Yea, this one came kinda fast, but I'm bored so this is going to occupy my time.  Gungrave is an often overlooked game, as well as being hard to find (there isn't a single copy within 10 miles of me available for purchase) 

Some of you will be surprised to hear that the game was created by Yasuhiro Nightow, creator of Trigun, and as such, there are MANY similarities between this and the TV show.  Just to name a few, the main character, Beyond the Grave, wears glasses much like Vash did as well as a coat with a very high collar and carries a giant coffin on his back that houses an arsenal of weapony, much like Wolfwood.  The game features a very over the top style, having Grave often do a pose before/after he displays his badassery.

To be honest, I didn't pay much attention to the story on this one, just wanted to get in and do some killing.  To be noted, there is an anime of the same name, which was made after the game and provides much more story than the game does, obviously.

Gameplay is a combination shootemup/beatemup.  For anybody who has played Godhand, its much like that, only with ranged attacks instead of melee.  Basically, you traverse linear levels, CONSTANTLY flinging bullets left and right, building up combo with every shot that lands, subjecting even the environment to your scorn in lieu of points.  The more points you accumulate, the more demolition shots you can do.  Demolition shots are the special attack of the game.  You can either turn your coffin into a rocket launcher and shoot 1 or 3 rockets in front of you, or turn it into a gatling gun as you spin around, spraying everything with bullets OR you can expend a demolition shot for health (lame).

Long story short, the game is just simply badass.  The game, more or less, aims for you.  Its not a FPS, accuracy is not the point of the game, its to dispatch tons of enemies in the coolest way with as little effort as possible.  You can have a constant stream of bullets shooting at any given time, there is no *ammo*, you can shoot as much as you want.  You can shoot and move at the same time, which is all fine and dandy, but the real fun is watching Grave do his *dance* if you shoot while standing still.  Stand still and continue shooting and instead of just holding his guns in his usual stance, he does what I can only describe as a dance with his guns, looking awesome and shooting twice as fast.  Very effective.

There is also a sequel, Gungrave: Overdose, which features everything the single player had, as well as 2 new characters, a guitarist and swordsman.  If furthers the *over the top* style even more so, adding in epic finishing moves to the games bosses, making for a very cool and rewarding cutscene after finally putting each boss down.  My personal fave is the 2nd of the guitarists finishers, great buildup and delivers the final blow at the high point of the theme song, epic.

I can easily see why Gungrave wasn't a smash hit.  Its EXTREMELY linear, almost no sense of character progression and very repetitive.  But sometimes, I just want a game where I can kick butt while looking cool without needing to play for 50 hours to master the games mechanics, thats right, I'm looking at you DMC/Ninja Gaiden.

Stay tuned for more.  Will most likely get bored and do another one tomorrow.