Devil May Cry 4

First, Devil May Cry kicked your ass on PS2.

Next, Devil May Cry 2 made you—not the damn devil—cry like a little girl, due largely to it's awesome suckage.

Then, Devil May Cry 3 rose from the abyss and made you forget all about that insipid little shit that came before it. Sadly, it—like the original Devil May Cry—kicked your ass from here to next Thursday.

Each game featured the same game style: a badass demon hunter named Dante—himself half demon, thanks to his human-loving devil father, Sparda—kicking, punching, slashing, and blasting various demonic entities into little bitty pieces. The Devil May Cry games are all about killer combos, beating and juggling foes for as long as possible, garnering extra orbs (used to purchase power-ups of all sorts) the longer and more stylish the combo.

In addition to the demon ass-kicking, each entry in the Devil May Cry series features a completely non-sensical (i.e. typically Japanese) storyline, following the Dante's journeys through various environs to thwart the devious plans of myriad demonic beings. The cutscenes in particular are borderline retarded, but are nonetheless tolerable given they were never meant to be anything more than a break between ass-kickings. And, hell, there's something wonderfully fun about the ridiculousness of each game's convoluted story.

Devil May Cry 4 continues the trend of demon slaying and stupid faux-epic stories, but with a slight twist: the player doesn't begin as Dante, but rather a similar-looking fellow named Nero. Nero has many of the same moves as Dante, but is ultimately more flexible than his predecessor. Nero's Devil Bringer allows for some great combo scenarios, and adds a great deal to the level progression of the game. Eventually, the player gets to control Dante; but honestly, I prefered Nero. Call me crazy.

I still have no bloody idea what actually happened in Devil May Cry 4's story. I remember some old guy everybody seemed to admire dying, but, no, wait, he's not dead—and he's fucking evil! And building a giant fey fellow to crush shit! Honestly, the storyline of Devil May Cry 4 just isn't important to the overal gameplay experience. All you need to know is this: demons need killing, and you're the dude for the job.

The sound design of the game is...OK. Nothing special here, folks, just a lot of generic gunshots, demon growls, and a lot of shitty metal (actually, there's really only one or two songs, looped over, and over, and fucking ooooveeerrrr). The voice work is fine, though. Nero is suitably heroic, and not too over-the-top; Dante is his usual cocky-ass self; and the villains are just the right amount of douche-baggedly stupid.

And oh, the villains! The boss fights in Devil May Cry 4 are relatively easy, compared to the previous entries anyway (unless you play on a hard difficulty setting—and if you do, well, you must be a damn sadomasochist), but they're still quite fun. Well, until the end, that is... Then, oh how the fun doth escape the confines of reality! Before the final boss battle, you're forced to fight every damn boss in the game again—and then, just for good measure, you fight the fuckers again. Joy. Thank goodness it's fun to beat the bastards to a pulp, or else the repetition would drive folks bloody mad.

All in all, Devil May Cry 4 is a damn fine entry in the series, retaining just a few nagging issues from earlier games which keep the series as a whole from reaching true greatness (re: the stupid-ass storylines, the dialogue, some of the voice acting, and the damn repetitive music). If these issues are ever addressed...woah. What a badass game we'd have!