Community Review: Anarchy Reigns

It’s time for the community to put judgement on Anarchy Reigns, a beat-em-up from the accomplished, yet underrated, Platinum Games. Yet from what I’ve seen of promotional material so far, the term “beat-em-up” might be selling this game short. Am I wrong?

Anarchy Reigns hasn’t been out for very long – but given its nature, I suspect those who were going to buy it have already done so. Reason being, it hasn’t had the biggest marketing push, and by itself, it might not be all that appealing. In fact, as the above description notes, for those not specifically watching the game, it’s not even clear what it is. The ones who will really be excited for this game are the ones who know what Platinum Games are capable of.

And there’s far too few of those people around. If you haven’t played the likes of Mad World, Bayonetta, or Vanquish, you’re missing out. We should throw God Hand in there too, since a lot of the Platinum talent was behind that. The studio makes a variety of games – from slow-paced brawlers, to action combo-killers, to third-person cover shooters. Now, with Anarchy Reigns, it’s a brawler/fighter.

But Platinum switches its Directors according to their experience. Bayonetta was headed by Hideki Kamiya, the Director on the first Devil May Cry. Vanquish was headed by Shinji Mikami, creator of Resident Evil. These guys know what they’re doing, and every game they bring out is made richer by incredible enemy design, epic boss fights, and deep combat.

Directing Anarchy Reigns is Masaki Yamanaka, of whom there’s less information available, though he’s worked in an artistic capacity on many of the titles mentioned above.

It’s this pedigree that gets me excited for Anarchy Reigns. While the trailers and ads haven’t really grabbed me that much, I know what they’re capable of. But as fate would have it, I haven’t had a chance to actually play it yet.

So it’s up to you, Kotaku. Is Jack from Mad World slicing everyone up with his double chainsaw as great as it sounds? How fun are his enemies to control? What’s the fighting system like? Will it accommodate the DLC-bound Bayonetta very well?


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