Namco Bandai Editor's Day: We Cheer 2

I am not ashamed to admit that I am a fan of We Cheer. Ok well maybe a little ashamed, but I do love dancing about and flailing my arms in the air to catchy pop tunes and We Cheer definitely fits the bill. At yesterday's Namco Bandai's Editor's Day, Pixel Poet and I made a beeline for the We Cheer 2 booth to check out what was new in the world of virtual cheerleading.

First and foremost (for us anyway) we were thrilled to see that in answer to player's requests (mostly ours I'll reckon), We Cheer 2 now includes male cheerleaders. They are part of your team and you can choose one to be your leader if you like. The character customization from the original is back allowing you to change your cheerers hair, eyes, eyebrows, mouth, uniform, shoes, etc. In the build we saw, the customization for the boys was still in the infant stage and it was hard to make a guy who didn't look like Zac Effron. One of the new additions to the customization effort is the ability to choose shades of color from an adjustable color palette. A welcome addition to be sure!

Once again finding its home on the Wii, the new cheer fest boasts crisper graphics, night and day levels, 40 customizable characters and a 4 player multiplayer mode with each player using one remote rather than the usual two. There is also a co-op mode in which each of the two players controls a separate "pom pom." Also included will be over 25 new songs including Avril Levine's "Girlfriend" and the penultimate cheerleading song of the 80's, "Mickey" by Toni Basil.

Pixel and I tried our hand at "Mickey" and while we had a great time, didn't do so hot on Medium. However once we switched to Easy mode it was all gravy. Yes, I can hear you snickering behind your hands, but trust me it's harder than it looks and quite the workout. As we finished our second go around, I noticed that a lot of the female cheerleaders were featuring tummy exposing crop tops while the boys merely sported a sleeveless t-shirt. "Will the boys be getting crop tops as well," I queried and was met with sidelong glances and nervous giggles. Guess we'll have to wait for that one until We Cheer 3.