If the player gets caught up in a flurry of punches and combos, the level will drop. While in combat, the player can monitor a 'Difficulty Level' bar that dynamically adjusts to how much damage the player is dealing or receiving. By using various stat boosting items, the player can increase the size of his Tension Gauge to hold more power. In this state he is completely invincible and all of his attacks increase in both power and speed. When it reaches a set amount, the player can remove the bracelet from Gene's arm to temporarily unleash the God Hand. The player can also evade attacks, taunt, use tension boosting attacks, or find cards within each stages to increase the bar. As the player strikes and defeats enemies, his 'Tension Gauge' goes up. Another gameplay mechanic in the player's arsenal is the God Hand itself. Some moves send each opponents flying into the stratosphere, while others are simple punches or kicks to specific bodyparts.

God Reel techniques cost between one and three Roulette Orbs. These moves are limited to a number of 'Roulette Orbs' that the player can increase by collecting 'Skull Cards' found throughout each stage. More powerful abilities in the game can be utilized in the player's 'God Reel' (or 'God Roulette'), a roulette wheel containing moves that the player chooses. The game shows Gene fighting the enemy with kicking attacks The plot follows a martial artist protecting his companion and wielding a legendary divine arm called the 'God Hand,' in order to save the world from demons.

The gameplay combines traditional elements of the beat 'em up genre with new features, these include being able to map and string together a large repertoire of fighting techniques to the gamepad's face buttons in order to create unique combo attacks. The game mixes western and Japanese-themed comedy, containing over-the-top characters and storyline events. However, the game went on to receive retrospective acclaim, and is considered a cult classic. It initially received an overall mixed response from critics and sold only modestly upon its release in Japan. Mikami's desire was to create the game for hardcore gamers intermixed with a large amount of comic relief. It was re-released for the PlayStation 3 as a PS2 Classics downloadable game on the PlayStation Network on October 4, 2011. It was directed by Shinji Mikami, and was released in Japan and North America in 2006, and in 2007 for PAL territories. God Hand is a PlayStation 2 action beat 'em up video game developed by Clover Studio and published by Capcom.

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