Every once in a while Nintendo decides to throw its hardcore audience a bone, and in the case of Sin and Punishment 2, it's a fairly large bone. While most fans of the series would have been content to just see a proper localization and refresh to the original Sin and Punishment, Nintendo is going one step further and partnering back up with Treasure to get a sequel released. Most importantly, that sequel will be available outside of Japan. Here at E3 '09, we were able to get a chance to take the game for a test run.



As the demo begins, you choose to take control of either Isa or Kachi and then you're immediately thrown into the action after a short conversation between the two characters. Isa, the male character, has both the standard rapid fire attack and a charge attack that lets loose a big detonation that will take down anything in the blast radius. Kachi's special move is that she can target multiple enemies at once while charging and then fire a seeking attack that will take them down. For the demo, we went with Isa.

The demo opens up with Isa running along as waves of enemies attack. You can jump, roll, shoot, charge up a special attack, or double jump to turn on your jet pack and fly. The screen continually scrolls by at its predetermined pace and you're bound to the rails the game lays out, but you do have a full range of movement throughout the view of the screen. As you blast away enemies, your combo multiplier begins to build up. As long as you keep scoring hits without taking any damage, the multiplier builds from 1.1x to 1.2x to 1.3x and up. The combo system is what gave the original Sin and Punishment so much replay value, and things will be no different here.

As the demo progressed through the single stage available, the enemy varieties became impressive. There were enemies that passed through simply as combo fodder, slow attacking enemies, rapid fire gunners, missile launchers, enemies that were part of the environment structure, and mini-bosses that needed to be dealt with. Keeping yourself unscathed in an effort to keep your combo count growing was quite the challenge with everything the game throws at you. You'll make extensive use of the dodge move, that's for sure.

Sin and Punishment was a cult classic on the N64, and for good reason. This time around the sequel is going to have a chance to hit a much wider audience. Along with that wider exposure, Nintendo and Treasure are going to include online leaderboards with the game. This will allow people to track their progress globally and against friends. It sounds like a simple feature, but for a game like this, it can make an enormous difference in the replay value.

Sin and Punishment is one of the few games in Nintendo's booth that won't be out until next year, but it's already looking great from both graphical and gameplay perspectives. We'll keep a close watch on this one as it develops, so check back often for more info.