10 Best Spectacle Fighter Video Games Of All Time

2. Bayonetta 2

You couldn't talk about spectacle and fighting games without Bayonetta. Whilst the original set a benchmark for female representation in games as protagonists that could be equally powerful and sexy - a balance that so many studios tend to get wrong - Bayonetta 2 cranked the dials on everything to a ridiculous degree.

Opening with Bayonetta soaring through New York on the back of an F16 fighter jet, it set a standard of "Yup, okay WHY NOT" that Platinum only go further and further with. That leads to fighting gold-plated dragons inside whirlpools, summoning a giant toad of demonic hair to gulp down a boss, or literally any time you trigger one of the various "Torture" moves that include Bayonetta conjuring a cage to whip your latest foe to death.

Bayonetta 2 is nothing less than Platinum Games' most anarchic and unrestrained game yet. Combat is gorgeously fluid, and comes with animation so sublime, you can connect any number of animations together as Bayonetta struts, poses and quips her way from beginning to end.

Like a playable dimethyltryptamine rush (the chemical that induces dreams), Bayonetta 2 is essential.