Challenging, but not Frustrating. Better Than the Original
After the finishing the Bit.Trip series of games, Gaijin Games has gone back to do a sequel/spin-off to Bit.Trip Runner, which was my favorite of the previous games. And Gaijin has pulled out all the stops. Not content to the pixelated and blocky visuals of their previous games, everything in this game has been beautifully rendered and fully polygonal. They present the game like Runner 2 is the next episode of a saturday morning cartoon based on Commander Video's adventures. The announcer they use is fantastic, and thy have animated a few short sequences throughout the game.
If you played Runner, then you know the basics. Commander Video, our main character, runs on his own and you must jump, slide, kick, and shield yourself from the obstacles in your way. The farther you get in the game, its about combining 2 of those commands at the same time, and switching between them in rapid succession, that is the challenge. Each level is full of gold bricks, and four red plus-signs. As long as you get to an exit, you've completed the level and can go on to the next. But if you get all the collectibles, then you get an extra chance for points at the end of the level. Also some levels have hidden treasure chests with collectible outfits for your characters.
The biggest change from the previous game is the addition of checkpoints. The previous game was one hit and your dead, start from the beginning again. Some of the levels were very long in that game...and well frustrating. Runner 2 works in the same way, one hit and restart, except about halfway through each level is a checkpoint, which once you pass through, you just restart from that checkpoint. But if you still want the challenge from the original game, the checkpoint is optional and you can jump over it giving you 50,000 extra points to your score.
The game also has a world map similar to Super Mario 3 or Super Mario World, and some levels have alternate exits which get you to certain levels you couldn't get to before. In each world, one level is dubbed the Key Vault, and once you beat it all the keys are available in that world. Previously you could not go to some paths in the levels because they were locked off. Each level has 3 difficulty options, Rather Easy, Just Right, and Rather Hard. Enabling you to scale the game to your skill level, and give a bit of replay-ability.
Playing the game is a lot of fun, I found it a lot more enjoyable, and fair than the original with the addition of checkpoints. I'm almost never mad at the game or mechanics, everything responds very fast, and its always clear what you have to do. If I get hit and I have to restart, I know what I did wrong. The levels are just long enough that they take a bit to beat especially the first time going through, but short enough that I found myself saying, "just one more level" over and over, till an hour had gone by. There is still no feeling like having a flawless run in that game.
I played this game on the WiiU, this game mirrors whats on the screen and the sound coming out of the TV, on the gamepad. I played much of the game just on the gamepad itself, while the wife was watching Project: Runway on the TV. The game looks perfect and very clear on the gamepad.
Runner 2 is a very pretty game, and very charming in its presentation.
Runner 2 has simple, but good, challenging gameplay and mechanics.
Runner 2 is a little addictive and encourages you collect everything.
Runner 2 is a pretty great game!