Shadows Of The Damned (Xbox 360 / PS3)

Shadows Of The Damned (Xbox 360 / PS3) :

This is a game from the creative super-duo of Shinji Mikaki (Resident Evil, Devil May Cry) & Goichi "Suda 51" Suda (Killer 7, No More Heroes)....and it's totally insane!

Described as a "punk rock road trip" by the developers Grasshopper, the game has you take control of Mexican Demon Hunter, Garcia Hotspur, as he goes on a quest to the demon underworld to rescue his girlfriend Paula who has been kidnapped by the Demon-lord Fleming! He's accompanied by ex-demon Johnson, a floating skull who can transform into weapons and a kick-ass motorbike....

Your journey into hell is a bizarre one, which sees you feeding strawberries or brains to cherub-headed doors, shooting goat-heads to lighten up darkened areas, reading fairy-tale-style storybooks about bosses you'll face...and even taking part in an odd little 2D-shoot-em-up on some levels!

The main part of the game though is a pretty damn decent third-person shooter in the style of Resident Evil 4...What makes it different, is the light/darkness mechanic. Demons are constantly trying to plunge you into darkness where they're stronger and you constantly lose health...Luckily, Johnson can fire out a Light Shot which when fired at the aforementioned goat heads will light your path ahead. It can also be fired at demons who retain some of their darkness, making it easier for you to finish them off with one of Johnson's many gun-forms!

You'll constantly be finding crystals when you defeat the demons, and these come in three varieties...White, which are used as currency and given to a big friendly demon named Christopher in exchange for alcohol (which replenishes energy) or Red diamonds. These Red diamonds are also hidden away in the levels, and let you power up the various different gun-forms that Johnson transforms into...these new forms come from the last type, Blue diamonds...which appear after you defeat one of the many boss demons...

This game won't be for everyone though, because as well as it's decidedly Grindhouse-style leanings, it also has a rather immature vein of humour that centres around a certain part of the male anatomy! These jokes litter even the main dialogue of the game, and this might put off some people from playing it....I personally didn't find it too much and the rest of the humour makes the game funny, especially the dialogue between Garcia & Johnson and the various stories in the storybooks! And there's a revelation about strawberries that might well put you off them for life!!

I had a real blast playing through Shadows Of The Damned...it had me hooked from the start! Take a look at the videos above and if you like the look of it, give it a go! I reckon it deserves a bit more recognition than it seems to have received...and even if you don't enjoy the humour, you'll still find a lot more in it's quirky settings and gameplay to keep you amused!