God Hand
This game might be a case of being a little too ahead of its time for when it released. An action beat’em up on the PS2 which came out in 2006 in Japan and North America and then later to Europe in 2007. Developed by Clover Studio, this is the same team that would later give us Okami and Viewtiful Joe.
Never has the term cult classic been more suited, scoring as low as 3 on some sites at the date of release, the user score on Metacritic is 9.2, which is quite a jump.
The fighting in this game is insane, to say the least, with players able to chain multiple attacks together using the controller face buttons and dodge using the right stick. After collecting “Roulette Orbs” the player can then get access to special abilities from a “God Reel” (or “God Roulette”).
It sounds like a little too much on paper but the game was a joy to play and after defeating and dodging enough enemies and you were able to unleash said “God Hand” from the title of the game on all your foes.
After receiving several middling reviews, the game is now widely considered to be one of the best games to feature on the PS2, hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Many of the people involved in this game would end up working on future classics such as Vanquish and another underrated hidden gem Madworld. The body of this game shows what was due to come in future titles and it’s still something to experience even now in 2021.