Viewtiful Joe 2 stripped of co-op mode

Viewtiful Joe 2 will not feature co-operative multiplayer according to a new round of previews surfacing in the US this week - presumably as part of Capcom USA's pre-release build-up - but single players will be able to switch characters on the fly.

Capcom had previously said that the addition of Joe's girlfriend Sylvia to the side-scrolling beat-'em-up mix would mean the introduction of a co-operative mode, as well as giving lone players a choice between the two characters.

However now it seems that the development team at Clover Studio has adjusted its ideas for whatever reason. Now, instead of choosing between characters or having two players control both simultaneously, instead you'll be able to use "Viewtiful Touch" to switch between them on the fly - the idea being that Joe is better at certain things than Sylvia and vice versa.

That's partly down to their respective VFX powers. While Joe retains the three powers he had in the original game (slow, speed and zoom), Sylvia will be able to use two of them (slow and zoom) as well as the new power Replay, which has been touted in press literature as a way of recording actions then replaying them to amplify the effect.

Viewtiful Joe 2 is currently due out in the States on November 18th on PS2 and GameCube, and you can read our impressions of the game from E3 here. We probably shouldn't expect to see it in Europe until early 2005.