As somebody who considers his favorite genre to be character action, aka hack and slash, I’ve reached a point where I’m just happy to get anything new. At most, one good character action game comes out per year, and Soulslikes and first-person titles do not count. With pickings so slim, we cannot afford to forget the past and reduce the genre to solely Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, God of War, and Bayonetta.
If you’re sick of replaying Ninja Gaiden 4 and have already suffered through Wanted: Dead to reach the fun part, you should very much look toward the PS2 and PS3 era to find a couple of hidden gems that have been largely wiped from existence. Although they show their age to an extent, these forgotten hack-and-slash games have stood the test of time in the only area that matters: the action.
I know that some people remember these games… I remember them, too. However, they rarely come up in discussions nowadays, and you have to dig deep into the genre to stumble upon them.
The X-Men Origins: Wolverine Game Destroys The Movie In Every Way
One Of The Best PS3 Character Action Games
- Think Marvel God of War with hints of Devil May Cry.
- Delisted from digital storefronts in 2014.
- If you somehow manage to get your hands on a copy (who knows how), play the Uncaged Edition.
Nowadays, licensed games are often high-qualitymajor releases, as proven by Insomniac’s upcoming Marvel’s Wolverine, but that wasn’t always the case. Back in the 2000s, movie tie-ins represented the lowest form of gaming, often using the goodwill of the source material to trick fans into buying a rushed mess. Fortunately for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the source material had no goodwill to spare, so expectations were fairly low.
It is safe to say that Raven Software managed to overcome the dreaded licensed game curse and wipe away the film’s stigma. X-Men Origins: Wolverine isn’t just great when compared to its terrible inspiration, but it holds up incredibly well when compared to any character action games from its era, particularly the M-Rated Uncaged Edition released on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. Unapologetically gory and visceral, the combat absolutely delivers in nearly every area, being relentless, challenging, and combo-driven.
Delisted more than a decade ago, the game has become a footnote now, doomed to irrelevancy despite comfortably ranking as one of the greatest X-Men games of all time. Marvel’s Wolverine needs to be an all-timer to firmly establish itself as the violent hero’s best gaming adventure.
Bujingai: The Forsaken City Brought Stylish Wuxia Action To The PS2
Character Action Has Never Looked So Fabulous
- Yes, the Gackt game.
- Only ever released on PS2, so you will need a physical copy. I’m not aware of another way to play it.
A true fever dream of a PS2 character action gem, Bujingai is the second most famous game to feature Japanese pop idol Gackt, although it trails far behind Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7. Because he only had a niche following outside Japan, the protagonist bearing a resemblance to Gackt didn’t do much to ship international copies, and it might have even caused the game to be disregarded as a vanity project. If you look past all that noise, you find a surprisingly complex sword-based combat system that was ahead of its time.
Compared to the many button-mashers on the PS2, Bujingai‘s reliance on defense, posture, and timing helped set it apart but also introduced a steep learning curve. The campaign does a bad job of easing players into combat and properly explaining the Defense Gauge (which is basically a posture meter), making the first hour way more frustrating than it needs to be. To be honest, I initially dropped the game very early as I wasn’t having any fun, but I eventually returned, persevered, and found my rhythm.
“Rhythm” is the key word there, as Bujingai feels closer in spirit to something like Sekiro than God of War, although naturally far less polished and way more rudimentary. Speaking of similarities with recent greats, Bujingai predates the Wuxia international boom by nearly two decades, and it can be a fantastic throwback for anybody into modern games like Where Winds Meet or manhwa.
Transformers: Devastation Is A True Platinum Game
Not Quite Bayonetta, But Close Enough
- By the masters of character action games, PlatinumGames.
- Delisted from digital storefronts in 2017.
Weird as it might seem to label any hack-and-slash game by Platinum as “forgotten,” Transformers: Devastation fits that description perfectly. Released as part of the developer’s 3-game run with Activision, Devastation was sandwiched between the barely-mediocre The Legend of Korra and the barely-playable TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan. This whole era marks a real low point for Platinum, and most fans prefer to pretend none of that happened, especially once all three games were delisted from stores by Activision.
Although I wish they were digitally available, I cannot earnestly defend Korra or TMNT; however, Transformers: Devastation does not remotely deserve to be lumped in with those failures. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t come close to Platinum’s masterpieces, but Devastation is an all-around solid character action game that blends stylized visuals with familiar combat that takes a few risks.
The 5 playable Autobots are wildly different from each other, making them nearly all viable to an extent. Devastation blends melee and vehicle combat to create one of the more unusual combo systems, all the while still feeling like classic Platinum.
Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death Is B-Movie God Of War
A Character Action Game That Has More Value In 2026 Than 2013
- Never takes itself seriously.
- Readily available on Steam.
Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death is so bizarre. What is up with that title? Why name the game after a character nobody knows anything about? Tomb Raider wasn’t called Lara Croft for a reason, and Santa Monica wisely didn’t go with Kratos and the God of War.
Speaking of the 2005 juggernaut, Marlow Briggs completely rips off God of War‘s playbook, to the point of introducing a chain whip that might as well be the Blades of Chaos. It isn’t quite as blatant as Dante’s Inferno, but only just. However, I don’t have a problem with copycat games, as long as the quality is there… Marlow Briggs delights from beginning to end.
In 2026, we haven’t received a new game like classic God of War in basically a decade; hell, even God of War doesn’t play like God of War anymore. Marlow Briggs scratches an itch that almost the entire gaming industry ignores, all the while delivering smooth combat, over-the-top set pieces, and an abundance of B-movie charm.
Are you going to mistake this Xbox 360 game for a new release? Not a chance, and that’s a good thing.
God Hand Is Character Action
The Best Combo And Evasion Systems In Gaming
- Arguably the best combo system in the character action genre.
- Arguably the best hand-to-hand combat in the character action genre.
- You can arguably swap “character action genre” for “in all gaming”.
There are days when I think God Hand is the greatest game of all time, a feeling that could have become fact if Capcom treated this PS2 masterpiece with the same reverence as Clover Studio’s other 2006 release, Okami. Just to be clear, the latter deserves every ounce of attention thrown its way, but God Hand should be remembered alongside Okami rather than just a mostly forgotten b-side project.
A lot can be said about this absurdly silly game, but the mechanic that really sets God Hand apart from the crowd is its build-your-own combo system. Rather than pre-defined strings, you have access to more than 100 techniques that can be mapped to the controller’s face buttons, allowing you to create all manner of combos. Even today, the options are jaw-dropping, and God Hand offers way more than just one incredible idea.
While most character action games utilize the right stick for dodging, Clover Studio raised the bar by greatly expanding the range of evasion actions and demanding positional reads. Gene essentially moves like a fighting game character in a full 3D space, and it feels awesome once you grow accustomed to it. Then you have the incredible boss fights, the reactive difficulty system, and a story that is dumb in the best possible way, with anime references that are easier to understand in 2026.
