Video Game / God Hand

It's a game about punching people.

"Dragon Kick your ass into the Milky Way!"

Many years ago, the Demon King Angra sought to conquer the world, gathering to him a massive army of demons. But then a hero emerged, possessing the power of God in his arms, and wiped the army out before facing and overthrowing Angra himself. The people named him the God Hand, and when he finally died, one clan devoted itself to watching over the God Hands, and the power within them. Those with that power can be either god or demon...

...and yes, by "watch over the God Hands", we mean watch over the man's severed arms.

It's that sort of game.

God Hand, a PlayStation 2 Beat 'em Up developed by Clover Studio and released by Capcom, centers around a 23-year-old drifter and martial artist named Gene. While wandering one day, he finds a young woman named Olivia being attacked by two punks, after the mysterious package in her arms. He tries to fight them off and gets his right arm severed (with a razor boomerang) for his troubles.

As thanks for saving her, however, Olivia attaches the package - the right God Hand - to his stump and explains the situation: a group of demons are trying to resurrect the Demon King Angra. Only the one with the power of the God Hand can stop him, and unfortunately for Gene, he just got drafted.^note Or would that be "grafted"?

Despite his reluctance, Gene could always use a good fight, and so he sets out to stop Angra's resurrection. To do so, he must defeat the Four Devas: Elvis, a huge, fat, cigar-chomping pseudo-Mexican pervert; Shannon, an alluring succubus in all but name who lives to sate her desires; Azel, possessor of the left God Hand (or "Devil Hand" as he calls it), Gene's Evil Counterpart and Olivia's ex-fiance (he killed the rest of their clan); and Belze, their leader with a very poor taste in fashion.

Despite the above summary, this game has a very goofy and comical sense of humor, which is what sets it apart. Your enemies include a intelligent gorilla in a wrestling mask luchador, many, many midgets, a battery-powered giant robot, homosexual men, and a Giant Enemy Crab. The Groin Attack is common, and female enemies are frequently dispatched via spankings. Hell, the mooks are often found dancing.

Be warned, though - like every other beat'em up titles, this game's Nintendo Hard, distilled. Expect to die. Often. It's telling that the highest skill level you can get is, appropriately named, Die.

The Spiritual Successor MadWorld was released for the Nintendo Wii in 2009.

The game was among the first released under the PlayStation 2 classics section of the PSN, on October 4th, 2011. Capcom stated that they can port it to PC if the demand is high enough.

Has absolutely nothing to do with the group of villains from Berserk, or with the legendary soccer move. Trope Namer for Power of the God Hand.

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This game provides examples of:

• 11th-Hour Superpower: You get both God Hands for the final battle: this allows you to use Double Shaolin Palm and lets you kill the demons the final boss summons in 1-3 hits.
• Acrofatic: Elvis, who can literally Naruto-run fast enough to cause Gene to comically spin around. As well as some of the Fat Bastard mooks.
• Action Commands: Dizzy an enemy and the circle button lets you launch one of several super attacks. The one on females, by the way? "Spank". Also, the Roulette.
• Affectionate Parody: Mostly of classic Beat 'em Up conventions, but the game has also been viewed as a parody of Shōnen Fighting Series, mainly Fist of the North Star.
• After the End: Subverted; the world is set up like a post-apocalyptic western desert a la Fist of the North Star and Gene makes mention of a war, but after the first two worlds, you wind up at the green and vivid carnival, and then go to a beautiful Venice-esque city on the water that seems fairly inhabited by humans (even if they're abused by demons constantly).
• A.I. Breaker:
  • A self-inflicted one at that. After taking sufficient damage in the first fight, Gorilla Mask will summon a midget to bring him bananas. Unfortunately for him, he becomes so tunnel-visioned on getting those bananas that he stops attacking you for the most part (He'll only strike after parrying an attack from you hitting him too much while he's guarding), and can be beaten down with impunity. As well, it's possible to get the bananas yourself during or after the battle if you're prompt enough, get Gorilla Mask dizzy first, or just beat him down THEN punch the midget.
  • The same could be said about the Trident Demon. All you have to do is use the default sweep kick after doing your Square combo. Do note that he has to be carrying his trident in order for this to work. So it is actually better to not "pummel" him when he's dizzy, because if he drops the trident his attack pattern changes entirely (plus, it's even more aggressive than before). See it in action.
• A Lady on Each Arm: Afro Fist is enjoying the company of Conchita (or a lookalike considering) and a zebra wrestler lady on a couch when you arrive.
• All There in the Manual: The name of most of the sub-bosses are listed only in the end credits.
• Amusement Park of Doom: Stage 3 (Shannon's domain) is set in one.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Beating the game gets you three special outfits for Gene: Azel's clothes (called "Devil Hand"), a karate gi like Ryu's, and an outfit like Mr. Gold and Mr. Silver wear (called "Carnivale"). And one for Olivia: The Bunny Suit.
• Antepiece:
  • Even if we know the game for being oh-so-very-harsh, the devs do actually offer you a subtle helping hand with the last "Elvis" boss battle. The boss battle in question can be viewed here - this is the LARGEST enemy in the game, a very unusual hitbox with new strategic considerations, e.g. sidedodging won't help you avoid its attacks. The devs decided they'd get you used to the idea of fighting something so wide by making you punch a large metal ball up a hill just prior to the fight.
  • After Gold And Silver introduce themselves, they send out standard enemies in pairs before fighting you themselves, so you can get some practice fighting two foes at once before fighting them.
• Artistic License – Martial Arts: Both subverted and upheld. You will usually get your ass kicked if you use showy moves wrongly. Mooks? Not so much.
• Ass Kicking Pose: Simultaneously used and lampshaded by Gene: "You can Wax On, Wax Off all you like, I'm still kicking your ass!"
• Awesome, but Impractical: God Hand is actually more realistic than most games in this sense. Try doing any of the high-flying spinny moves without knowing what you're doing and prepare yourself for the bracing sting of a fist in your face.
• Awesomeness Meter: The Difficulty Gauge. As it goes up, enemies become stronger and more aggressive and items other than money drop more often. It's increased by hitting, dodging, or taunting enemies, and decreased by taking enough damage or using the Grovel roulette move.
• Badass Longcoat: Gene and Azel wear nearly matching ones.
• Batter Up!: The powerful "Home Run God" move.
• Battle in the Rain: Azel, and then Angra in Stage 9.
• Beelzebub: One of the villains is a demon named Belze. He appears human at first, but his true form is that of a demonic fly.
• Betting Mini-Game: There's a casino accessible between levels. It's actually the only way to get certain high-level techniques on the first playthrough. Later on in the game, one of the shopkeeps will take action on racing chihuahuas.
• Beware the Silly Ones: The Mad Midget Five have a really goofy introduction, and are quite silly in general, but keeping track of five fast enemies that can stun you almost instantly can be really difficult if you haven't gotten used to crowd control.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In-Universe, the Psychic Midget. He comes outta nowhere, and doesn't really fit in with the rest of the game. Gene's dialogue upon examining his body lampshades this.
  Gene: "I think he picked the wrong game to appear in."
• Bilingual Bonus: Gene's bonus Karate gi outfit has 神拳 (Shin Ken, literally "God Fist") written on the back.
• Blessed with Suck: Having the God Hand makes you a target and obliges you to kill Angra. And if Gene refuses to play along, Olivia threatens to take back the God Hand. With a hatchet.
• Bloodless Carnage: Even though the game has a Blood and Gore warning along with Gene punching, kicking, and ball-busting his enemies to oblivion, there is not a single drop of blood who are dropped of you or your enemies; even when you're using Head Slicer, which adds a decapitation animation in the Western release where the head flies off, there is no blood to be seen.
  • Aniki, a masked guitarist whose move set is the exact same as Ravel's, only appears after you examine Ravel's body upon killing him.
• Boring, but Practical: Chain Yanker, the most basic Guard Breaker, High Side Kick Canceling and roundhouse evade-cancelling.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy:
  • Most of the bosses in this game decide to fight you in rooms skirted with breakable boxes or pots that you can throw at them and that might contain healing items or powerups.
  • The boss in The Masked Man's riddle wil summon healing items when he gets to half health. You can beat him to them.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: The Demons that have a chance to spawn from slain mooks are highly mobile, and have much more health than standard enemies. They come in three flavors each with their own painful gimmicks, be it shooting fireballs, slashing at you mercilessly, or rolling at you like an angry porcupine. The Trident demons, while they look intimidating, are far less mobile, but they have even more health and vicious attacks that can pack a wallop if you don't keep pressure on them.
  • The Samurai that appear periodically through magic doors are challenging foes with their fast-paced sword attacks.
  • Tiger Joe. He's encountered three times in the game, and is the only "standard" enemy to have the dodging capabilities of Gene and Azel. He is incredibly aggressive with his kicks and counters, making a mockery of players with holes in their defenses. Oh, and for bonus points, the last time you fight him, he's scripted to spit out a Trident Demon when he dies.
• Bowdlerise: In true Capcom fashion, any character making a reference to Satan or being the fallen angel himself will get its name changed when brought overseas; Demon King Angra in this case is SATAN (in all caps) in Japan.
• Boxing Battler: Since you can customize Gene's combos, it's quite easy to turn him into one of these. That said, his default combo and footwork/dodging moves indicate it's his default style.
• Bragging Theme Tune: One of the best around, loosely based on the Mazinger Z theme.
  • God power keeps my pimp hand strong!
• Breakable Weapons: You can pick up weapons from the environment, but ten weak (square button) hits or one throw, and they disappear.
• Bullet Time: Experienced when choosing a move from the God Reel/Roulette/Wheel.
• Button Mashing: Each of the reaction attacks require the player to mash circle (although any of the 4 face buttons work as well) as fast as they can to inflict maximum damage. However, waggling the left analog stick is also vital in many situations (for example, it saves you from some very painful enemy "grab attacks") — and to add to the already insane difficulty of Lv3 and LvDie, you have to waggle the analog stick incredibly fast to avoid being seriously hurt.
• Challenge Run: Early in the game, the hero has a "Kick Me" sign slapped on his back, which makes enemies stronger. It will fall off if he uses the God Hand or God Reels. Finishing the game with the "Kick Me" sign still in place (that is, never using those powers) unlocks a bonus: a music CD.
• Cherry Tapping: "Poke of God", which can only be used against the demon enemies when they would go down from the next attack, regardless how weak. As can largely be expected, it consists of Gene leaning forward, poking the hellspawn with his index finger, the enemy disintegrating as they normally do when they die, capping it off with a Laugh Track while Gene showboats.
• Chromatic Arrangement: The Three Evil Stooges follow this with their clothing and health bars, Felix being blue, Bruce being green and Conchita being red.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Match 51 in the arena gets to unleash whenever he wants, can do roulette moves without orbs that are much stronger than yours, has a fuckton of health that you never get, and can block (not that it helps him very much...). Basically he's a reskin of the second to last boss with one new move.
• Combat Pragmatist: Gene isn't above using lead pipes, 2x4s, wooden boxes, or just plain kicking people in the balls to succeed. Unfortunately, neither are his enemies.
  • Gene can also rip street signs, lamp posts, and umbrellas out of the ground and whack people with them.
  • One of the weapons you can find laying around is a RPG Launcher.
• Company Cross References: Several. For example, one of the mini-bosses is wielding Nevan the electric guitar from Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, one of the names of the chihuahua in the dog race minigame is Amaterasu, and the Mad Midget Five miniboss is a reference to Viewtiful Joe.
• Confusion Fu: "My style is impetuous!". Despite the credits' claims, though, while Gene has a wide variety of strange moves open to him, God Hand is one of the most methodical beat-em-ups, with most of the crazy moves being Awesome, but Impractical or having specific places to be used.
• Counter-Attack: Aside from the Action Commands, you'll also hear a breaking glass sound upon landing an attack on someone mid-strike. Very satisfying.
  • Essentially most of what you'll be doing, by dodging and punching appropriately.
  • One of the most important mechanics in the game in fact, especially regarding crowd control. A well placed quick charged punch counterhit will launch most enemies to their greatest height instantly, allowing you to knock them into other enemies like bowling pins. It's pretty much the only reliable way to break through your opponents' defenses on Lvl. Die.
• Creative Closing Credits: Featuring the main character singing about all his badass powers and dancing with all the enemies in the game.
• Creator Cameo: Clover Studios has a chihuahua named "Lucky Clover" after them in the Chihuahua Races. Said dog happens to have the best win-rate among the dogs.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: Most of the Demon bosses, as well as Arena 51.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: All the Action Commands are Invulnerable Attacks... except for the Stomp. So it's easy to reflexively hit the QTE and be rudely knocked out of it.
• Dancing Mook Credits: The end credit sequence has a series of choreographed dance numbers about halfway through, featuring every mook and mid-boss in the game.
• Dancing Theme: In the form of the games credits.
• Dark Reprise: Elvis and Shannon's theme both have much darker remixes in their final fights where they go One-Winged Angel. Elvis' (Smoke Out) still has the Elvis (the singer) noises, but the lively instrumentation is replaced by an Ominous Pipe Organ. Shannon's (Poison Queen) replaces the taunting, magical sounding song with one much more panicked and fast paced.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: One of the most practical ways of fighting any enemy is by doing quick jabs, and of course, imagine Gene doing ATATATATATATATATATATA whenever you get the chance to pummel every single enemy you encounter. There's even a Roulette move called 100 Fists, and animates pretty much exactly as Kenshiro's Hokuto Hyakuretsuken.
• Degraded Boss:
  • Conchita returns from the dead to back up Afro Kung-fu in his boss fight.
  • Dr. Ion returns in stage 7-1, with no forewarning.
• Devil's Pitchfork: The Trident Demons carry tridents.
• Die, Chair, Die!: Boxes and barrels are not only there to hold goodies, but also make fantastic weapons, allowing you to do significant damage from a surprising distance.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Gene ultimately destroys Demon King Angra with the power of both God Hands at the end of the game.
• Difficult, but Awesome: The Game. Enemies can hit hard and fast, with wild and disjointed attack patterns; however, Gene is just as powerful as they are, with a powerful Super Mode, a highly-customizable moveset, and a row of special attacks that are as devastating as they are flashy. Keeping a Level Die ranking for any amount of time is a genuine achievement, but being skilled enough for that Level is easier said than done.
  • Some moves, with Yes Man Kablaam and Granny Smacker being foremost. Yes Man Kablaam is a single punch that quickly fills Gene's Tension meter, at the cost of him slowly turning around with a shit-eating grin and two thumbs up to a cheering audience. Granny Smacker is a slow, weak slap to the face that instantly renders the foe dizzy. Normally, these will only cause you to get your ass beat by the extremely tough foes, but using moves like Chain Yanker or Ball Buster along with Dodge Canceling can quickly turn the tide of a fight to your favor.
  • Dodge Canceling moves. It takes practice to get the dexterity needed for it, but you can do some surprisingly flashy stuff with the relatively boring or impractical moves (like canceling sidekicks near a wall to recreate Chun Li's Hoyokusen, or abusing the Yes Man Kablaam's meter gain to quickly fill your meter in a few seconds).
• Do with Him as You Will: Gene leaves the freed slaves to deal with Shannon after he defeats her.
• Dual Boss: Mr. Gold and Mr. Silver, and God help you if you haven't learnt how to handle multiple foes at once. Thankfully, they give you some practice first.
• Drunken Boxing: A notable part of Gene's movepool includes attacks inspired by the style. They tend to have unusual properties but work surprisingly well in combos.
• Dreadful Musician: Ravel and Debussy's music is cacophonic, to say the least. Lampshaded by Gene upon examining the former's body after his death.
  Gene: "I guess that was his last encore. Not that anyone asked for one."
• Dungeon Bypass: It is often possible to simply run past enemies and to the "next area" gate. While it hurts your end-of-level score (you killed less mooks), it's often well worth the saved resources, especially when dealing with a Boss in Mook Clothing, who still counts as one kill at the end.
• Dynamic Difficulty: Fight well, and the difficulty goes up. Get beaten up, and it goes down. More enemies beaten at high difficulties mean more money at level's end, with a bonus 50,000 if you never die.
• Easy-Mode Mockery: If you select the Easy difficulty, Gene will mock you by saying, "What, you want me to hold your hand or something?"
• Elite Four: The 4 Devas are a group of baddies that seek to resurrect their master, the ancient Demon King Angra, so they can take over the world. They are Belze, Azel, Elvis and Shannon. Toyed with in that they don't behave like the traditional villainous Elite Four at all. They can't stand each other on the face of it, Belze has to constantly reprimand the others, Azel openly insults them, they can't replace fallen members, and none of them aside from Belze seem to much care about their ostensible objectives. Azel doesn't even make a distinction between demons and humans, and doesn't serve Angra. As far as he knows.
• Elite Mook: The demons that randomly spawn from the bodies of defeated mooks are much stronger and faster than the average mook, tend to evade you if they start taking a beating (leading to them taking longer to defeat), and sometimes, they simply disappear once you trigger the God Hand's powers, just to come back again right in front of you after you get back to normal.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As surprising as it sounds, the demons seem to be very close. After Elvis' death, Shannon (who gave him more shit than anyone) is visibly grief-stricken for a split second before pretending she doesn't really care, and Belze chews out Azel after the latter makes a comment about Elvis being too weak, saying "You do not speak ill of a fallen member of this group!". Maybe it's just because Elvis is such a nice guy.
• Evil Hand: Sort of. Azel was pretty evil to start with, but the Devil Hand gave him superpowers to be evil with.
• Excuse Plot: Even the characters joke about how ridiculous it is.
• Expository Theme Tune: The song that plays over the end credits.
  God Hand helps me work out my stress
  It's overpowering, I must confess
  The only person who it doesn't work on
  Is the girl who got me into this, Oliviaaa!
• Expy: Some of the enemy grunts resemble the Mad Gear Gang from Final Fight.
  • The standard thugs are dressed like Bred/Dug.
  • The skinny knife throwers fight just like El Gado/Hollywood (right down to their sliding kick).
  • The first fat enemy encountered looks like a small version of Mr Heart. Also, all the fat enemies have a charge attack like Bill Bull/Wong Who/G. Oriber.
  • All the wrestler enemies use the Double Lariat (a.k.a. the Spinning Clothesline), a move popularized by Haggar and Zangief.
  • The female enemies with whips are ones to dominatrices commonly found in other brawlers like Double Dragon, Streets of Rage, etc.
  • The Obese Ninja wears a bandanna with the word "NINJA" on it, a common trademark in Godfrey Ho Ninja Movies.
  • Tiger Joe is one of Sagat from Street Fighter.
• Extremity Extremist: You can customise Gene's moveset this way.
• Failed Attempt at Drama: As Kung-Fu Jesus put it in his LP, any enemy who attempts to do something dramatic (pose, entrance, stunt, etc.) before a fight either falls over or is unbalanced. It's as if they didn't practice their routine beforehand.
• Fake Difficulty: Most glaringly, the special techniques won as prizes in the casino; IF you are lucky enough to win a prize ticket, there is a chance you will get a 'joke' box with nothing. You're not allowed to leave the casino with tickets in hand to save, either. Additionally, the random factor involved from enemy drops and demon appearances is noted to polarize those who love and those who hate the game.
• Fanservice: Olivia is unashamedly provocative, and as you play the game, you unlock various pictures of her doing random, mundane things on the status menu. Also, Shannon. She does a pole dance the first time Gene meets her. You also get to spank every female enemy in the game.
  • Not to mention Olivia's alternate costume is a bunny suit.
• Fat Bastard: One type of mook.
  • Don't forget Elvis. (Though he's not as much a "bastard" as most examples of the trope.)
• Female Groin Invincibility: Any women you encounter in the game will be completely impervious to the Ball Buster. Trying it will result in nothing more than a dull thud.
• Finishing Stomp: Available as a normal Action Command and a Limit Break.
• Forced Transformation: One of Shannon's attacks turns Gene into a chihuahua for a short period of time.
• Fragile Speedster: The Depraved Dwarf enemies, as they are all extremely fast yet go down faster than any other mook
• Friendly Enemy: Gene and Elvis have some great interactions, even if they are fighting to kill each other. When Elvis dies, Gene (a Jerkass) is actually quite sad that he's not going to be around anymore. Gene also gets quite upset with Shannon when she speaks poorly of Elvis after his death.
  Gene: Y'know, if you weren't a demon, we could'a been friends.
• Foreign Cuss Word: Elvis sure likes to swear in Spanish.
  • Which is admittedly some of the funniest parts in the game. Where else are you going to fight a boss whose basic taunt is to call you a cabrón (bastard) and puta (whore)?
    • Even better when he's turned full-demon, and still swears at you in Spanish.
• Four Is Death: Literally. The fourth level in the Dynamic Difficulty is "Level Die".
  • The Four Devas themselves, a quartet of powerful demons (and one human) pulling the strings and intent on capturing and/or killing Gene.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: And it's half the fun. Special note goes to the Psychic Midget, who is explicitly mentioned to have been in the wrong game.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Mooks get these when a demon shows up.
• God Is Good: It was very helpful of the big guy to donate his arms to smack Sata- I mean, SATA- I mean, Angra around.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: It's possibly to launch enemies into other enemies to damage them, dead or no. It's actually an invaluable tool for crowd control to keep in mind on the higher levels/stages and Hard difficulty.
• Gratuitous Japanese: When you use Grovel, the otherwise English-speaking Gene will sometimes say "Onegai shimasu".
• Gratuitous Spanish: Elvis is prone to swearing in Spanish.
• Groin Attack: Very, very common. You get to do it to a gorilla, for cripe's sake.
  Don't act like you don't like the Ball Bustah! (Ball Bustaaaah!)
  • Letting it happen to Gene drops his health to 1 hit point.
  • Female enemies in the game are immune to the Ball Buster, as is Mr. Silver.
• Hammerspace: Olivia's hatchet seems to live there.
• Hard Gay: Mr. Gold and Mr. Silver, the first Sub-Boss fight. Yes, they're extremely muscular, and they speak with lisps.
  • They're pretty much a Shout-Out to Cho Aniki.
• Hellish Pupils: Belze, the leader of the Four Devas, has freakishly silvery-white eyes.
• The Hero Doesn't Kill the Villainess: After defeating Shannon, Gene lets her tortured prisoners finish her off. Every other baddie is male and gets punched to death by Gene.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The tall mooks will try to grab and suplex Gene, but countering it allows Gene to counter-suplex them for pain. The gorilla luchador can slam Gene into the ground before attempting to jump on him. Dodging this part will hurt the gorilla.
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum: Gene uses the Deistic Brace to restrain the power of the God Hand, which — once released — makes him Nigh-Invulnerable. Azel is able to control the release of his God Hand purely by will.
• HP to One: Getting hit in the balls by male mooks begging for mercy does this to Gene.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Gene readily consumes fruit to recover health. His life bars are increased by using fruit smoothies.
  • And he increases his Tension/God Hand meter by eating pizza/curry, depending on the version.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Basic mooks with low health may get on the floor and grovel, but approaching them incautiously will not end well for Gene.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and Level Die.
• Image Song: The silly, yet awesome credit theme.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Each member of The Mad Midget Five introduces themself with one.
• I Need No Ladders: A definite example in that Gene never climbs ladders: He simply jumps up and lands at the top of the ladder.
• Invulnerable Attack:
  • Roulette moves, once executed, make Gene untouchable. Just remember you're not invulnerable while selecting a move.
  • Invincible Fist, as might be evident, also grants Gene invulnerability during its startup.
• Jiggle Physics: Olivia, Conchita, Shannon, and the female mooks all have these.
• "Just Joking" Justification: At one point, Gene mocks Elvis for his baldness, and is surprised when Elvis takes it badly.
  Gene: Man, you're a little big to be the sensitive type.
• Just Hit Him: There are many enemies that have grab attacks that you can escape before being damaged, and these escapes often involve damaging the enemy themselves instead.
• Kick Chick: The Female Mooks have a fighting style that almost entirely consists out of preforming various different kicks, with the exception of the hatchet wielding women with mohawks, as well as any female mook wielding a whip (although they will revert to kicking if you're up close and personal with them).
• "Kick Me" Prank: Gene starts the second stage with a "Kick Me" sign on his back that falls off if he uses his god powers. Keeping it on for the entire game is a common Self-Imposed Challenge and a requirement for unlocking some of the songs for the music player.
• Kick the Dog: Shannon literally does this if she connects with one of her spells that turn you into a puppy.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: You can make Gene stomp on downed enemies.
• Killer Rabbit: While you never deal with them yourself, poison chihuahuas are apparently nothing but bad news in this game. Though you do have to supply an antidote to a bystander at one point.
• Kinky Spanking: Gene can spank female enemies after dizzying them. Shannon is incredibly vulnerable to this. (Not surprising, given how much Fanservice is in the fight itself).
• Knight of Cerebus: While he's not overtly heinous, Azel is a pretty serious villain for an otherwise goofy game.
• Lame Comeback: After Gene defeats the Three Evil Stooges for the second time, they run away, but not before declaring that next time they'll beat him for sure, and that he's more bark than bite. All Gene can do in response is to shout at the door they left through, "You're all a bunch of frickin' idiots!!"
• Lampshade Hanging: TONS of it, but special mention has to go to Gene's comment upon his first encounter with Elvis at the end of stage 1.
  Gene: Finally, a boss fight!
• Laugh Track: Accompanies some attacks, mostly the numerous Groin Attacks and the Poke Of God described above.
• Lethal Joke Item: Or Lethal Joke Move, in this case. The Yes Man Kablaam does so-so damage, has a bit of wind-up, and a very long and showy cooldown animation. It also gives you a massive Tension boost should it connect, and you can cancel out of the cooldown by duck-dodging, making repeatedly cancelled Kablaam's great for squeezing Tension out of stunned enemies.
• Last Chance Hit Point: In effect in this game; powerful attacks delivered at low HP still won't outright kill you.
• Limit Break: The God Hand power upgrade and the Roulette Wheel special attacks. Unleashing the power of the God Hand makes all your attacks unblockable and undodgeable, makes all of your attacks come out at super speed, gives you a fairly large damage bonus... and makes you absolutely invulnerable, to the point that even the Superbosses can't hurt you. The Roulette give you special moves ranging from a Groin Attack to the Hundred Crack Fist. Which you are also invulnerable while performing.
• Little People Are Surreal: Midget enemies are scattered throughout the game. Rather than just being there to add silliness however, their stature provides new challenges as Gene's rather orthodox fighting style means you have to fight them differently than most other enemies.
• Luck-Based Mission: The entire game. Specifically, demons can come out of nowhere, sometimes even basically two in a row, and ruin the pace. That, plus the shop never sells consumables, meaning that the only way to bring yourself to a full stock of Orbs is to get lucky with cards, and the only way to increase your TP is to waste time taunting or using Yes Man Kablaam. End up with low health after a breakpoint? Either let yourself get killed or get lucky with item drops. Hmmmmm.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Ravel and Debussy, the rock duo from hell, are possibly named after composers Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy. Being impressionists, their styles were radical for their time, though nowhere near as radical as God Hand's musicians.
  • Belze, his name is much like Beelzebub, and he turns into a giant demon bug.
  • Angra comes from Angra Mainyu.
• Mecha-Mooks: Just about everyone in Stage 4, up to and including the boss, Dr. Ion.
• Mercy Invincibility: Not the standard kind, but Gene has a few frames of invulnerability after getting knocked on the ground or deactivating the Godhand from an unleash or a Roulette move. And these frames can be extended with the use of a charged attack.
  • A Roulette Wheel move exclusive to the Japanese release of the game, Dead Pan drops a giant pan on Gene's head, damaging him but giving him a very limited amount of invulnerability.
• Mighty Glacier: The Fat Bastard enemies are all this trope, with the exception of the ones who have the arm-mounted blades, as they will run after Gene, also, the Wrestler enemies also count as well.
• Mirror Boss: Azel. The 51st battle in the fighting ring is Gene with both God Hands.
• Money Is Experience Points: Gold is used to buy techniques, learn Roulette Wheel moves, and upgrade stats. There is one use outside of just upgrades, and that is gambling to earn more money, which becomes essentially pointless once you’ve bought everything else in the game.
• Monster Arena: An arena which contains optional fights for one-time rewards.
• Mook Chivalry: On lower levels, enemies will only attack you one or two at a time.
  • This is completely played straight whenever a demon appears, where most enemies stay out of the way while you're fighting it.
• Neck Snap: Subverted, as Cobra Twist looks like this and has the same cracking sound, but needs multiple tugs, and isn't even a One-Hit Kill. The move is in fact a famous wrestling hold that puts pressure on the victim's abs and torso.
• Nemesis Weapon: Gene, wielder of the titular God Hand, later meets one of the bosses, Azel, who wields the other God Hand (the left to Gene's right). Mirror Boss ensues.
• New Game Plus: Besides unlocking new costumes, an extra run unlocks massively enhanced versions of many moves Gene starts the game out with, mainly designated with "God" somewhere in their name.
• Nintendo Hard: You have unlimited continues. You're going to need every last one of them, because when you fight well, the enemies level up instead of you. The enemies. Level. Up.
  • After beating the game on easy/normal mode, which is already ball-bustlingly hard, you unlock hard mode. Yes, hard mode on a Nintendo Hard game. And you don't start on a NG+ either, oh no... you lose everything you had on the other difficulty, and have to start from the absolute beginning. Yes, that means using those terrible early-game techniques and roulette moves you get given until you reach later stages.
  • Hard Mode is simply the same game except stuck on the highest difficulty, Level Die — ever wondered why it was given that name? Well, try getting past the first two mooks you see in Stage 1-1. Remember these guys? They did this...several million times. And so did everyone else.
• Noble Demon: For a demon, Elvis is a really nice guy.
  Shannon: Unbelievable. The first demon with a conscience.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: The cast of supporting characters includes a casino bouncer who looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger, an Afro-haired Kung-Fu master based on Black Belt Jones and a zebra-themed masked wrestler who fights just like Giant Baba. Shannon has sometimes been interpreted as a caricature of Paris Hilton.
• Offhand Backhand: How Gene counters attacks from behind if you hit the action command.
• Off with His Head!: The Head Slicer move, natch.
  "More beheadings than a guillotine; Head Slicer!"
• Old Master: The Great Sensei, who will kick your ass if you underestimate him.
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The Four Devas.
  Shannon: Sometimes I feel like all we do is hold these ridiculous meetings.
• One-Winged Angel: Every enemy has a chance of doing this, in that since they are all actually demons, it stands to reason that some of them will return to their true form upon the defeat of their human one, which is bad. Also, all of the Devas except for Azel, who has a Limit Break to make up for it.
• Painting the Medium: One part of Stage 3 has you deflecting cannonballs back to a ship that has the PS2 face buttons painted onto its side, corresponding to the cannons firing at Gene.
• Paper Fan of Doom:
  • One of the weapons Gene can pick up. Not very strong, though.
  • The villagers freed from Shannon's control enact their revenge by beating her to death with paper fans.
• Pass the Popcorn: When Shannon starts swinging around the pole, Gene is seen sitting by a table, drinking a beer before their first battle.
• Perfect Play A.I.: Averted. Though it comes pretty damn-near close on LvDie.
• Playboy Bunny: One of Olivia's outfits.
  • The casino's employees. You can even get to fight and spank them, to boot.
• Power Fist: No prizes for guessing. Yes, we are talking about The Hero.
• The Power of Rock: One recurring boss is a demonic guitarist, joined in one fight by his rhythm guitarist and drummer.
• Power of the God Hand: Not just an example (the title refers to a legendary warrior's actual arm), but the trope name comes from the ending theme.
• Power Perversion Potential: Averted. Once Gene defeats Angra with both God Hands, he immediately tries to get payback on Olivia for putting him through the whole ordeal, only for Olivia to No-Sell his attack.
• Power-Up Motif: Whenever you unleash the Godhand, Broncobuster, a fast-paced version of the game's theme, plays.
• Prepare to Die: A common trope in this game. At least one of the enemies taunts Gene by screaming, "Time to die!"
• Pretty in Mink: Olivia's outfit is trimmed with white fur around the shoulders.
• The Psycho Rangers: The Mad Midget Five are a parody.
• Pummel Duel: Trope Namer, and arguably the Trope Codifier/Trope Maker for video games in its usage of a Quick Time Event to start it up and keep it going.
• Punched Across the Room: Just one of the many things Gene can do to bad guys with the God Hand.
• Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: Gene vs. Felix when they first meet.
• Purple Is the New Black: Belze.
• Puzzle Boss: The Gorilla has all the strength you would expect from a gorilla even though there is a zipper on his back... and will quickly kill Gene with grapples that can't be interrupted by action commands until major damage is already done, but he will quickly lose his stamina or fall down if he attempts to chase Gene, easily being punished.
  • Dr. Ion, at least on Level Die (and by extension hard mode) will absolutely wreck you due to a combination of quick attacks and being Immune to Flinching...unless you remember you can dodge to the sides, which destroys him utterly.
  • Belze has a lot of health, a lot of attack power, attacks that are hard to dodge, and, like Dr. Ion, is Immune to Flinching when the Dynamic Difficulty is high enough. He also moves very, very slowly, and only has one long-range attack (and he can only use it in his second form) which basically means Gene is free to taunt him as much as he likes, filling up his Tension gauge with no difficulty.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Three Evil Stooges and the Mad Midget Five.
• Random Number God: Low on health and need a food item? You'll probably not get it.
• Rubber-Band A.I.: See Dynamic Difficulty, above.
• Satan: Final boss. Angra Mainyu, or Ahriman, is basically Satan in Zoroastrianism. Or at least how he's portrayed here, he is, especially with how the radio tells you that he was an angel who "fell from the sky" and then raised an army of demons to conquer the world and possibly Heaven in his spite.
  • Hell, his name in the Japanese version is SATAN (all capitals).
• Sarcasm Failure: Gene's response to the Mad Midget Five's introduction is a flabberghasted "... Douchebags!"
  • It was so freaking weird, he didn't even bother to try.
• Sentai: The Mad Midget Five are a parody of this.
• Shout-Out: To both American pop culture and Capcom's other franchises alike. And needless to say, every scene with Elvis will always be accompanied with a reference to Elvis Presley.
  • The game also references Mazinger Z several times; the Theme Tune at the end of the game is a Suspiciously Similar Song of Mazinger's, and the Arc Words "God or Demon" are a reference to the series as well.
    • "If the enemy has become a devil, then I must become a god..."
  • Let's not forget the club that the back-tattoo-sporting enemies use, which is used by tons of Mooks in Fist of the North Star. The first Fat Bastard enemies you fight also greatly resemble Mr. Heart.
  • When Elvis transforms in your final fight with him, he shouts "Viewtiful Elvis, HENSHIN!", a reference to — what else? — Viewtiful Joe.
    • Oh, and there's even a reference in one of the boss fights - Ravel and Debussy. Ravel himself sounds a great deal like Steven Tyler.
  • The Chihuahua race gambling mini-game is filled with these. Each of the dogs has some sort of referential name, from "37 in a Row" to "Chuck's Beard".
    • In keeping with self-references to Capcom, one of the random chihuahua names will be "Amaterasu".
  • Conchita, Bruce, and Felix are a Shout-Out to Time Bokan's Skull Trio.
  • As in Devil May Cry, Gene takes a page out of Ryu's book and can do a Shoryuken as a juggle move. The Typhoon Kick is a Vacuum Hurricane Kick as available in both series. The Tower of Angra also greatly resembles Temen-ni-gru from Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening. Heck, one of the tracks is called "Devil May Sly".
  • God Wheel power can be references too. The Shaolin Blast acts just like the powerful palm strike from Kung Fu Hustle. The One-Inch Punch was made popular by Bruce Lee. Face Runner resembles the flying multi- instep-kick Neo uses in The Matrix.
  • "You can wax on wax off all you want, but I'm still kicking your ass!"
  • A lot of the taunts that come out of the average mook's mouth are lifted from this Mike Tyson interview (specifically "I'm Brutal and Ruthless!", "I'm Alexander the Great!", "You're not Alexander!", "My style is impetuous!", and "My defenses are impregnable!")
  • When far away, the fat mooks from world 1 can use a flying headbutt just like E-Honda.
  • "Giant Enemy Crane"
  • The stage "It's A Trap!!"
  • Shannon's attacks consist of "Spiral" and "Heart" projectiles. Especially with one of her attack poses, it reminds you of some Magical Attack of a Magical Girl series.
  • The stage "Tribulation: The Three Trials" is a reference to Ace Attorney, of all things.
• Single-Stroke Battle: Daisy Cutter looks like this. Azel kills the Three Evil Stooges this way.
• A Sinister Clue: Azel having the left Godhand.
• Skippable Boss: Hi, Tiger Joe! Bye, Tiger Joe!
• The Social Darwinist: Azel, full stop.
  Azel: "In a world where only the strong survive, only the strongest of the strong rule."
• Sound-Coded for Your Convenience: Hearing the battle cries of the thugs will tell you how far they are from you.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Subverted; if Elvis had more health, he'd be much harder than Shannon or Belze, who have slower, more predictable patterns. Belze has an escapeable grab attack that does no initial damage and might as well be called "Here, let me help you kill me", and most of his moves also hit high, meaning that you can spam sweeps at him all day. Several sub-bosses are also harder than the end bosses.
• Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness: Subverted. While some moves have versions that deal more damage, not every move that is available later is definitely superior.
• Spiritual Successor: God Hand is said to be a better 3D version of Final Fight than either of the actual 3D Final Fight games (one which was a competitive fighting game, and the other a Grand Theft Auto-clone).
  • MadWorld appears to be a Spiritual Successor to God Hand, being made by the reassembled remains of Clover Studios, creators of the original game.
  • Asura's Wrath was stated by CyberConnect2 to be one of these to this game, at least in the amount of crazyness. It also has a Pummel Duel QTE similar to God Hand.
• Standard Power-Up Pose: Gene does this during several of his Limit Breaks.
• Stripperiffic: Shannon, who acknowledges it by mounting a pole before you fight her.
• Sub-Boss: At least one per level, usually more.
• Superboss:
  • The casino bouncer is a completely optional fight. He has a boatload of HP and attacks that do a lot of damage, but there's little penalty for losing to him, except for being thrown out of the casino with one hitpoint left. Unfortunately, there's also nothing to gain from beating him aside from the satisfaction of a job well done, though another instance of the same guy appears in a Fairy Challenge in 8-1, where beating him actually does get you a paycheck.
  • The final arena challenge is Gene with both God Hands. Prepare to get reamed.
• Suplex Finisher: Gene can counterattack enemies who grapple him by suplexing them.
• Surreal Humor: It has poisonous chihuahuas, fat ninjas, a demon disguised as a man wearing a gorilla suit that's dressed up as a wrestler, a team of midget power rangers, and an afro having kung fu master.
• Terrible Trio: Conchita, Felix, and Bruce. Also the Goldfish Poop Gang — the game officially refers to them as "The Three Evil Stooges".
• Team Shot: The Mad Midget Five pull this off multiple times, including their battles.
• There Was a Door: All the small wooden doors can be opened. But sometimes doing a flying kick through it to see the five bad guys inside just feels so much cooler.
• Together We Are X: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Pink introduce themselves with their Stage Names (and sometimes an accompanying adjective)—the wild Joker, the gangsta Diamond, Club, Spade, and mean Hearts—before exclaiming they are the Mad-Midget Five while forming a V shape.
  Red: Caught that wild "JOKER"!
  Yellow: One-heart gangsta "DIAMOND"!
  Green: You can find me at the "CLUB"!
  Blue: Have your pet neutered or "SPADE"!
  Pink: I-I-I-I-I-I-I'm Hearts, I mean "HEARTS"!
  Red: Together, we are... [all five together lie on the floor forming a V shape with their legs and a V appeared on the screen] The "Mad-Midget Five"!
  Gene: Douchebags!
• Too Dumb to Live: One Mook, after having his buds hit out a window, obeys Gene's gesture to stand in front of it...
• Too Kinky to Torture: Shannon.
• Training Dummy: The practice ring where you can try out new moves has this.
• Turns Red: Just about every enemy can turn red if hit hard enough or taunted. It makes them hit harder, too, but makes them more aggressive and predictable. It's also a great way to single out enemies and take them out one by one instead of drawing the attention of an entire group of enemies at once by moving too close to them.
• A Twinkle in the Sky: Gene's more powerful God Roulettes usually ends with the enemy being launched into orbit. If they survive, however, they bounce right back to where they were launched off.
  • Dragon Kick your ass into the Milky Way!
• Unstable Equilibrium: Doing well, though it gives you harder enemies, also gives more cash from defeating more of said harder enemies, which in turn allows you to buy more items and techniques.
• Unusual Weapon Mounting: One mook type is a Fat Bastard with a cannon on his back who has to prone to fire it.
• Villainous Harlequin: Shannon wears a chequered outfit that invokes this trope.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Gold and Silver. If dying about twenty times in the first stage didn't pound it into your head by this point, these guys will make damn sure that you know you're playing a Nintendo Hard game. And they can use the Groin Attack too. Silver is, in addition, immune to groin attacks (trying them gives a dull "thunk"; after the fight, examining him reveals, as Gene puts it, "He must've lost his balls in the war".)
• Weak, but Skilled: You as Gene. The ~80% of the time when God Hand Unleash and Reel/Roulette moves aren't available, even simple mooks can kick your ass very fast. This is no place for horsing around. Of course, the tables are turned when his powers are available.
• Wolfpack Boss: The Mad Midget Five, who you encounter twice in the game.
  • The second time you fight The Three Evil Stooges, Bruce and Felix come at you simultaneously, while Conchita drops down occasionally and stays down once of the the first two falls.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Gene busts out a suplex or two here and there, though considering the ridiculous breadth of fighting styles (drunken boxing!) and special moves (celestial baseball bat!) available to him, it's not that out of place.
  • He can also perform a cobra twist (a submission move) on tall mooks, while treating fat mooks to an Impaler DDT.
  • The mooks have this in spades; suplexes, backbreakers, bear hugs, and even pile drivers. You can pretty much tell the developers are huge fans of the sport.
• Why Won't You Die?: One kind of mook tends to shout "Die already!" when taunted.
• You ALL Look Familiar: Lampshaded when you rescue two slaves from the demons that were punishing them; one was punished for disobeying orders, while the other was punished for "looking like that guy."
• You Get Knocked Down, You Get Back Up Again: Mooks won't hit a downed Gene. Gene, on the other hand...
• You Will Not Evade Me: Chain Yanker allows you to do this.

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