Review for Bayonetta & Vanquish 10th Anniversary Bundle. Game for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 18/02/2020
Ten years ago, in the midst of the seventh generation of consoles, the then "young" PlatinumGames studio entered the scene with a straight leg with two unforgettable games: Bayonetta, released in Europe in January 2010, and Vanquish, which hit store shelves in October of the same year. Despite the very high quality, neither of them knew the commercial success they deserved, so much so that only Bayonetta received a sequel, and only thanks to the interest and money of the Big N, who wanted on Wii U not only Bayonetta 2, but also the prequel, both re-released on Nintendo Switch, which sooner or later will also host Bayonetta 3.
Even if the sales were not exciting, the two games acquired the status of cult game over the years, which justified first the direct ports to Steam, published in 2017, then those for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, combined in Bayonetta & Vanquish 10th Anniversary Bundle, the subject of this review, which will be available starting tomorrow.
The bundle and the remastering
Bayonetta and Vanquish are affordable separately on the digital stores of Sony and Microsoft or in bundle at a price of € 39,99. This bundle is available not only in digital version, but also in the elegant physical version (steelbook) Launch Edition that you see below, with an ad hoc art created by Dan Dussault. An exclusive 4th anniversary theme is also available on PlayStation 3, for pre-order and purchases until March XNUMXrd.
Both Bayonetta and Vanquish have been remastered by Armature Studio to reach the 4k and 60 fps on PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X, obtaining a yield similar to that of the ports on Windows. On the "base" versions of the two consoles, the resolution is 1080p (compared to 720p in the original versions) and the frame rate is rather stable. On the content level, there is nothing new to report; clearly, the extra Bayonetta content on Nintendo consoles is absent in this port.
Bayonetta
Now that we've considered the features of these re-releases, it's time to talk a little about the individual games. We take this opportunity to link our reviews of Bayonetta: the first is related to the versions for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (the latter is a port of lower quality than the original); the second tells you about the Wii U port; the third is dedicated to the most recent sortie (after tomorrow's, of course), on Switch.
Bayonetta is the creature of Hideki Kamiya, who in the years prior to the founding of PlatinumGames had directed several gems at Capcom: Resident Evil 2, Okami, Viewtiful Joe (why isn't there a remaster collection in the pipeline for poor Joe ?! He deserves it, and how ..., Ed) and devil may cry; the busty witch, in fact, picked up the legacy of a Dante in non-splendid form during the last generation. The game, in fact, follows not only the structure of the Capcom action, standing out for the dynamism of the levels, but also the combat system, of which it constitutes a superfine evolution, an alternative (and sexy, as it has underlined its creator) to the one who lived the Devil May Cry series, orphaned by Kamiya since the second disappointing chapter. As far as the setting is concerned, Dante's inspiration is just around the corner: our witch's adventure takes place between Hell, Heaven and Purgatory.
Vanquish
Having established that Bayonetta represents one of the highest peaks reached by the action genre, we can see that, in the different context of TPS, Vanquish is also a juggler, as we were able to tell you at the time. Unfortunately Sam Gideon was even more unfortunate than the bespectacled witch and lost track, if we exclude a rumor from two years ago about a sequel in development for Xbox One, to which we cannot give credit.
If before we talked about Hideki Kamiya, now it's the turn of Shinji Mikami, director of this adrenaline-pumping shooter. Among the thousand (so to speak, eh, Ed) masterpieces directed by Mikami, we cannot fail to mention Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, Resident Evil 4 and God Hand. Here the aforementioned fourth Resident Evil and PN03 (of which I had the pleasure of talking in an episode of Back in Time), with which Mikami experiments the genre of third-person shooters, are particularly relevant.
Vanquish is a TPS at the same time modern (not too many things have changed in the last ten years ...) and arcade. The good Mikami takes from Gears of War what he needs (the cover system), from PN03 the special suit, from Resident Evil 4 the development team (in large part) and from the arcades the typical frenzy of danmaku; a panic shooter comes out of it, which flaws almost exclusively in longevity and narrative sector: something less Yankee and more Kyashan probably would have been the best option, but it would have had a lesser hold on the Western audience, which in any case has almost completely snubbed Vanquish . Completely unfair.
Bayonetta & Vanquish 10th Anniversary Bundle is an excellent opportunity to experience (or relive) the two PlatinumGames masterpieces. The purchase is highly recommended to anyone who has never played the two games, but even those who played it at the time might find the bundle tasty, while Steam users will find nothing new.
► Bayonetta & Vanquish 10th Anniversary Bundle is a scrolling beat 'em up-fighting game developed by Sega PlatinumGames and published by Sega for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 18/02/2020
