The game is taking place in the Wild West and that’s very noticeable, mainly in the first stage. Saloons, desert, in short the villages we know from the average TV-western. Not only does the environment take care of the atmosphere, it also mingles in the action. People flying on top of tables, making them splat into pieces (the tables that is), throwing them over the bar of the local saloon, pushing them into the well; all elements known from the Far West.

The clothing however, is something you wouldn’t expect from your average cowboy but rather from some eastern nutcase. In the end the clothes don’t really matter though since you’re fighting demons. I found that to be bizarre by the way, demons wearing pants… The image quality is very much enjoyable, certainly when knowing this is a PS2-game! Ok, there are some square textures to be found out there, but the models are very much okay!

Another aspect that contributes to that authentic western-feel, is the music. A fast honky-tonk beat, combined with some modern audio samples is the kind of sound you can expect to be running through your speakers while playing God Hand. Add some firm sound effects to that, like people taking and giving punches, and you’ve got the ultimate cocktail for a successful game sound-wise.

Now we know where the game takes place, we need to know what it’s all about. You, Gene, lost your arm while trying to save a poor girl from a similar fate. Since the villains couldn’t take her arm anymore, they decided to take yours instead. To replace that lost arm, you were given the God Hand, which sounds kind of stupid since we’re talking about an arm here. It does sound better then God Arm though… The arm contains enormous powers, but with that comes a certain responsibility. You have to save the world from evil demons trying to take over the planet.

The fighting system is quite a new idea. You can create your own combos which can be executed by pressing the square button. For every press of the button you can add a new move. These moves have to be earned, however, which you can do by killing enemies, searching boxes or just buying them at the shop. If you want to buy them, you’ll need money. How do you earn it? By gambling at the casino (Chihuahua races, poker, slots, …) or by collecting bags of money dropped by enemies or hidden in crates spread throughout the levels. There are two other buttons to which you can bind some way of giving the enemy a thorough beating. It would be best to use those for the slower, but more powerful attacks.

Now the not so casual way of fighting. By dealing some serious punishment to your enemies, you fill up your God Hand-meter. Once that’s full, the fun really starts! When activated, you become twice as fast and twice as strong, giving you the ability to literally pulverise your opponents. Apart from the God Hand, there’s one last special attack mode. The roulette. It’s a list of extremely powerful (and totally weird) assault moves, often given a humoristic feel. One of those moves is the ‘Ball Buster’. This attack is introduced with a slow-motion video, clearly stating that it’s going to be very, very painful. Suddenly the video is ended and you swing your heel into your enemy's dingdongs which makes him grab for his crotch and turns his head blue. What the people at Clover did think of is that women don’t have balls with the result of the attack doing absolutely nothing but making some noise.

Not only the moves are funny, the cut scenes are too and that’s an important feature of the game. In between al the serious fighting, you suddenly see something so stupid you just start laughing until you drop. Real slapstick.