Bullet Witch
Before there was Bayonetta, there was Bullet Witch. And before Bullet Witch there was Devil May Cry, but we won't go there right now. I passed by this game on the used shelf at BlockBuster one day and it really stuck with me. It was all in the design, I knew that it could just as easily have been a really crappy game, so I kept putting off buying it, even though it was on $20. Eventually Christmas rolled around and a few of us were doing Secret-Santa, so I used this as an excuse to pick it up. I knew a number of people had Xbox 360s at this point so I figured that someone would get this and hopefully enjoy it.
Well, the way it turned out, this Secret-Santa was the kind where you swap and trade gifts and in the end, I ended up with my own purchase; which I was (not so) secretly happy with.
Bullet Witch takes place in the 'near future' of 2013 where an army of demon have been ravaging the earth for the past six years putting humanity into hiding. You find yourself controlling Alicia, a young woman wielding a huge 'broomstick' gun which fires as a machinegun, shotgun, canon and gatling gun. On top of being a magical changing gun, this tool also allows you to perform incredible magical spells. Spells that range from the addition of elemental damage to your weapons to great spells which include huge tornados and meteors. This gunstick goes far to define your character as far as the gameplay goes. It's giant and is as much of a fashion accessory as it is your weapon to rise up above humanity to help rescue it.
Bullet Witch for me was just this ridiculously fun candy game. It didn't exactly feature an amazing story, incredible creature designs or amazing level layouts. But running around mowing down waves of undead demons with a giant magical weapon, performing wild acrobatics in fantastic outfits and summoning immense natural forces to help fight your battles, outweighs all the sub-par game elements. The whole game just felt like it was created by a studio that was either too closely watched and therefore ended up being a big mess caused by 'too many cooks in the kitchen'. I'd like to think however, that the studio was instead left to it's own devices and created a ridiculous, imperfect game that was fun and feels like the kind of game that is harder and harder to find anymore. Basically, there's a level where you are fighting off giant eyeball demons with bat wings and tentacles off the wings of a 747 while in flight. Either that excites you or you turn your nose at it. For me that was the coolest part.
For the price I paid, I certainly got a great deal out of Bullet Witch. I played it all the way through, with the exception of the last boss which I could never beat. They released a ton of free DLC since it hailed from a time when all DLC on Xbox Live was free during it's introduction. And truth be told, as solid a game Bayonetta is, for some reason I enjoyed this more. Even if Bayonetta was superbly polished. Perhaps something about the Alicia character design I found more down to earth than Bayonetta's ridiculous vinyl wearing hair attacks. Even if she is still a hardly clothed, magic wielding acrobat.
Before there was Bayonetta, there was Bullet Witch. And before Bullet Witch there was Devil May Cry, but we won't go there right now. I passed by this game on the used shelf at BlockBuster one day and it really stuck with me. It was all in the design, I knew that it could just as easily have been a really crappy game, so I kept putting off buying it, even though it was on $20. Eventually Christmas rolled around and a few of us were doing Secret-Santa, so I used this as an excuse to pick it up. I knew a number of people had Xbox 360s at this point so I figured that someone would get this and hopefully enjoy it.Well, the way it turned out, this Secret-Santa was the kind where you swap and trade gifts and in the end, I ended up with my own purchase; which I was (not so) secretly happy with.
Bullet Witch takes place in the 'near future' of 2013 where an army of demon have been ravaging the earth for the past six years putting humanity into hiding. You find yourself controlling Alicia, a young woman wielding a huge 'broomstick' gun which fires as a machinegun, shotgun, canon and gatling gun. On top of being a magical changing gun, this tool also allows you to perform incredible magical spells. Spells that range from the addition of elemental damage to your weapons to great spells which include huge tornados and meteors. This gunstick goes far to define your character as far as the gameplay goes. It's giant and is as much of a fashion accessory as it is your weapon to rise up above humanity to help rescue it. Bullet Witch for me was just this ridiculously fun candy game. It didn't exactly feature an amazing story, incredible creature designs or amazing level layouts. But running around mowing down waves of undead demons with a giant magical weapon, performing wild acrobatics in fantastic outfits and summoning immense natural forces to help fight your battles, outweighs all the sub-par game elements. The whole game just felt like it was created by a studio that was either too closely watched and therefore ended up being a big mess caused by 'too many cooks in the kitchen'. I'd like to think however, that the studio was instead left to it's own devices and created a ridiculous, imperfect game that was fun and feels like the kind of game that is harder and harder to find anymore. Basically, there's a level where you are fighting off giant eyeball demons with bat wings and tentacles off the wings of a 747 while in flight. Either that excites you or you turn your nose at it. For me that was the coolest part. For the price I paid, I certainly got a great deal out of Bullet Witch. I played it all the way through, with the exception of the last boss which I could never beat. They released a ton of free DLC since it hailed from a time when all DLC on Xbox Live was free during it's introduction. And truth be told, as solid a game Bayonetta is, for some reason I enjoyed this more. Even if Bayonetta was superbly polished. Perhaps something about the Alicia character design I found more down to earth than Bayonetta's ridiculous vinyl wearing hair attacks. Even if she is still a hardly clothed, magic wielding acrobat.
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