God Hand

The main villains are the Four Devas, a demonic society attempting to resurrect Angra for world domination. The members include the leader Belze, the cigar addicted officer Elvis, the circus ringmaster Shannon and Azel, also called the "Devil Hand", a human that also possesses one of the God Hands and earlier joined the Devas to achieve his own goals. The game features a number of recurring minor enemies whom Gene meets, including a pair of extremely flamboyant twins; the trio responsible for removing Gene's original arm; a gorilla wearing a lucha libre wrestling mask and outfit; an android warrior sent by Belze twice to stop Gene; an aspiring rock duo who were originally aspiring musicians that sold their souls to the demons in exchange for power; and a group of dwarfs dressed in Super Sentai style clothing with playing card emblems on their costumes. Nearly all battles are revealed by comical gags and dialogue. Once Gene defeats Azel at the Tower of Angra, Angra awakens from inside Azel's body; Azel then rips off his God Hand and entrusts it to Gene, not wanting to be controlled. Now with both God Hands, Gene defeats Angra and rescues Olivia.

The game was first announced in April 2006 along with the use of a small teaser page on the Clover Studio website. The game was developed by the team responsible for Resident Evil 4. Development was supervised by Shinji Mikami, best known for the Resident Evil series of survival horror games, and was produced by Atsushi Inaba. The original idea for God Hand came about during a conversation between the two about the current state of action games; they found that many games in the genre at the time focused on the use of weapons and had gotten away from hand to hand combat. Mikami expanded this in 2020 saying that the initial concept started sometime in 1999 when he played Final Fight Revenge, a game based on a popular arcade series he liked. He was disappointed with Revenge, calling it "shit," and decided to one day make a better beat 'em up. Mikami later approached Inaba with a poster depicting two stylized fists, meant to exemplify the kind of original game he wanted the two to create. Originally, God Hand was to focus solely on "hardcore action" without much humor. However, after showing a trailer for the game at the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) which contained some comic relief, the team decided to integrate a large amount of comedy into the game based on the viewers' reactions. While God Hand appears to share many elements with classic manga and anime, such as Fist of the North Star, MD Geist and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, no specific anime was cited as inspiration, but Inaba notes the game "shares that same style as '80s action anime." Takada's score utilizes motifs in the game's boss battle songs because many of them are fought more than once; Takada hoped that using different arrangements and orchestrations would remind players of older encounters with each boss. A 128 page player's guide titled God Hand Official Guide Book was published by Capcom in Japan on October 7, 2006.

Upon release, the game initially received "mixed or average reviews" according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. However, "D. W." of the same site gave it 5.5 out of 10, stating, "It’s a shame that this had to be Clover’s last title, but if God Hand was the best they could do, I can certainly see why they’re not around anymore." The Sydney Morning Herald gave the game three and a half stars out of five, exclaiming, "Like a bizarre mixture of WWE Smackdown and Benny Hill, God Hand is one of the quirkiest, silliest and funniest games to come along in some time." The A. V. Club gave the game a C+ and stated, "Playing this flawed, oddball offering is like flushing your neurotransmitters with Red Bull—painful, mind expanding, and occasionally laughter inducing." Independent PlayStation Magazine listed God Hand among the "11 PS2 Games You Need to Play (But Haven't)". God Hand was a nominee for "Best Fighting Game" at the 2006 Spike Video Game Awards, but lost to Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. Rab Florence of the Scottish television series VideoGaiden claimed God Hand to be one of the best games ever made. The presenter summarized his review by stating, "What an epitaph for Clover Studio: We made one of the best games of all time and it was just a game about punching people".

The game was the fifth best selling game during the week of its release in the country, selling 48,280 units. Capcom managed to both ship and sell nearly 60,000 copies of the game in the country by the end of 2006. God Hand was later re released under the CapKore line of budget titles and the PlayStation The Best range. God Hand is the final game of Clover Studio, which was closed after the game's release in North America. Retrospectively, the game is considered a cult classic, having gained a cult following and a generally favorable retrospective reception. The Capcom staff thought about including Gene as a playable character in their fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, but was replaced by Amaterasu from Ōkami. In 2010, the game was included as one of the titles in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. Following Asura's Wraths release, developer CyberConnect2 revealed that they felt the game would serve to satisfy fans wanting a sequel to God Hand. They were later pleased that people had seen the deliberate similarities between the two games. Many of the individuals who worked on God Hand at Clover Studio went on to make games at PlatinumGames. God Hand's frantic combat style still persist in games they later released, such as MadWorld, Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and Shinji Mikami's own Vanquish.