The holiday season is a typically crowded one for videogames, and it’s only been worse in 2004. With the release of several super high profile games like Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metal Gear Solid 3, and Halo 2, it’s almost impossible for smaller games to even be noticed on the shelf. Unfortunately, this hasn’t really stopped publishers from releasing games at the end of the year. Capcom’s Viewtiful Joe 2 is an excellent sequel that will likely go unnoticed by many gamers this holiday season.

This sequel picks up almost exactly where the first game leaves off. Joe has just rescued his love Silvia. The bad news is that the Black Emperor has kidnapped Silvia’s father, Captain Blue. Joe and Silvia set off on another whirlwind adventure to win back the Rainbow Oscars and save Captain Blue. Their journey will take them through various worlds that are strikingly similar to such classic movies as Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones.

Those who are familiar with the original Viewtiful Joe will feel right at home with the sequel. For those of you who didn’t play the first title, here’s a crash course in the gameplay. Viewtiful Joe harkens back to the old school days of beat-em-up games like Final Fight and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The graphics are three dimensional, but the gameplay sticks to a two dimensional plane. As enemies approach Joe they will try to attack him. Successfully dodging an attack will stun the baddie and leave him open for a series of devastatingly viewtiful attacks. Joe uses the VFX power of the movies to fight his enemies. He can go into slow motion to amplify his damage, turn on his mach speed to tear through enemies, and zoom-in to get up close a personal with his foes.

This time around, Joe’s girlfriend Silvia is along for the ride and is fully playable from the start of the game, and she packs her own unique VFX power. Silvia’s mach speed has been replaced with a replay power. She also carries a ray gun to blast enemies from afar. While all of this sounds cool, it doesn’t play out that way. Her attacks are woefully pathetic compared to her boyfriend’s, and the replay power is entirely useless except in specialized situations that require it.

Many complaints around the original Viewtiful Joe centered on the game’s high difficulty. These issues have been addressed, but in such away that they do not compromise the difficulty of the game. There are now about twice as many save points as there were in the original, so dying means you won’t be going back quite as far. The levels themselves still have quite a few tough baddies, and the bosses are also still a challenge, though not quite as blisteringly rough as they were the first time around.

Viewtiful Joe 2 also retains its predecessor’s unique sense of humor. Movie buffs will adore its tongue-in-cheek style that lampoons a slew of classic films. The dialogue is as good as before, and the bickering between Joe, Silvia, and their foes is downright hilarious. The story manages to be appealing enough to draw the story along, but the scene-by-scene dialogue is the real star here.

Games like Final Fight hold a limited appeal nowadays. Capcom is reinventing the classic beat-em-up genre and turning it completely on its ear. Clover Studios has crafted an excellent, challenging game with its own unique senses of style and humor. The difficulty has been tuned up just enough to keep the game challenging, but not quite enough to make you want to toss your controller across the room. Fans of the original would be crazy not to pick up the sequel. Those who thought Viewtiful Joe was too hard will probably be happy with the sequel’s slightly lower difficulty.