Red Steel 2

Sword attacks begin with a simple range of strikes and stabs before working up to more powerful unlocks like rush moves and downward swings. Dashes are crucial for getting out of the way of lunges or working around behind armoured foes, while switching to your gun is handled instantaneously via a quick squeeze of the remote's trigger, sending a bullet whizzing towards wherever the reticule is currently hovering.

Thankfully the game does an excellent job of working out when you're using the remote to move the camera about and when you're actually trying to lop someone's head off - probably due to the fact that you need to pull your arm all the way back before bringing the blade down on an enemy - and there's a nice rhythm to the action provided by the combo system.

Focusing on variations of knock-'em-down and finish-'em-off, you can shoot enemies in the knees to bring them to the floor before killing them with a swipe from your sword, daze them with a bullet to the head prior to stabbing them through the chest, or slice them into a confused wobble before blowing their brains out.

Combat's easy enough in one-on-ones, even when you're facing off against a rampaging mini-boss with a massive hammer, but there aren't that many one-on-ones this time around. Enemies tend to attack in groups, meaning that creating enough room for yourself to pull off a finisher without getting stabbed between the eyes in the process is a vital part of your training.

If there's a potential problem, it's the automatic lock-on, which can dither slightly when there's more than a few baddies on-screen at any time, flickering back and forth between the closest foes when you really need it to choose one and stick with it.

Any slight frustrations will hopefully start to fade after a period of acclimatising, however. Watching VandenBerghe - who, granted, has had a fair bit of experience by now - play through one of the game's later stages suggests that once you've really got to grips with things you can blast around Ubisoft's world with real style, leaving an expert series of gored nasties in your wake. It must be how John Humphrys feels every weekday around nine in the morning.

The main difference between Red Steel 2 and the original, however, may not be the improved controls so much as the fact that you'll genuinely want to put in the time to master them in the first place. With a sugary rush of missions, dungeons, and upgrades riddled with collectable Sheriff's badges and oddball unlocks, 2010 might just be the year that face buckles finally go mainstream.