When one thinks about Nintendo games, the first franchises to come to mind are likely to be Mario, Pokémon, Zelda, and maybe a handful of others such as Animal Crossing or Splatoon. Across all of these games one thing remains relatively constant: a whimsical and stylized cartoon art style. While that is the Nintendo trademark, there’s one major franchise under their belt that defies this convention, that being the Bayonetta series. As the original Bayonetta celebrates its 15th birthday alongside Bayonetta 3’s 2nd anniversary, now is the perfect time to look fondly at the amazing black sheep among Nintendo’s library that the series is.
The history behind how Bayonetta made its way under the Nintendo umbrella is quite an interesting one. The original Bayonetta was developed by PlatinumGames under Hideki Kamiya and published by Sega, releasing on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 29th, 2009. The game’s critical acclaim ultimately led to the development of a sequel. However, partway through development Sega cancelled the project, at which point Nintendo took over the funding and would later publish Bayonetta 2 as a Wii U exclusive. Ever since then, the Bayonetta franchise has remained a staple second-party Nintendo series welcomed into the roster of otherwise cutesy universes.
Following in the footsteps of innovation and mastery of the action game genre came the third entry in the series, Bayonetta 3. This third entry was released on October 28th, 2022, just shy of 13 years after the original. The game brought with it the same amazing gameplay as the first two, alongside an assortment of new characters and mechanics to experience. Despite the hefty development time and the infamous five-year gap between the announcement and the release, Bayonetta 3 lived up to the hype in the eyes of many fans.
With both the original Bayonetta and Bayonetta 3 practically sharing an anniversary, to many this time of year serves as a general time to celebrate the series as a whole. The main character designer for the Bayonetta series, Mari Shimazaki, shared a celebratory piece of art on Twitter featuring all three iterations of Bayonetta and Jeanne. The piece features heavy emphasis on red, blue, and purple, the three colors that represent each of the games in the series respectively. The piece is absolutely beautiful and serves as an excellent homage to the 15 years of enjoyment that Bayonetta has given us.
If you’ve never given the Bayonetta series a try, now is the perfect time to. All three games are incredible, and while you’ll get the most out of the story by playing them in order, each game holds up on its own perfectly well. They’re all available on Nintendo Switch as well, so give them a shot! If you like the action genre at all, we just know you’ll love experiencing what Bayonetta has to offer.
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Written by Abbie Maxwell
Lifelong Nintendo fangirl, Abbie holds a special place in her heart for video games. She has always strived to provide tips and tricks to make the experiences of those who share her passions that much better.
