A younger, leaner Dante is the star of the show in Devil May Cry 3, a prequel to the first two games. Riccardo Magliola is here to tell you how it compares to t'others...

Demons, heavy-metal, guns, swords and style. That's what Devil May Cry 3 is all about.

Playing as half-demon, half-human, all cocky Dante, you fight through swathes of Hell's minions, as you try and stop them from invading our world. OK, so the plot isn't exactly revolutionary, but that's not the real point of DMC3. Essentially a combat-action game, the hordes of demons are just an excuse to make you look as cool as possible, and when it works, there isn't another game out there as slick as this.

Unfortunately, it doesn't always come off right, and even worse, this is mostly only the case in the early stages of the game. The cutscenes between fights show Dante confidently swaggering about, and almost whimsically destroying anything that threatens him, which only makes you feel worse when you die yet again. When you do die, you have to start the whole mission again, and wade through the same ten minutes of puzzles and enemies that you did only minutes before, which becomes really annoying when you die at the same boss fight again.

Fortunately the game does offer an easy mode after you've died a few times and, unless you want to keep doing the mission merry-go-round until you succeed; it is well worth swallowing your pride. Once you start to unlock some of the more powerful weapons, and moves, the game really opens up, and becomes one of the most enjoyable action games on the PS2. It really is that good.