I hope that you all enjoyed watching the Bayonetta 2 Direct, which happened last week worldwide. The Direct covered Bayonetta 2 in broad strokes, most of which I’ve already covered before . There are, however, two aspects touched on in the Direct that I want to go into more detail on.

First, there are those sweet, delicious Nintendo costumes. Most of them are unchanged from their original Bayonetta counterparts and act exactly like they would in that game. You can use the Master Sword with the Link costume, use the arm cannon with the Samus one, and summon Bowser arms and feet with the Peach and Daisy ones. The looks are slightly different to fit more with the look of Bayonetta in this game, but the experience is mostly unchanged. They are still as dumb, crazy, and glorious as ever.

A newly added costume for Bayonetta 2, however, is Fox McCloud, or as the game refers to it as, Star Mercenary. In addition to the fabulous look, this Star Fox costumes also features some other cool additions and tweaks. If you select the guns, the weapons change into Arwing-shaped blasters. You can slash with them and if you perform a super duper combo, the classic Star Fox shooting sound emits. Another delightful touch is that the lock-on cursor is the one from Star Fox. While it seems that this is the only new Nintendo-related costume to the game (we are not sure right now), it seems to be a totally rad one.

The online mode shown off in the Direct, called Tag Climax, is a bit weird, but it is a very enjoyable affair. It’s a cooperative competitive mode where each character is working together to defeat hordes of enemies while also striving to get the most points. Every match consists of six missions and the ones that you can choose are unlocked throughout the game. These are formed from previous encounters in the story mode and put on a new spin on them to make a bit more challenging. The interesting thing is that beforehand, you can choose the amount of Halos that you want to bet. The more you bet, the nastier the battle becomes.

Taking these aspects in consideration is super important for two reasons. The first is that you want to outsmart your opponent and score more points than they do. Naturally, the best course is making them play a hard level they have a rough time with. However, and secondly, you can't let the other person get defeated. If he or she falls down and you don't revive your opponent in 15 seconds, you both lose automatically. All the Halos you earned in previous missions are worthless and you have to start over from square one. It is a unique mix of co-op and competitive play that really puts your single-player skills to the test. Work together, but be smart as well when taking on the rough creatures that make up this game.

Tag Climax can be played with friends and random opponents all across the world. You can quickly jump in a match, get going and test the other person to the limit. If you don't have many online friends, you are kind of forced to play it against the computer. I have nothing really against that personally as the AI is very competent and helps you whenever you really need it. It makes sure that this mode won't go forgotten, but sadly, you can't play it locally. That is a bit of a bummer as it is the perfect couch multiplayer flair to it. Perhaps technical limitations stopped it from happening, but I am more than willing to sacrifice the elegancy a bit for local all-out brawls.