10 Video Games We'll Be Ashamed To Tell Our Kids About

4. Bayonetta

Although she's a candidate for one of the most badass females going, Bayonetta is another character rather like Duke Nukem who's been designed to appeal to a very specific demographic - again being horny teenage boys.

Granted, if you slap a pair of breasts on anything you'll get the vast majority of the male population's attention, but with Bayonetta it's all about getting across an aura of self-empowerment as a total power fantasy.

More time will have to pass before we can really judge her place amongst the other respectful female figures in gaming, but it's more than likely that many critics - especially feminist-minded writers - are going to adopt a character who frequently utters sexual noises and is otherwise naked aside from some magical hair as a shining example of how women should be portrayed in games. As you'll find when thumbing through your average manga section down the local comic shop, there's something incredibly appealing about the brightly-coloured escapist fantasy genre that Bayonetta inhabits.

If an over-muscled bald bloke tearing demons in half with his bare hands is one half of the male fantasy coin, then the other is surely a beautiful woman with a host of spells and twin pistols doing... exactly the same. Doesn't make it any easier to get describe to newcomers, though.