Backloggers #5: Picking Up Where We Left Off

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Backloggers #4: The Natural Alternative

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Bayonetta - With Practice, Pure Poetry

Generally speaking I am not a fighting game fan. I can certainly see the appeal, the memorization of button sequences or combos that eventually become reflex, and turn combat from a button mashing affair into something that is almost poetic when played at its full potential. For me, the whole idea of learning move sets is akin to learning a foreign language, as something I'm interested in but find altogether too daunting. One could argue that the "stylish action" games are essentially fighting games in a 3D space, with games like Devil May Cry having just as much complexity as Tekken or Street Fighter.

So it came as no surprise that I let Bayonetta's release pass unmarked. From the previews and articles leading up to the game's release it was clear that this was going to be just another skill-based stylish action game, as the game was marketing towards the DMC set as the next big thing. Sure, the videos looked amazing and the combos were incredible to watch in preview videos, but the thought of what I would have to do to reach that level of expertise loomed too great in my mind, and I moved on to other things.

Sometime this summer Gamefly had a sale on used games, offering a number of titles for less than 20 bucks. I saw Bayonetta for $15 smackeroos (and Bioshock 2 for $17!) and decided to give it a whirl. I knew it was going to be good, but I was apprehensive about whether or not I'd be able to get through it, or it was destined to sit atop my piles of unfinished games as another title that I enjoyed but couldn't bring myself to finish.

Around 7 days later I had around 30 hours in Bayonetta and a newfound appreciation for the genre. Bayonetta is, simply put, an incredible action game that does so many things right that it's easy to overlook its faults. As a general rule I don't like to spend full price on new games but I am sorry that I waited as long as I did to play it, and now that I have I am almost afraid to play other games in the genre in fear that they may not measure up.