In the title sequence of ‘Devil May Cry 5’, robot-armed demon slayer Nero flies out the window of a large, airborne van to meet and cut down a small swarm of insectoid demons mid-barrel-roll. Guitars from the game’s 80-metal theme song wail as he flies through the air, bouncing off cars to shoot bug after bug in their bulbous brains. He’s clearly having fun, which seems odd, since he was just flung out of a moving car. One wrong move and he’ll be dead, but he’s cool: For the moment, he’s in control. “Stylish” fighting has always been at the very heart of the Devil May Cry franchise. In all four entries – even the 2013 reboot “DmC: Devil May Cry” – have been combat-heavy romps with an eye towards technical combat that not only encourages achievement, but mastery. Published in Daily Times, March 9th 2019.