BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

Thanks to Nintendo's lovely Virtual Console service, thousands of lucky Western Wii owners have experienced the wonders of Treasure's seminal shooter Sin and Punishment, its first appearance in the West after years out in the Japanese N64 wilderness. Then, as the delicious icing on the cake, a sequel was announced last year, with only a short video tiding bullet-hungry shooter fans over... until now!

The ever-reliable Japanese magazine Famitsu has come through with new information on the new title, and it's sounding better and better all the time. According to this latest report, the game didn't even begin its life as a sequel to Sin and Punishment, but over time it slowly took that form.

There's good news for those who found the original title a bit too short-lived - the follow-up will include twice as many levels as its predecessor, and the hard mode will be made even more difficult to accommodate the very best players. There's also due to be WiiConnect24 support to allow players all over the world to submit their scores to online leaderboards and weep openly at some of the insurmountable scores that will no doubt appear.

With two playable characters boasting different abilities, combat that moves from land to air and more of the intense action that characterised the first game, Sin and Punishment 2 looks like being one of the Wii's foremost shoot 'em up titles when it's launched in Japan at the end of this month. We'll bring you more information - including updates on its proposed Western release - as and when we get it.

[source uk.wii.ign.com]