It really doesn't make any sense that your health isn't refilled since you're very likely to die a minute later anyway and then restart with no penalty.
Generally the best course of action here is to simply let yourself be killed and choose to continue with a full life bar. This means that if you were near death at the end of the last stage, your only hope is to kill a few guys at the beginning of the next stage and hope they drop some grub. This part is fine, though your health doesn't refill between levels. To regain life, you need to pick up fruits from inside boxes, or more commonly, left behind by downed enemies. There's an extremely curious health system at work as well. The right analog stick acts as a dodge button, so since you don't have a block of any sort you'll be using this often, but because of the poor camera you'll often perform backflips into nearby walls. On many occasions we finished off a handful of enemies only to have new foes appear directly behind us and take us out. Where you walk is exactly where it points, so enemies will often come up (or even appear) behind you, and this can be extremely annoying in a crowded room. One of the major problems with the combat, and God Hand on the whole in fact, is that the camera is stuck directly behind your character and you're unable to freely control it. All of these are simply eye candy and the game's reliance on these mechanics simply doesn't hold up. The Roulette Wheel is somewhat similar on a couple levels in that these moves allow you to perform some sort of devastating attack, but they're one-off moves that while looking cool don't really add a whole lot of fun to the combat system. This really is little more than a power-up attack that you'll find in most any other combat-heavy game around and doesn't save the game in the least since all it does is strengthen your attacks for a handful of seconds. The God Hand aspect of the game refers to Gene's arm, which you can unleash when powered up and generally kick the hell out of everything for a short while. It's kind of funny the first time you're able to stomp on someone's head with your leg moving at mach 3, but this gets old quickly. There are a few tactics of sorts mixed in, like choosing the best times to use a slower but more powerful move, but in large part you'll be mashing buttons until everyone is finished. Beyond this, it's an extremely tedious brawler where you'll generally mash a button or two until an enemy is dead. But that's about as far as the fun of combat goes. This customizable aspect, and the fact that you'll earn and buy new moves as the game progresses, means that you'll constantly be switching up your attack style and incorporating new moves. Some moves have special attributes, like juggling an opponent, tossing them away or breaking a block. While you only have one main combo chain, you're able to fit in other moves that you've assigned to the face buttons and create attack chains on the fly. One of the only interesting aspects of the game is its combat system, largely in part due to the fact that you're able to customize exactly which moves you want in your combo string. Put it this way: Had this game not been designed by Clover Studio, released by Capcom and hyped (to some degree) because of this, it would be quickly passed over and shunned by most who play it. While Clover took a huge risk in hoping that this sort of off-kilter design would appeal to some gamers, and there will probably be a few folks out there who will dig this extremely niche design, by and large the joke simply falls flat. The game practically encourages button mashing, enemies are extremely generic, the level layout is very uninspired, the dialog and jokes are poorly written and delivered, and most of all, much of the control and gameplay mechanics are so old-school it hurts. It's somewhat apparent that God Hand was meant to be a joke on many levels, much as a film director might intentionally make a B-movie. And now we're presented with God Hand, the studios' latest release and also its oddest so far, largely mimicking the brawlers from the old days of gaming in a kooky 3D world. The equally-excellent Okami utilized painting techniques not only for its visuals but core gameplay mechanics as well. Viewtiful Joe was largely a side-scroller set in a 3D world with a cartoony art style and time-altering mechanics. Clover Studio has a knack for creating unique and off-the-wall games, many of which have ties to 2D art and gameplay.