I remember the first time I went up to Cerberus thinking “Yeah, I’m going to own you!”; it was that dratted ice-mongrel who did the owning. But figuring out the patterns and then applying your own style to defeat it—that’s depth :D. Devil May Cry 3 gave you so much freedom when it came to destroying your enemies that it probably spoiled everything else I played.

I agree that God of War (I prefer the second) and Ninja Gaiden (played only Sigma, enjoyed it) are definitely rather solid action games, but when it comes to drawing you into creating your very own eye-candy, DMC3 definitely stands taller than the rest. With DMC4 I found that my expectations for a DMC game had risen remarkably. I wanted complete free-form action. I wanted a surprisingly good storyline. I wanted some level of growth in the character. And I definitely wanted the game to kick my ass. 4… did none of these for me. Perhaps the highlight was facing off against Dante (he was deliciously tough) but other than that, I felt like the series had regressed, that it had been “dumbed down”. Ah well, time to get DMC3: SE, right?

As said, though, DMC3 = number one. Nothing else comes close. It really was a game that beat the shit out of you for hours on end until you finally got it, then it became amazing.

Incidentally what did y’all think of Devil May Cry 3? That was a game with a lovely learning curve: it was definitely tough, but you had to get better to beat it. I loved it to absolute bits and was annoyed when I realised that DMC4 was but a shadow of DMC3′s brilliance.