Bayonetta 2: I have no idea what just happened

I didn't understand much of what was happening outside of combat in my Bayonetta 2 demo at E3. If ignorance is bliss, then surfing jets and fighting a demon dragon while scaling a seemingly infinitely tall skyscraper is transcendent.

What I do know is that Bayonetta 2 is an exercise in the ridiculous, exchanging rationale for crazy-fast combos and elaborate torture finishers. It's very fitting then that Bayonetta 2 delivered on every expectation for a sequel that felt like such an impossible idea a year ago.%Gallery-191090%

Bayonetta 2 has two control methods: the traditional controls using the analog sticks and face buttons, and a touch-driven method of operation that Nintendo representatives were quick to usher me away from in this demo. While holding the bulky WiiPad isn't the ideal solution in a game that requires absolute urgency, it was still an ample enough solution to the flood of inexplicable enemies Platinum Games' latest was all too happy to throw at me.

Controls in Bayonetta 2 are largely the same, though Bayonetta felt substantially more powerful in her second outing thanks to her new Umbra Climax ability – a kind of turbo mode that adds more damage to her attacks. This isn't something that can be activated at will; instead, your combo chains gradually fill this meter. The addition of Umbra Climax, while making enemies a bit more manageable in my brief demo, achieves the impossible task of taking Bayonetta 2's combat to even more ridiculous heights.

Then I literally went to ridiculous heights when a giant dragon named Gomorrah emerged and Bayonetta manifested wings and took to the sky to fight this thing while it scaled a massive skyscraper. It was a scene that was as impossible to comprehend as it was startling beautiful to behold. At the conclusion of this fight, the demo came to an end.

Jeanne, Bayonetta's rival and antagonist in the first game, made several appearances throughout the demo, inferring a co-op element to the story's campaign. Nintendo representatives, however, wouldn't comment on how the two-player mode will be implemented in the final game.

If there was one takeaway from my short demo, it's that Bayonetta 2 is every bit deserving of that moniker. With blistering 60-frames-per-second combat and an affable lack of pretention, Bayonetta 2 is shaping up to hit all those same beats Platinum Games' first outing is known for – a very good thing.