Devil May Cry HD Collection

This Collection is simply all the PS2 games in the franchise, collected on a slender blue disc (or just non-coloured for the Xbox 360 version) and scaled to fit the requirements of TVs both large and high-resolution.

The increase in the number of pixels seems to have gone smoothly, and the introduction of trophies and Achievements is naturally a welcome change. Although not all the irregularities are corrected, it is still a crackingly good collection.

For those of you who have not had the honor of meeting this franchise before, I can tell that Devil May Cry is the Gothic cocktail Resident Evil and God of War would have been. The story is arguably just as non-important as their parents and is just an excuse for a huge variety of demonic bosses that you must fight your way through.

The games are structured in missions with specific goals, ending with a thorough assessment of your time and your stylish ways. Be fast and cool and you are rewarded with a lot of red rocks that act as currency to upgrade guns, swords and Dante, the protagonist.

Our white-mopped hero is descended from the demon Sparda who over 2000 years ago protected humanity against another demon, Mundus. There's a couple of advantages of being half-demon. Among other things, he can withstand a lot of beatings, he's masterful with swords and spices like it all with his two favorite pistols, which never needs reloading. To top it all he can, for short periods of time, transform into a stronger demonic form, which may be enough to tip an extremely disadvantageous battle to your favor.

Let's take a look at each game in turn.

Devil May Cry came out back in 2001 but still works surprisingly well even today. The story's lightly ludicrous, involving a lady who skewers Dante through the chest to get his attention and demons who'll take over the world unless someone stops them.

The combat system works well even today, as its robust enough to be as simply or as sophisticated as you wish. The textures could have been scrubbed up and animations are still not brilliant, and the sound effects lack punch. The music choice is the more interesting, more rocky than creepy. I also noticed that the menus and cutscenes are still in the completely outdated 4:3 format, which Capcom could have taken the time to fix. Fortunately, the rest of the game in proper widescreen format, and generally a joy to play.

Devil May Cry 2 was undeniably a huge step backward for the series when the game appeared in 2003, a fact that hasn't changed nine years later.

This is still the weakest game in the series on almost all counts. While I can forgive the poor textures exactly, I can't the blind cameraman you've chosen to shoot your adventure. Often the fighting takes place largely out of view, making it more than a little difficult to avoid enemy attacks. But that's rarely an issue as the difficulty's been lowered. Its rare to meet any challenges that aren't in the form of a huge boss or two. The game's more action-packed than its predecessor, and you're split between playing as Dante and new character Lucia, although you shouldn't expect major variations between the two.

Devil May Cry 3, which was released in 2005, is no doubt the diamond in this collection.

Here, fans were demonstrated how much self-irony the franchise actually possesses and how far it stretched itself to prove it. The scenes are breathtaking absurd and wonderful varied due to Dante's usual overkill style. Graphics, animation, textures, sound, voice acting, music - all have received a welcome upgrade and the whole experience feels stronger, more refined than the previous two.

The blind cameraman has been fired and replaced with one that is just a bit slow and keeps the sight lines low - making combat more clear.

Combat is however by no means easy, as you obviously wanted to make up for the difficulty that was missing in its predecessor. This game ruined me several times in the early stages, but never in a way that I felt was unfair. I quickly realized that it was my own fault and that I had to get better at finding weaknesses of demons attacking in droves before they make mincemeat of me - a exercise tough but no less fun for the hours it takes to stop your brother, Vergil, creating unnecessary trouble for humanity.

I am always skeptical of such aggregated packages offering the same gaming experience you had before, if only in higher resolution. It is easy to cut corners and sell one (or more) games aren't worth the space on today's gaming shelves. Gameplay is often very outdated and there is no guarantee that young gamers will love the old games.

Capcom could probably have been a little more meticulous and fixed many of 4:3 displays. They could also upgraded some of the textures. The sound would had benefited from being fixed and made "HD Ready", as its little annoying to hear one footstep sound in the game twenty thousand times in an hour.

And yet, Devil May Cry HD Collection shows that you can play old games without losing respect for them. Time has not affected the core experience very much, and in truth you will notice how little gameplay has evolved over the past ten years. Devil May Cry HD Collection shows how stylish action adventures can, and still should, be able to entertain.