If you think Steel Battalion sounds like a great name for a rock group, you’re not alone. A new Jersey five-piece adopted the name back in 2004 and released a handful of tracks. It makes sense, really. Anyone who can master the original Steel Battalion controller, which included three pedals and more than 40 buttons, is more than capable of playing a musical instrument at a professional level.

The first thing you’ll notice about surprise sequel Steel Battalion Heavy Armour is its control scheme. The costly and intimidating control panel required by the original mech combat sim is out. In its place, we have the Kinect, Microsoft’s prohibitively expensive gesture based solution. If Capcom is hoping to make to make its sci-fi series more affordable to the average Joe, it has a funny way of going about it.

The new input method does sound considerably more accessible, but we can’t yet be certain that players won’t be confronted with a wall of ‘virtual controls’. Imagine trying to turn knobs, press buttons and pull levers using the Kinect. This is a nightmare scenario, people!

Capcom is yet to announce a release date for the Xbox 360 exclusive Steel Battalion Heavy Armour.