What a month this has been for fans of the hack & slash genre, with the brilliant Darksiders: Wrath of War and Bayonetta from Platinum Games, published by a newly reinvigorated Sega, both hitting shelves.

First things first, if you’ve got a PS3 then you’ve been hideously short changed. As is often the case with multi-format titles, the developers seem to have struggled to get to grips with the PS3’s internal architecture, and have delivered a port which is reduced to a mere shadow of it’s Xbox 360 guise by painfully recurring slowdown and grimace inducing loading times. The core gameplay remains intact, but it’s simply not worth the heartache on offer to try to soldier through such a poorly realised production. In short, if you’re a PS3 user – stop reading here.

For those of you who have an Xbox 360 however, read on and prepare yourselves for a fantastic example in high octane action!

The action takes place in a fictional European city known as Vigrid, and you play the role of the titular Bayonetta – a shape shifting witch with a fondness for both magic and some pretty impressive weaponry. Awoken following a 500 year sleep, Bayonetta is struck down with amnesia (as is so often the case in games of this ilk) and she must battle her way past hordes of foes as her memory gradually returns. As the story progresses, it becomes quite a bit more interesting, but to go into many more details would take the sheen off discovering it for yourselves.

Bayonetta shares many similarities with Darksiders; in that the story isn’t exactly a work of literary genius, the first few hours are painfully dull and the combat system appears (at face value) to be far too simplistic to harbour a reasonable level of depth. And just like Darksiders, it soon puts the latter two concerns to bed.

The three button combat system is thrice as complex as that in Darksiders right off the bat, and although it does allign itself nicely to mindless button mashing, further exploration unveils a real treasure trove of combos, counters and vertical combat. The influence of Hideki Kamiya who you may or may not know as the man behind Capcom’s Devil May Cry series becomes immediately apparent when you begin play.

The simplified combat system immediately begins to show its value, as the game is accessible to both hack & slash veterans and newcomers alike. One button controls the upper body for punches and the like, while another takes charge of the lower body, which allows for exceptionally intuitive combos and unyielding explosions of ultra violence. Add in a third attack button, which unleashes your weaponry, as well as the now compulsory dodge button into the equation and you’ve got one hell of a game.