Gaming Moments of 2010 #4: Bayonetta

All the big guns have come and gone. The best games are all now on shelves and we’ve just decided on our game of the year. Now we’re taking a look at our 10 favourite gaming moments of 2010. Be aware that these are just my subjective choices – feel free to let us know some of your favourites in the comments below.

Bayonetta’s Walk
Personally, I’ve always felt that the way a video game protaganist moves – the animation and the feel of how they interact in their universe – is one of the most overlooked aspects of game design. When a game gets it wrong, it pains me to play – but when a game gets it right, simply manoeuvring through the game world becomes an endlessly rewarding, tactile experience.

Think about the basic act of ‘jumping’ in Mario, Ezio’s slow paced, arrogant gait in Assassin’s Creed 2, Niko’s hunched posture in GTA IV, or Marcus Fenix’s hefty, clumping footsteps in Gears of War. If it’s fun to simply walk around in an environment, think of the possibilities when the action really begins to ramp up.

In Bayonetta the action continually increases in scale – to ridiculous proportions – but it remains an incredible amount of fun because the foundations are solid. Your jaw gapes when Bayonetta break dances bullets at God, or summons hair-based demons to chomp on the entrails of ponderous angels – but the real magic happens when the pace slows down. When Bayonetta’s run slowly tapers into her walk. Her seductive, hypnotising walk. The greatest walk seen in any video game. Ever.

With one hand perched nonchalantly on her hip, and another dangling as her hips sway rhythmically through her step – world class supermodels wish they could walk like this – I wish everyone could walk like this. (Except for dudes. Because that would just be weird.) It’s the perfect embodiment of Bayonetta’s confidence, the perfect embodiment of the game’s atmosphere and how you feel when you play as Bayonetta. It’s the crowning jewel of what is probably the best new character design this year, possibly this generation.

Every single thing Bayonetta does – everything – springs from that walk. That sexy, delicious, confident, cool, rhythmic, hot, tasty, seductive, hypnotic walk. If I forget everything that ever happened in that insane video game, the last thing to go will be Bayonetta’s swagger.

If I was a woman, I would walk like Bayonetta.