Windjammers 2 Review – Flying Disc Battles Return

Was there a desire for Windjammers 2? you have no idea

Ever since I was little, I’ve always loved arcade games. Graphically they were spectacular, they had simple but effective mechanics and their level of difficulty demanded the best of you. Of all the titles that I have enjoyed, there are only a few that I have on my podium, and one of them is Windjammers. That’s why I was waiting for the job of Dotemu with great passion and enthusiasm. The company knows how to treat classic works with care and affection, improving their mechanics but never losing the essence that made them so good. Luckily they did it again Windbreaker 2, where some aspects that we will describe in this analysis improve, but maintaining the personality that made this game so good. frisbee. Ready for the frisbee battle?

J. Costa, the hero we all need

For those who do not know the proposal, Windjammers 2 invites us to live exciting games where we have to “score goals” to the rival with a frisbee. We will have several attacks, special powers and tricks to deceive the rival and sneak the puck into his goal, so You will have to be smart and have very good reflexes. In addition, we will have scenarios with obstacles and special characteristics, except for the areas of the objective which will add more points than others. A simple staging a priori, but catchy for its accessibility.

In this second part, we will have the six players we saw in the first iteration, with two new members included in the initial roster. Each of these athletes will have different characteristics. There are those who are faster but less strong and vice versa, some who use brute force but are penalized in terms of speed. There is no better or worse, but we will have to look for the “athlete” who best suits our style of play and whose special power is also effective for us.

Bounce, bounce… and in your ass it explodes

Rebounds will be the spice of Windjammers 2. Through the walls, the effects that we can give to the disc, or the “balloons” if it is very close to the net, we will add points that give us the victory. For this occasion, in addition to the characteristic special moves, we will have new abilities. To start, we can jump and air finish with the disc. We will also have as a novelty a bar that will recharge and which will offer us a special move (be careful if we counter-attack with another special move, because then the game becomes crazy).

If we like fast play, we can even return the frisbee “on the first touch”, no need to grab it with your hands. All this, after all, will only be small additions that do not tarnish the original game experience, and add variations that make it much richer in mechanics. Precisely, I was so used to the original installment that I was afraid that they had “tinkered” with its control scheme too much as seen in the trailers, but we can breathe in this respect.

Like the good old times

In reality, in some ways, Dotemu has been quite conservative. Too much, I would say. Arcade mode will be a simple 5 game tutorial and nothing else, without any prompting except to repeat it with another character or difficulty. Unlike what we saw in Streets of Rage 4, passing this aspect to you solo

it unlocks nothing at all and leaves a bittersweet feeling. Come on, the game is what it is and you can’t ask for much more. But it wouldn’t have been more of an additional way that went a little out of the already known bases, new protagonists, etc. Who knows if in the future…

Sprints through the net

What’s not clear is how this will play out with MEverything online, the main source of attention especially for Xbox users, since Windjammers 2 sale in Game Pass, with all that that implies. Competitive matches, just like we saw in the first installment released on Switch or PS4, have a progression system that will add or subtract points as we win or lose games.

We will advance in several leagues, and as is logical, the higher our score, the more difficult players we will find who will make us sweat a lot. The few games I was able to play before the official premiere of the title They went well, with no connection problems or gap Nothing like, although it is too early to comment on it. We will see over time if the game needs to be fixed or if it takes time to find a match.

What a pleasure to drive the rival in his goal

Visually, it’s a bit strange at first sight. We leave the sprites to face a design that has already been very characteristic of DotEmu. You might like it more or less, but that doesn’t stop us from enjoying the games. The face of each player is the only thing that shocks me a bit. They look less serious than in the first part, but we will only see that at very specific moments in the game. Then, in “each battle”, the game changes, and this new visual aspect allows you to contemplate a whole spectacle of effects, lights and particles which is very striking.

Conclusion of Windjammers 2

DotEmu continues to know how to “pay homage” to the classic sagas and we see it represented very well in the game that we analyze. The games of frisbee which we will discuss in this sequel are conservative compared to the first part, but that does not mean that they are bad. We’ll get excited again, jump on the couch and curse the rivals who beat us every game.

Windjammers 2 has new features, while still respecting the original work that worked so well back then. There will be new attacks, new players and even the matches will last longer. The only fear that exists, (and which we won’t be able to assess for well after a few weeks) is how its online appearance will work. We’ll see how the community reacts to their ranked matches. Fortunately, its release on Xbox Game Pass will encourage many people to try it out and taste the essence of flying discs. I’ll wait for you there, of course.