Back in 2010, Bayonetta released to the utter delight of critics and action game fans around the world. The game’s over the top titular character, rich, refined combat and glittering fantasy environments and enemies made it an instant classic. Since its release, fans have been begging for developer Platinum Games to work its magic and whip up a sequel. Designer Hideki Kamiya has been constantly leading us on with conspicuous Twitter updates and enjoying every torturous second of it.

Hints at a sequel have been more than abundant, watering tiny buds of hope within the game’s passionate cult fan base. However, the game’s lack of significant commercial success coupled with the news of Sega’s critical ‘internal restructuring’ made the hair witch’s future seem quite grim. There was even a rumor that Bayonetta 2 had been cancelled, though it was short lived. Nintendo recently made the overwhelming announcement that Bayonetta 2 is actually happening – and it will be a Wii U exclusive.

Obviously, this is fantastic news for fans. The years of waiting, praying and clutching at tiny, insignificant rumors are finally over. A sequel to Bayonetta has finally been announced. Unfortunately, the news of its Wii U exclusivity isn’t as amazing. The original Bayonetta was only made available for the PS3 and Xbox 360. It was never even released for the Wii, which makes this news even more interesting. This is problematic for fans because it means we’ll have to buy the Wii U to enjoy this long awaited sequel, which kind of sucks considering we fell in love with the original on our PS3s and 360s.

On the other hand, the legendary dark witch never really got the attention she deserved on a commercial level. As an exclusive title for a brand new console, she'll now get the spotlight with big Nintendo bucks backing her development and advertising. Wii Us are sure to sell like hotcakes and, looking at Platinum's track record, Bayonetta 2 is sure to be absolutely epic. Furthermore, Bayonetta's PS3 port suffered from a number of issues compared to the Xbox 360 version. Since it's console exclusive, the developers only need to create one ultimate version of it. That said, I'm still not entirely comfortable with purchasing a Wii U.

http://www.youtube.com/v/F45mEZI80cY?version=3&hl=en_US

Of course, I’d rather see Bayonetta 2 as a Wii U exclusive than not see Bayonetta 2 at all, but I’m not too sure if I can afford to drop $300 for just one title - no matter how long awaited and awesome it may be.

The team handling the game appears to be a slightly restructured and fully functional Little Angels. The iconic Hideki Kamiya, who worked as director on the first game, will now be responsible for supervision of Bayonetta 2’s development. The role as director is filled by Yusuke Hashimoto, who worked as a producer for the original. The lead designer of Bayonetta is Hiroshi Shibata, but he will not be filling that role for Bayonetta 2. The new lead designer is Hirano Sato, who is credited on Platinum’s own MadWorld. Mari Shimazaki will be reprising her role as character designer, which is surely great news. Several other PG staff members, such as producer Atsushi Inaba and composer Masami Ueda, will also be reprising their roles.

All we’ve seen of Bayonetta 2 at this point is a single teaser trailer (below). It's less than one minute long and it doesn't show any game-play. What it does show is undeniably interesting, though. The trailer itself is very reminiscent of the early debut trailer shown for the first game, but it has a significant twist. In the Bayonetta debut trailer (above), we see Bayonetta herself fire a volley of bullets at an angel. She then makes quick work of a number of angels with very little opposition. The last thing we see in the trailer is Bayonetta’s armed foot touching the ground.

This brand new reveal trailer starts almost exactly the same way. The first thing we’re shown is a gun-boot, which proceeds to fire off several bullets. Fans will immediately recognize this as Bayonetta’s primary gun, the Scarborough Fair. You’ll notice, however, that it looks very different than the gun-boot shown in the first debut trailer. The gun shown in the Bayonetta 2 trailer is a rich kind of royal blue, whereas the original Scarborough Fair is a dark pink or rose color. It is also noteworthy that we cannot see Bayonetta herself this time. It can hereby be assumed that the firer is in fact, not Bayonetta.

http://www.youtube.com/v/UIot0Otq7MA?version=3&hl=en_US

This new, blue color is also abundant in the game’s logo, which can be seen at the end of the trailer and at the top of this article. Fans of the first game will remember the distinct reddish-pink motif that was used in the menus and at the title screen of the original Bayonetta. It was also used in the first Bayonetta logo. This new blue motif probably symbolizes several aesthetic changes from the first game. Now, here is where things get interesting. In the Bayonetta debut trailer, those bullets she fired off proceed to pierce through an unsuspecting angel. In this Bayonetta 2 trailer, however, the bullets are completely nullified by a glorious golden blade. There's also something of a distinctive 'slo-mo' sound right as the bullets and blade connect.  This sounds kind of similar to the "Witch Time" sound effect from the original game. The blade actually slices through the bullets and proceeds to clash against the firer's gun-boot. Finally, what we assume to be Bayonetta’s foot touches the ground again - the exact same way as in the first trailer - giving us a detailed look at the immaculate new blue Scarborough Fair. Then, the person wielding the golden blade gracefully lands. The figure’s thin frame and rather feminine way of standing suggests that it is female. Her golden spear looks akin to the weapons employed by the Affinity and Applaud angels from the original Bayonetta. Her weapon also appears to be adorned with what looks like the Lumen Sage insignia. Furthermore, her robe looks very similar to the robe worn by the only Lumen Sage in the original Bayonetta: Father Baldur. Plot-wise, Father Baldur was said to be the very last of the Lumen Sages, but this new female entity does not appear to be an Umbra Witch. Also, as far as I know, the Lumen Sages were also all male. I speculate that Bayonetta 2 will involve a female Lumen Sage who will try to resurrect Father Baldur’s plan. If you want to know which plan that is exactly, then go play Bayonetta. It’s only speculation, but that mysterious figure is surely stylistically similar to enemies from the first game. Finally, I once heard that the halos you collect in the first game are actually based on the rings from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, which was a cool way of referencing the fact that Sega published it. With its Wii U exclusivity, Bayonetta 2 will most likely contain a similar reference to a flagship Nintendo franchise, most likely Mario. Think we’ll collect Mario’s signature golden coins this time around instead of Sonic’s golden rings? Although it will be exclusive to a console I don’t yet own, I’m still very thrilled about Bayonetta 2. The game will certainly be very violent and bloody, which should do wonders to coerce the naysayers who think the Wii U will just be a ‘kiddy console’ like its predecessor. After all, it was Platinum themselves who took the Wii were it had never been with MadWorld. As long as it is developed by the same fabulous team of people that are responsible for the first game, then it doesn’t really matter what console it gets released for. Bayonetta 2 should be perfectly awesome.