Disgaea 2 - hands-on

But once all the menus have been addressed and the politicians satiated, it's the battles that gave us Disgaea on the brain. The grid-based, earth-shattering moves not only look cool as hell, but also take a fair amount of planning to execute just right. The first time you set up a multi-layered assault, tag-teaming the stronger baddies with fireballs, machine guns and gut-spilling pike attacks, you can feel the energy bursting from the screen. Usually because there's lighting blasting out in every direction, zapping the map into oblivion. We liked 'em so much, we went ahead and made avideo so you can share in the joy.

If you're already a fan of the genre, there's not one thing we can really rip on with Disgaea 2. We're barely a sliver of the way through the game, but the itch for more maps, more weapons and more back-and-forth arguing between the main characters (who... gasp... may just end up falling for each other) already has us excited about the game's August release.