10) Shadows Of The Damned
This PS3/Xbox 360 title is the monstrous lovechild of a Japanese development dream team, including legendary game designer Suda51, veteran Resident Evil 4 visionary director Shinji Mikami and seasoned Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka. Mechanically, it plays a lot like Mikami’s aforementioned seminal horror classic, except it’s way wackier and utterly bonkers, much like a bag of demented, zombified frogs.
Shadows of the Damned also takes home the award for best named protagonist in a video game, ever — I mean, you can’t get much more badass than… Garcia Hotspur, a demon hunter who has to venture into Hell itself to save his girlfriend Paula who’s been abducted by The Lord of Demons. Hotspur cracks wise with his closest pal Johnson, which also doubles as your handgun, torch and motorbike. One of the guns Johnson transforms into is even called the Big Boner. Seriously.
Brimming with dick-jokes, surreal Silent Hill-esque otherworldly segments and some of the most over-the-top action sequences this side of the nine circles of Hell, Shadows of the Damned is a mighty fine third-person horror shooter that not only stands out for just how ridiculously deranged it is, but also for how surprisingly reverential and subversive it is with its affectionate use of its B-movie exploitation-era style, themes and humour.
In the words of Garcia Hotspur: “Taste my BIG BONER!”
