Hands On Sin And Punishment 2

Sin and Punishment 2 isn’t coming out for awhile, but I got to play an early build of Treasure’s on-rails shooter. You start the game by picking a character. Either Isa, a boy with a jetpack, or Kashi, a girl with a hover board.

I went with Isa and entered an urban area with tons of things to shoot. Players aim at targets with the Wii Remote and hold B to fire. You can also tap B to do a close up sword attack. Instead of a lock-on shot, the A button makes Isa charge up for a small explosion. You need to hold A down while dodge rolling out of danger until the targeting circle turns blue. Let go and you unleash a blast that can hit multiple enemies.

Isa starts the stage running on an abandoned highway shooting tadpole-like things. A helicopter chasing Isa blows up a bridge and Isa suddenly starts flying. Unlike Sin and Punishment where you’re stuck moving left or right, you freely fly in Sin and Punishment 2. You can even do diagonal dodge rolls! While you’re rolling to evade shots Isa spins around the city and shoots down the helicopter.

A tougher enemy commander appeared later in the level, a beast that spit bullets and summoned crab ruffians to roll on the screen. This boss was similar to a fight from the industrial stage in Sin and Punishment. Chipping away at the boss’ life was difficult, but there was no pressure. There was no (potentially) life draining time limit in Sin and Punishment 2. I liked the time limit in Sin and Punishment it made the game intense, so I’m disappointed to see it go. Without the threat of death you aren’t forced to dodge and attack.

A multiplayer meter replaces the time bar. The meter goes up as long as you keep shooting targets and Sin and Punishment 2 has a sea of things to shoot. I tried waving my remote around randomly and I still hit things — enemies and harmless oil drums.