If you have yet to try this iconic action game from the mind of director Hideki Kamiya, your time has come as Bayonetta is debuting at $19.99. Of course, Bayonetta truly shines when you see it in action. So here’s a trip back to the year 2010, when a certain Launch Trailer was just arriving…

Bayonetta is the story of the last remaining member of an ancient clan called the Umbra Witches, a group that has kept the balance between light, dark, and chaos for hundreds of years. Bayonetta awakens after 500 years of sleep to find herself in a world she no longer recognizes, with no clues to her past or how she got where she is.

Her awakening sparks a chain of events that soon reaches cataclysmic proportions. And with a 500 year-old war setting the background of the game and the lines of good and evil blurring fast, Bayonetta needs to discover the secrets of her past and work towards securing her future.

At the core of the game is an amazingly deep combat system, and Bayonetta comes well equipped for battle: wielding four pistols (collectively known as Scarborough Fair) and utilising her infamous fighting style – the ‘bullet arts’ – she’s one big, bad witch you don’t want to make angry.

If you haven’t played Bayonetta and you like action games, I implore you: don’t miss this one. Of course, since I work at SEGA my opinion may be a bit biased, so I’ll leave it to the tried and true fans in the comments to back me up on this.

Hit me up with any questions you have in the comments, and I’ll do my best (as always) to respond to as many as possible. Thanks as always, loyal PlayStation.Blog readers – we hope you’ll enjoy your trip back to Vigrid!

By now, we’re all familiar with the long, twisted story of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. First announced in 2009 as “Metal Gear Solid: Rising,” its production was ultimately handed over to Platinum Games, the studio behind legendary action epics such as Bayonetta and Vanquish.

Recently we attended the Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Boot Camp, where members of the press were able to go hands-on with a nearly complete version of the final game. I won’t talk much about the story, but it’s worth noting that a several years have passed since MGS4, the Patriots no longer exist, cyborg technology is within reach of all who can pay for it, and Raiden belongs to a corporation protecting a very “important” someone in Africa.

In the first scene, we meet two of the game’s bosses. They are not people with a sad past or who are attached to a feeling: They are simply very powerful cyborgs looking out for their own interests, no matter what they have to do in order to get what they want.

“Zan-Datsu”

Raiden means thunder and lightning, and that’s exactly what he is in this game. The action is frenetic. Raiden can use Blade Mode to cut literally everything, scenery and enemies alike. By cutting certain parts of their bodies, you can expose your enemies’ fuel cells in order to rip them out and recover your energy, a crucial gameplay strategy in that if you cut well, you will be rewarded.

Just as we saw in MGS4, Raiden is a killing machine. With just two attacks, normal and strong, you can execute spectacular combinations. Raiden is also exceedingly agile and quick, and is able to jump over obstacles in Ninja Run with a press of the R1 button. One tip: R1 also deflects your enemies’ bullets, something you will need to do frequently during your extremity-cutting adventure.

The Best Defense is a Good Offense

Parrying is also extremely important: Using the Square button and the left analog stick at the instant an attacking enemy flashes red, you’ll be able to launch an immediate counterattack. This gets interesting when you begin to encounter enemies who can parry your attacks, leading you to stop their attacks with another parry and so on, in what becomes a mortal dance in which you can lose far more than just a finger.

The first scenario is used to train you in all of the aforementioned skills. And what better way to test them than facing a Metal Gear Ray? Well, actually, there’s two of them. Seeing how Raiden cuts these powerful enemies like a hot knife through butter provides a clear example of what’s waiting for us and of how powerful Raiden has become.

A Trip Around the World

In the second scenario, Raiden travels to Abkhazia. Here we encounter more powerful enemies such as MGS4’s Gekkos, which require fast reflexes and precise parrying to defeat. As you advance, you will face an LQ-84i, a robotic wolf who later becomes a partner.

From there we go to Guadalajara, Mexico. Raiden arrives dressed as a mariachi and promptly hides in the sewers with LQ-84i. And it’s no wonder, because the enemies here are bigger and more aggressive than we’ve seen yet. This sequence of the game opens up a new stealth approach for Raiden, complete with the iconic cardboard box (he must have it on loan from Old Snake). Make no mistake: Revengeance is squarely an action game. But it’s always good to have options, especially when you’re facing the horrors lurking in Mexico’s sewers.

Occasionally, you’ll stumble across computers that you can activate to unlock new VR missions. The VR missions in Revengeance have various levels of difficulty and goals, and you’ll unlock various rewards for completing them — though I won’t spoil the surprises for you.

In the end, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is shaping up to be a refreshing blast of pure action gaming. I particularly liked its emphasis on technique with the parrying system, which is a blast in the midst of tough combat.

PlayStation.Blog: Revengeance enables you to slice anything in the environment using Blade Mode. Was it technically challenging to create a game where players could cut anything? How did you fine tune the mechanic to make it work for the game?

Platinum Games: First of all, from a technical standpoint there were difficulties but that wasn´t the hardest part. The hardest thing was that once we introduced the mechanic to cut anything, it is very hard to maintain a good game balance. That´s what we struggled with the most.

The game’s concept is being able to cut anything at will, so being able to combine that with the gameplay and maintain a good balance, and have the player cut things in a way that felt natural and flow with the gameplay was a challenge both technically and mechanically.

PSB: Let’s talk about gameplay progression. Does Raiden unlock new abilities and skills during missions?

PG: In Revengeance there´s a customization system where you can customize your character, which opens a lot of possibilities to gameplay. So the answer is no, you don´t have all the moves from the beginning of the game.

PSB: In the new trailer we saw a glimpse at some of the game’s boss encounters. Are they designed based on concepts we’ve seen in the other Metal Gear games? Or did you take a different approach for Revengeance?

PG: One thing that makes a boss unique this time is his or her weapons. We’ll use one boss as an example — Mistral, who has a very unique weapon that can be used as a staff or a whip. So you need to figure out the right strategy to fight against these weapons.

And from a Metal Gear series standpoint, the other bosses usually had a theme: Dead Cell, or Cobra Unit, for example. This time the theme is superhuman cyborg enemies, and is how these enemies clash with Raiden — both on the physical aspect, and ideologically.

PSB: In an old trailer for Revengeance, we see Raiden using a staff similar to the one Mistral is using. Does this mean players will gain special weapons from defeating bosses?

PG: Yes, that’s a very good observation! That means when you destroy the bosses, there are certain weapons you will be able to use.

PSB: What´s the role of LQ-84i in the game? Can we use it as another character or as a support item, like the Mark II in MGS4?

PG: The LQ-84i first appears as an enemy, you have to fight it. After that point, if you defeat it, one of your comrades remodels and reprograms it to serve as an ally. You won’t be able to directly control it, but LQ-84i will be a support character through the game.

PSB: We saw in the demo that the Codec seems to be more dynamic in Rising. What prompted that decision?

PG: First of all, what you are playing now is the beginning of the game, so there are a lot of tutorials. We don’t want to give you the impression that you will be overloaded by all these Codec conversations during the rest of the game. They will come in from time to time, but they won’t slow the action and they will flow naturally.

PSB: At what time during the development process did you decide to switch from a story between MGS2 and MGS4 to a story set after MGS4? Why does this timeline work best for the game?

PG: The original story was set between MGS2 and MGS4, but when Kojima Productions decided to partner with Platinum Games, Mr. [Kenji] Saito said that we don’t want to focus on the past. He wanted us to lean forward, to focus on something in the future.

And we took that feedback from Mr. Saito. If we focused on the time between MGS2 and MGS4, we would be limiting the story. If we pushed it to the future, it would open up new possibilities. But to be honest, Mr. Saito didn’t want to change the story — he still would have liked to have it in that era.

PSB: At the end of the trailer, we saw Raiden entering a sewer in what appeared to be a Mexican city. Will Mexico factor into the game?

PG: Within the game, Raiden travels around the world to battle in different areas. And yes, one of them is Mexico.

The opening tutorial mission wastes no time in showing off the game’s much-touted Blade Mode, a surprisingly intuitive mechanic that boasts palpable precision. You press and hold L1 to slow time, then hold the right analog stick to wind up your slice. Hold the stick to the right and Raiden will draw his sword to the right; release the stick and he’ll slash from right to left, cleaving obstacles and baddies in two. It’s a devastating and deeply satisfying attack, but it’s slow and expends fuel cells so it’s best reserved for surgical strikes.

Blade Mode has been much discussed, but less has been said regarding Revengeance’s impactful combo system. You can tap Square and Triangle (wide attack and strong attack, respectively) to fire off rapid slashes and acrobatic flip kicks ala Dante in Devil May Cry. Mixing and matching Blade Mode with the faster hack-and-slash strikes should lead to some visually arresting combos, as well as some of the gnarliest onscreen violence this side of God of War. It’s also tactically valuable; landing the Blade Mode combo finisher on an enemy soldier’s weak spot and tapping Circle at the right moment makes Raiden plunge his fist into his victim’s spine and claim a fuel cell for a mid-battle top-off. What energy crisis?

Other fun details abound. Pop off a Blade Mode slice and you might lop off your enemy’s weapon arm, or foot – this came in handy during a battle against a rampaging Gekko biomech. Taking to the air to avoid the Gekko’s lethal kicks, I repeatedly drove my sword into its cyborg head before severing one of its oversized legs with a well-timed mid-air Blade Mode slice, bringing the giant crashing down. The demo introduced me to Ninja Run, a scrambling Dash that drains energy but can nimbly dodge obstacles, before culminating in a battle against an AI-controlled helicopter. I pounded it with homing rockets – Raiden can carry one sub-weapon in addition to his sword – until I was prompted to Ninja Dash up a volley of ‘copter missiles, skipping from one to the next like stones in a creek. I vaulted over the chopper, calmly looked downward, and used Blade Mode to shred it to smithereens while I drifted by. Yes, this was exactly as cool as it sounds.

Kojima Metal Gear Solid 25th Anniversary

But Revengeance represents just one step in series creator Hideo Kojima’s master plan for Metal Gear. During PAX 2012, Kojima held a panel to formally announce Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes for PS3 and show off its revamped technology and open-world mission design to the North American public for the first time. In the panel hosted by Geoff Keighley, Kojima shared his inspiration for creating one of the first stealth-centric videogames 25 long years ago. “Most games were about attacking enemies,” Kojima remembered, “but I wanted to try something different. Honestly, I didn’t think it would continue for 25 years!”

Kojima touched on the layered origins of protagonist Solid Snake, whose codename was designed to serve dual purposes: communicating the game’s stealthy focus and honoring Escape From New York’s gravel-voiced Snake Plissken (Kojima is a devoted John Carpenter fan). Big Boss was developed as a foil for Snake and served to reinforce what Kojima has long seen as the series’ underlying theme: surpassing a predecessor. That theme and Solid Snake’s rising popularity were the key drivers for Raiden’s controversial starring role in Metal Gear Solid 2, a departure that fans debate to this day. “Solid Snake was becoming this legendary hero and I wanted to build on that,” Kojima said of his infamous MGS2 protagonist switch. Metal Gear Solid 4 flipped convention yet again, with players finally reuniting with an aged Solid Snake only to find themselves longing for the power of a young, spectacularly reinvented Raiden.

Kojima also briefly touched on his plans for Columbia Pictures’ recently announced Metal Gear Solid film, playfully suggesting that actor Hugh Jackman would make a “pretty cool” Snake. But he cautioned that the project was very early in the planning stages and he had no announcements to make regarding cast and crew. “There have been talks about this for 15 years. I want to make sure it’s done right. It’s a very important, difficult project.”

One of the worst ways to realize you’re getting old is when something you hold dear reaches a certain age. That being said, Metal Gear celebrates its 25th anniversary this month.

The Metal Gear series, although not originally created for PlayStation consoles, began to reach its current level of popularity in 1998 when Metal Gear Solid was released on the original PlayStation.

We met with Hideo Kojima to talk about his thoughts on the series’ landmark games, and to discuss what’s in store for the future’s franchise.

Metal Gear — 1987 (MSX2)

Hideo Kojima: This is the year I began working in the video game industry, as a game designer and planner. I was very young — among the first generation in the industry in Japan. I had already built up a certain reputation when I started as an employee, but the first game on which I worked for half a year was cancelled. We didn’t know when we were going to finish it, and one day my superiors called me to inform me they we cancelling it.

I thought about leaving the company and looking for other work, but they offered me the chance to develop a combat game for the MSX. The result of this offer was the first Metal Gear. It was launched exactly 25 years ago. It is well known that the MSX had many technical limitations, and I didn’t want to make war games. So I decided to create something similar to The Great Escape — something involving an escape — and in the end I made an espionage game.

Metal Gear received good reviews, and as the planner I had to create some drawings for the game. I didn’t have many tools, so I had to go to the programmers and tell them exactly what I had in mind and what I wanted them to do.

Back then, programmers made the final decisions, rather than the planners, which bothered me a lot. I wanted to have the final say on the games I was creating, so I asked for a script system to be made so I could input sounds and animations whenever I liked. This is how Snatcher was born.

Metal Gear Solid — 1998 (PlayStation)

Hideo Kojima: I was making games like Policenauts, and I heard rumors about a console on which polygons could be created in real time. This really grabbed my attention, since one of the major attractions of games is the sensation of action, and I was intrigued to see what I could achieve with those polygons. Metal Gear is a hide-and-seek game, and the thought of doing this while adding a camera that could change position really excited me. So I stopped making script-based games and went back to asking for favors from programmers for this 3D world.

I was a designer for Metal Gear Solid, but I was not a producer, so I had no say in the budget, release date, or promotion of the game. I remember when they told me what the release date would be and I had no say in the matter… these are bitter memories for me.

At Kojima Productions I’m a director, producer, and designer of video games; I have control over the budget, and more say in what to do or what not to do, especially regarding hiring. In fact, the people who worked on the first Metal Gear Solid are still the core of Kojima Productions.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty — 2001 (PlayStation 2)

Hideo Kojima: Metal Gear Solid sold well throughout the world; it was a great success. When I heard about the hardware for the PlayStation 2, I wanted to try something new. Up to that point, all cutscenes had focused more on details like facial expressions, but I wanted to pay more attention to the surroundings, to see how much I could change them in real time. Current games like Call of Duty have followed this trend of making your surroundings more realistic.

Since Metal Gear Solid sold very well, I had a bigger budget for MGS2, so I was able to work with people like Harry Gregson-Williams, with whom I had wanted to work for some time, but had always been told the funds weren’t available. We were under a lot of pressure, but at the same time I enjoyed the creative freedom I had in making the game.

We were also able to promote the game in parallel to its production. I remember at E3 2000 we received a standing ovation, which I really enjoyed. Looking back, I have fond memories of the development of Metal Gear Solid 2.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater — 2004 (PlayStation 2)

Hideo Kojima: While MGS2 sold well, many fans of Snake were upset that Raiden was the main protagonist; we received a lot of complaints about that. There were also comments about the story unfolding too quickly; it created quite a stir. With this in mind, we created Snake Eater.

At the time, I was not just a designer but also a manager, in charge of the studio. We were therefore able to develop several projects at once, such as Boktai, Zone of the Enders, and The Twin Snakes. I thought it would be very hard for me to develop Snake Eater as the lead creator, so I tried to delegate responsibilities to younger employees in the studio. In the end it couldn’t be done, but it was my first attempt in doing it.

After MGS3 was finished, in order to make it clear that the next Metal Gear would not be directed by me, while on tour in Europe we announced that the next director would be Alan Smith, an alias.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots — 2008 (PlayStation 3)

Hideo Kojima: The PlayStation 3 was quite a complex system; games had to be developed in three levels. By the end of the Metal Gear Solid 4 project we had nearly 200 people working on it, with three directors (although often they were directors in name only, and I ended up doing a lot). This is why the game was delayed.

We made MGS4 according to a very Japanese method. At the time, the trend was for open-world games, but we decided to pay no attention to this and take another path. I already felt the need to create something similar to what we are doing with the Fox Engine.

In order to develop the Fox Engine, I had to understand how things worked elsewhere, so for a year and a half I visited studios around the world, and since we are Japanese people we were able to see the way others worked and recognize that in many respects their methods were better than ours.

Since the Fox Engine was going to take a lot of time to create, at the same time we began working on Peace Walker.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker — 2010 (PlayStation Portable)

Hideo Kojima: We did not only develop Peace Walker for the PSP because it was a popular console in Japan, but also because we had the concept of Transfarring in mind, so as a test we developed it on the PSP. Transfarring is now up and running, but it was something we had planned since the very beginning.

I think Peace Walker was a success. We were able to accomplish much of what I wanted, for example the whole social aspect which we had not achieved on the PS3. With simpler hardware, we were able to focus on doing things we had been wanting to try.

Fox Engine

Hideo Kojima: The Fox Engine is nearly finished, but the only way to be sure it works is to create a game at the same time and improve the engine with our tools as we go along. Originally we were going to do this for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, but a lot happened along the way and instead it is being made with the engine they have at Platinum Games.

Production studios in Japan are nearly extinct, a fact that we have recognized for nearly 10 years, and although the Fox Engine is not finished we are ready to show what it can do… on August 30th in Japan to be more specific.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance takes place nine years after the fall of the Patriots in MGS4. We played a demo at E3 2012 and tested Blade Mode, which you probably saw in the game’s trailer. Blade Mode is very simple: you activate it using L2, which triggers slow-mo and a zoomed-in camera view while Raiden gets into slashing position. You control the sword with the right analog stick: Everything in the path of the sword will be severed, whether it’s a structure, the body of an unfortunate combatant, a vehicle…even a girl’s dress (ooh-la-la!)

But Blade Mode is even more satisfying when you can work it into a combo by lifting an enemy from the floor and turning him into human sushi. The MGRR controls work to perfection; the game runs at 60 frames per second. Raiden is very fast, and the combo system is simple but visually spectacular, especially when you take hold of the sword with your feet and you slice everything around you to pieces — yes, just like that trailer from MGS4!

At E3, Platinum Games Executive Director and Producer Atsushi Inaba confirmed to us that MGRR will feature many references to the Metal Gear universe. One example: We were tasked with obtaining a code from an enemy, and this was found hidden in a box. The Gekkos from MGS4 also make an appearance, but you have to apply a counter before being able to attack them: press Triangle just before being hit and you’ll be slicing and dicing in no time.

The main advantage that I see in MGRR is that it feels like a completely fresh product. It is a great action game from a series that has millions of followers, and it may also attract a new audience which eventually could become interested in the adventures of the two Snakes.

There is still a long time to wait before MGRR goes on sale (recently confirmed to be early 2013) and we have many questions. Will we learn more about Raiden’s cyborg transformation? Will we see more characters from the Metal Gear universe? What happened to Sunny, the daughter of Olga? We’ll have to wait until 2013 to find out.

We also take an in-depth look at 2K Games’ new combat shooter Spec Ops: The Line. Yes, another combat shooter. But Spec Ops focus on the dark, mind-twisting psychological effects of war is intriguing and could offer a new twist for the familiar genre. On a lighter note, we take a look at 20 Insane Trophies that we dare you to attempt. ’Cause there’s no way we’re ever gonna manage to earn ’em. Let us know how you do.

In our early looks and previews, we’ve go info on God of War: Ascension (OMG! Kratos!), PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale, Crysis 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Dishonored, DmC: Devil May Cry, Resident Evil 6… Can we stop now? Is that enough gaming goodness to suffice? Well, don’t worry about it—there’s more.

Rockstar Game’s Max Payne 3 leads off this month’s review section, which also includes our final verdicts on big titles like Starhawk, Prototype 2, Dragon’s Dogma, Dirt Showdown, and Mortal Kombat for Vita. But the surprise performers this month? Check out our thoughts on Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and two notable PSN games: Closure and the first episode of The Walking Dead. Not a bad month for games at all…

It’s also not a bad month to pick up the July issue of PTOM, arriving on newsstands on Tuesday, June 5 (The first day of E3!).

The February issue also means its time for our 2011 Game of the Year awards! Time to throw out the review scores and reflect on the year’s greatest gaming experiences away from the pressures of impending deadlines. It’s one last opportunity for the PTOM crew to argue, debate, and pummel each other into submission and agreement. Sure, some of the choices might be predictable, but even we were surprised by some of the winners.

Elsewhere in the mag, we drop in and check out Radical Entertainment’s Prototype 2. The first Prototype was underappreciated and never quite found its audience, so we’re excited that the sequel’s looking bigger and better in every way. It joins an all-star lineup of previews that includes Dead or Alive 5, Silent Hill: Downpour, and Spec Ops: The Line. We’ve also got the latest and greatest on Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance as Hideo Kojima sounds off on the franchise’s past, present, and future.

The holiday rush has passed, but we’ve got the review for the New Year’s first blockbuster release: Final Fantasy XIII-2. Our crack reviewer Ryan Taljonick enjoyed the game thoroughly, but something tells me that his review might incite the year’s first controversy in our Mail section.

It’s all in the February issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine, available on newsstands now.