This week on Classic Niche we will be discussing what was essentially Clover Studios’ swan song, God Hand. You may recognize the name Clover Studios, as they are the masterminds behind classic games like the Viewtiful Joe series and Okami. God Hand was released October 2006 and was the studio’s last title.

You play as Gene. Gene, a martial artist with a big mouth and the ability to find trouble wherever he goes, wields one of the god hands, a pair of divine arms used by a warrior to save the world from the demon Angre and his vast demon army. With the god hand, Gene must fight demons and a group known as the Four Devas, in order to prevent the resurrection of Angre.

That’s all the story you need to know for this game. The rest you pick up through hilariously cheesy dialog, over-the-top action, and ridiculous enemies. Here’s a quick scene from the game to get my point across:

The gameplay of God Hand is very unique. You have a 3rd-person, over-the-shoulder view of Gene as you punch and kick your enemies to your satisfaction, and then allow them to die.

The fighting system is very fluid. Through the start menu you can customize your combos by adding techniques to chain. This makes your combos individual to your style of playing. Whether you feel like juggling your enemies, dealing a powerful blow to break their guard, stomping them while they’re down, or even spanking them repeatedly, how you fight is entirely up to you, which makes the experience all the more enjoyable.

Yes, this is a move.

An important design decision of the game is that you cannot block attacks. You’re forced to either take the enemies’ blows, or dodge them completely. Since enemies do a lot of damage, it’s wise to dodge their attacks. Dodging takes a while to get used to but once you get good at it, you can fight groups of enemies without taking damage.

God Hand’s outrageous combat can’t be discussed without including the god hand itself. The god hand is exactly what it sounds like: the power of a god in your arm. As you fight enemies, a meter fills, and you use that meter to activate the god hand. While the god hand is activated, you deal more damage, and are invulnerable to enemies’ hits. It’s a great option when you’re fighting multiple enemies or a really hard boss. (Just wait until we explain how hard this game gets …)

Here’s the thing about God Hand that put a lot of people off: while the game is amazingly fun and has a bevy of hilarious moments, it’s also very hard, and I mean punishingly hard. As soon as you begin to do well, the difficulty will ratchet in order to give you a challenge. The difficulty works like this: as you fight enemies, your difficulty meter changes, going up the more enemies that you kill without taking damage, and going down the more damage that you take.

If the meter fills, you gain a difficulty level and you have to refill the meter. There are 4 levels: Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and Level Die. Yes, Level Die, and it sure is no joke. On that level, you have to pay attention and dodge every attack or else you will die very, very quickly. Playing the game on higher difficulty levels does yield good bonuses, however, if you’re brave enough.

With great gameplay full of fluid combat and hilarity, what went wrong for God Hand and Clover Studios? Well, the game didn’t sell well at all, and it was absolutely bashed by critics in their reviews. IGN gave it a 3/10. If you were looking for games you might be interested in, and you saw that one had got a 3/10, would you buy it? Probably not.

This is a popular comparison made by God Hand fans, between two very different titles.

Because of the lack of sales, God Hand was the last game Clover Studios ever made. Clover closed in March, 2007, and key members founded a new group called Seed INC. Months later they merged with ODD Incorporated to form Platinum Games, which went on to make such titles as Vanquish and Bayonetta. Things worked out for Clover developers.

The same can’t be said for God Hand. The low sales and bad reviews plagued the game, causing it to be overlooked. The game never got the appreciation it deserved.

There’s no way to remove the bad reviews, so I can only hope that people will ignore them and try the game for themselves. God Hand is available on the PlayStation Network under PS2 classics, for only $10. If you love beat em ups with a challenge, I would recommend you give God Hand a try. It’s an excellent game.