PixlBit

Platinum Games' second release looks to be a fun and humorous take on Devil May Cry-like games.

Bayonetta is intentionally ridiculous. Developed by Platinum Games, it is a combo-heavy brawler where you control a Sarah Palin look-a-like who kicks the crap out foes with high heels, guns, and a sassy picture-posing attitude.

It's very easy to control, and Platinum's GameX demo featured a slow but informative tutorial. It uses a combination of guns, melee attacks, and high-powered combos. There's also a large emphasis on dodging. If you time a dodge perfectly, you activate Witch Time, which makes everything go into slow motion and gives you time to pummel your angelic enemies.

Occasionally, you activate a megaton event where you mash a button and activate a ridiculous trap and enemy death. In my time playing, I threw a foe into an iron maiden and put another through a guillotine. Granted these weren't in the environment, they just randomly appeared.

Also, enemies occasionally drop weapons. They seemed to be standard sword-like weapons, except for one really insane, off-the-wall weapon: a trumpet. It is used as a ranged attack and caused me to do a triple take while playing the game. I believe I literally said (probably a little too loud) "Are you ****ing kidding me? Is that a trumpet?"

In my playtime, I battle two bosses. Both were big screen-filling battles that would transition between multiple parts of the level. At the end of those, a gigaton event is activated, which is the same as a megaton event but for bosses. When triggered, the main character's clothes morph into some hair beast that devours the giant boss. It's a very strange occurrence as the clothes/hair manages to barely cover the hero's goods, and just as soon as you process all of this, the clothes are back on. It makes you wonder where the hell the boss is going, especially if matter technically can't be destroyed.

Bayonetta is a ridiculous game, but is also shaping up to be a very polished one. The controls work well, the combos are great to execute, and the experience is absurd.

Bayonetta is due out in North America in early 2010.