SEGA has announced that a playable demo of Bayonetta will hit Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network on December 3rd.

The game, already available in Japan, has received rave reviews prior to its Western launch, including perfect scores from the UK's EDGE magazine and Japan's Famitsu. It is the 11th game in EDGE magazine's 16-year history to receive a perfect 10/10, and the 12th game in Famitsu's 26-year-history to receive a perfect 40/40.

“Developer PlatinumGames has delivered a true masterpiece,” said Gary Knight, European Marketing Director of SEGA Europe. “The recent perfect review scores in such highly respected magazines as Weekly Famitsu and EDGE show the sheer quality of this title. We firmly believe that Bayonetta will go on to become one of the all-time benchmarks in action gaming.”

The full retail version of Bayonetta is scheduled for release on January 8th in New Zealand on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.