Sunday, September 05, 2010

Vanquish (Xbox 360)

I played the Vanquish demo on my Xbox 360, and I'm stoked and sad at the same time.

Stoked, because I like how slick, polished, and punishing Platinum Games titles can be.

I just noticed my Bayonetta review seems to have been lost to the ether. I've been calling that particular Platinum title, "The slickest, wildest I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-this I've played in some time." Production values are high, it's filled with actioning, platforming, motorcycle racing, quadruped scampering, and ... uh ... volleyball madness. Designers do things you shouldn't do (because they're hard) -- like take Mario Galaxy's 360-degree rotating sphere and drops it in a zone that also has 6 "floors". Camera hell, that.

And Platinum's black-and-white (and bloodsoaked) Madworld (on the Wii?) -- awesome.

I'm sad, though, because like Bayonetta, Vanquish might get lost in the piles -- between Metroid: Other M, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Halo: Reach, and the other [BigTitle-Colon-Subtitled] games coming out at the same time.

I don't know if Vanquish will be as awesome as Bayonetta. And its early nineties, corny dialog might not be as laughtastic as its giant, high-heeled cousin -- it might be sad, ethno-centric bad-translation instead.

But, given the demo, and its pedigree, I'm willing to give it a try. I hope you do, too.

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