Asura's Wrath - PS3

Asura's Wrath is a beat-'em-up that's almost an interactive movie. It stars Asura, a demigod who is... well, very wrathful. He fights alongside seven other deities as one of the 'Eight Guardian Generals' who protect the Earth from the Gohma (which are demonic animals that spawn from the Earth). Things go a bit wrong, though, when the emperor dies and everyone thinks it's his fault. Before you know it, he's dead and 12,000 years have passed. 12,000 years is plenty of time to be dead, though, and Asura comes back to find that his seven remaining colleagues have been ruling the planet, feeding off his daughter's super-powers. He's angry. Wrathful, even. Something must me done.

Needless to say, Asura's Wrath is pretty crazy. It's this craziness that makes it a lot of fun. As things open up, you're in an epic space battle, buzzing around through space (not actually buzzing - in space no-one can hear you buzz) shooting down all manner of nastiness Panzer Dragoon-style. When a Ghoma the size of the planet opens its gob, you get a sense of just how brain-fudgingly bonkers and over-the-top Asura's Wrath is.

It's basically SciFi-Asian-Demigod-Superheroes punching each other around. With demon-monkeys.

The core gameplay consists primarily of brawling sections, which are themselves centred on epic boss battles. It's big, over-the-top stuff. Think along the lines of Bayonetta, and you won't go far wrong. It's about massively over-powered guys fighting other massively-overpowered guys. There's not much room for subtlety. Occasionally developer CyberConnect2 mixes things up with more of the shooting sections, just in case you weren't feeling powerful enough.

All of this is complemented with a host of interactive cutscenes, with gameplay built right into the game's story.

Asura's Wrath isn't what you'd call a tight, focused beat-'em-up. If you want a crazy, epic sci-fi romp, though, you're in for a treat. more