Recently played through:

Bayonetta - Seriously one of the most "wow" games I've played, in terms of visuals and design. It's a bummer so much of the plot is wasted on ridiculous sexploitation, because if they had reigned it in a little I think the game would have had wider appeal. I think Kamiya was trying to create a good game that would actually sell, but the constant invitations to ogle the main character get a little condescending at times (I know a lot of gamers, particularly the gals, who steered clear of the game because of that). But it's still an absolute triumph in terms of visual style - the enemies, in particular, are some of the best designed creatures I've ever seen, nightmarish collages of Catholic art and architecture, with the enormous bosses being the real draw. Another success from Kamiya, I just hope he realizes the reason this sold more than his masterpiece "Okami" is due to non-sexual factors (this one drops you right into the action instead of giving you a 40 minute introduction, for one).

Brutal Legend - A mixed success from Tim Schafer's Double Fine, with a lot of the elements you'd expect from them - clever dialogue, funny but artistically impressive visual design, and a mixture of gameplay styles, in this case Real-Time Strategy, Hack-and-Slash, and GTA-style open world. The blending of these elements is a little shaky at times - the RTS elements that make up most of the battles don't show up until you're a way in, and I bet a lot of casual gamers were more confused than I by the sudden introduction of a lot of rules to what seemed at first glance like a straightforward action game. There are also missing elements from both genres that probably should have been included - for example, there aren't really any life indicators for your units, which means instead of managing your existing army you just have to keep making new soldiers and throwing them at the enemy until you win. I also think a big dealbreaker for a lot of players is the lack of jumping - I read an interview with Schafer where he said jumping just didn't seem necessary, and which he's right it does feel a little unnatural at first, and there's no reason *not* to include it either. Overall it *is* a really neat game (even if the story gets a little groanworthy once it starts taking itself seriously), but it's pretty easy to understand why gamers were too confused to actually buy it.