While perusing the titles on display at Nintendo’s booth on the GC show floor, I had my eye clearly trained to spot any signs of Mario or Metroid. Sadly, Nintendo didn’t see fit to grace us mere mortals with any sign of these titles,  so I instead had to make due with the several other fantastic games that they had lying around. Of course, the first on my list was Sin and Punishment: Star Successor (and not just because it was the closest in proximity to where I was standing when I noticed the demo set-ups).

I only played the first level (although it seemed like the full game was playable), and I know that a lot of you have probably seen videos of this one many times over. What most of you haven’t done is actually played the game for yourselves. That, my friends, is a different matter entirely. Even from the very first moment of the game, Sin and Punishment 2 feels like something truly special.

I absolutely adore Treasure. Their games are inventive even while being refined and intense. Any time the company has any part in a game, I immediately perk up. Due to the excessively enthusiastic response that the first Sin & Punishment title received for so many years, I naturally jumped on it the day it hit Virtual console. Imagine my dismay when I found a game that seemed to not live up to any of this praise. Instead of being this perfect 3D SHMUP that I had expected, I found something clunky and difficult to play. Granted, I never got to play it on the controller for which it was built, but I constantly felt like I was fighting with the Classic Controller to get anything to happen.

Sin and Punishment: Star Successor is the exact opposite of this. It showcases far more elegantly why pointer control can potentitally make for some of the most thrilling action games of all time. Instead of constantly struggling to drag a frakking reticule across the screen, I found myself effortlessly blasting away scores of enemies with just a slight adjustment of my wrist. It was glorious. This was what I had always imagined Sin and Punishment to be: A constant blitzkrieg of assaulting enemy robots and incandescent bullets flying directly at your head while you waltz through the skies and take them out one by one.

Yeah, so I may sound overly effusive or something, but honestly this game wrapped its arms around me and held me tight as soon as I picked up the Wiimote. The controls are kept relatively simple; only a few buttons are used and I never really found myself thinking about them. I didn’t understand how to do the melee attacks exactly, as I was just holding down the fire button the whole time. Instead of performing them with some kind of motion control (which I would have preferred), you have to press the fire button once. As soon as I got over this one minor hurdle, I was blazing around the screen, slashing through half the incoming projectiles and dodging the rest.

I only got to play as Isa, so I didn’t get to see the female character and her auto-lock-on, but I was happy for this choice.  It was never a problem to pinpoint each and every enemy on the screen. As I steamrolled my way through the army of faceless oppressors, I constantly felt like I was playing the perfect 3D SHMUP. Glowing bullets in various colors made patterns in the air, while I danced in between them avoiding certain doom.

It all ended as quickly as it had started. A boss enemy that seemed like a pushover easily dispatched me, and the guy behind me in line nudged me to indicate that it was his turn to collapse into Sin and Punishment’s pillowy embrace. As I reluctantly released my grip on the Wiimote, I realized without a shadow of a doubt that this game would be mine come June 7th. I may be fully in the grips of Mario fever by then, but even my mustachioed friend won’t be able to tear us apart.