip a few cut-scenes because of him.
I NEVER skip cut-scenes.
It is sort of strange that this is a Nintendo exclusive game, or rather why Nintendo would partially fund and publish it. It’s not exactly a traditional Nintendo title, with overtly sexual themes and hardcore action. Still, without their involvement, Bayonetta 2 wouldn’t have even existed. I was surprised how well the hardware held up on the Wii U; I rarely spotted any framerate drops and with a game like this, any jitters in the smoothness of the gameplay is a grave sin. If I’m going to flip over a centaur’s spear while dashing over to kick an ogre in the face then transformer into a panther, I don’t need any kind of delay.
There are a few fights that really heightened the tension and I truly felt like I had agency in a Dragon Ball Z style duel. I’ve seen this in some other games, but for the most part it’s a cinematic which required minimal button inputs. Here, I almost felt like I was in full control of lightning quick combos, dodging danger with milliseconds of notice before unleashing a counter-attack in a blink of an eye. Maybe it was just a developer trick, or perhaps I did improve enough to get the higher ratings, but either way I felt totally in control of my stylish witch of death. If looks could kill…
It was hard to stomach Bayonetta 3 when its predecessor was so good. Everything felt flat – the graphics, the action, the convoluted storyline. And the over reliance on dancing/summoning giant monsters. It SHOULD have been great, but it felt like a step backwards. Bayonetta 2 was the complete opposite in that everything felt better than the previous iteration, a proper evolution despite being on hardware that I didn’t think could handle it. The terrific character design (sans Loki), the outlandish fight sequences and the variety of combat styles are near peerless in the genre. This is an amazing game, if you’re up for the equivalent of digital cocaine.
The 500 