I consider myself to be a very open-minded person. I'm not picky when it comes to food, I'm willing to try just about anything once and when it comes to games, the more unique or out-of-bounds a it is conceptually, the more excited I am to check it out. I also consider myself to be something of an advocate for the role of women in games, whether its celebrating respectable female leads (Beyond Good & Evil's Jade and Mass Effect's Shepard come to mind) or bringing awareness to the second-class nature of playing as a female character, should a game even allow for a customizable protagonist. So you can imagine the inner turmoil that occurs when something like Bayonetta becomes one of my favorite action titles of all time.

I'm actually thankful that a game as extreme as Bayonetta came into fruition because it's so undeniably provocative that its bringing a lot of interesting discussions on the matter to the table, especially those from Tiff and Leigh. And to be perfectly honest, I can't help but get myself into horribly awkward debates regarding gender politics with my girlfriend, who is soundly disgusted by the world of Bayonetta.

While Leigh Alexander argued on behalf of empowerment by pole dancing and Tiff the opposite, my opinion falls somewhere in the middle as, unlike a lot of games, the fiction and overall design of the game supports a character as ridiculous and yucky as Bayonetta.

And she is, for lack of a better word, yucky. Bayonetta is a twelve foot tall abomination, eight of which can be found entirely in her legs. Like a twisted creature from the pen of Rob Liefeld, she clearly suffers from some form of Pott's disease, sports more spare ribs than a Korean BBQ joint and a neck so long she'd be a shoe-in for a cover shot on National Geographic. It's safe to say that I am not at all attracted to this character, especially not after Platinum Games forced me into what appeared to be her gynecological exam within the first ten minutes of the game. 

But you don't have to take my word for it.

Now that we're all deeply intimate with the well-being of Bayonetta's hot pocket, we can get to the defense. Yes, now that I've shown you flying vagina set to a j-pop retread of Frank Sinatra, I am now going to attempt to explain why it's not as offensive as most would have you believe.

Bayonetta is not the first female video game character to be hypersexualized to the point offense. We've seen this before with characters such as Lara Croft, Rayne and the cast of Dead or Alive. The difference between Bayonetta and these characters is that the completely insane world she inhabits supports her equally over-the-top persona. The reason why we have no respect for characters like Rayne is because you can look at the bland, generic game she inhabits and understand immediately why a big-booed, poledancing Playboy center-fold (Sega held a Bayonetta contest in Playboy, though it was more like a branded model search than a straight exploitation of their character) exists in a game in which she serves no real purpose: sex sells. Bayonetta, however, exists the way she does because if she were in any way normal or relatable, her actions would be jarring and our disbelief firm.

This is a game where the main character leaps through different planes of reality, walks on the ceilings, rides motorcycles up the side of a space shuttle and flings ancient gods into the Sun, all while break dancing with shotguns, suckling lollipops for power-ups and competing in dance-offs like "voguing" never went out of style. When I watch Bayonetta perform her out-of-this-world actions  I don't stop to question it because the fiction and rules of the world (in that there are none) provide complete support. Unlike say, Uncharted 2, where the actions of Nathan Drake: globe trotting mass murderer go completely unquestioned by those around him and were constantly pointed out as hypocritical as the fiction simply did not support the gameplay.

What Platinum Games has created with Bayonetta is a game that was clearly designed without compromise and is without an ounce of shame for what it represents. When I say that Bayonetta lacks all shame, I'm not just talking about its raunchy main character, but its very design. It's unabashed Japanese design and "gamey" mechanics (high scores, medal earning, collectables, mini-games, ect) are aimed directly at the hardcore set, while its levels are bursting with excitement and exuberance. For every incredible set piece experienced by the player, there's always something even more ridiculous right around the corner. One moment you could be a panther, sprinting down the limb of an enormous angel-creature only to smash its face in with your shotgun-stiletto, and the next you're strapping (as Tiff called it) a booby-angel into a torture device and mashing the buttons until she seemingly climaxes to death.

For every ounce of sexual energy that the designers at Platinum dumped into their Barbie doll from hell, the same amount was paid in full to the core design of the game. I struggle to think of the last game I experienced that was as creative, energetic and jaw-dropping as Bayonetta, in more ways than one.

I also don't believe there is anything malicious or perhaps even intentionally degrading about the way Bayonetta is presented below the surface of her character. The entire game is so beyond the realm of camp that I can almost imagine the writers tasting blood as their tongues writhed endlessly into their cheeks. At its worst moments (such as those seen in the video earlier in this post), Bayonetta's sexuality is played up for cheap boners for the sexually repressed, but for the most part its hard not to laugh at the corny and ridiculous nature of the character. Most of the time, I find myself sort of comically revolted at her some of her porno-esque actions, sort of like how most react to the sight of The Soup's Mankini, or the naked wrestling scene from Borat.

When examined separately, the elements that make up the world of Bayonetta are an offensive, gaudy mess that probably do nothing but undermine the idea of "mature' gaming, but once combined and looked at as a whole, it becomes a brilliant display of energetic game creation without limits -- a shining example of what is possible only in our medium. I don't blame those who are disgusted or offended by Bayonetta, but I do feel that shunning the game based on its over-the-top sexual content is, to an extent, a fairly narrow-minded way to look at the game, particularly one that's deemed to be shallow.

And now what you all came here to see ... hardcore nudity!