Rick Dangerous 2

The Good
Right after surviving his first adventure, Rick Dangerous has no time for vacations. For his new mission, he gets rid of the old Indy-style hat and coat, revealing a dashing superhero outfit - complete with blue cape and laser gun. This time he's up against the evil Fat Guys from outer space, to defeat them he has to make his way through five big levels.

Each new world has it's own characteristics: The alien ship that has landed in Hyde park is protected with laser traps and patrolling robots, the ice planet Freezia features falling icicles and thawing ice blocks containing malevolent penguins. In the Forests of Vegetablia Rick has to climb huge trees while avoiding sharp spikes and poisoned arrows, and the Atomic Mud Mines are infested with slime monsters and dripping acid pools.

The game mechanics have not much changed from the first part, they're still simple, but effective. Rick's new ability to slide bombs along the floor is most welcome. Technically the game also has improved a bit, the 16-color graphics are presented with a pretty VGA color palette, and for sound effects the AdLib card is supported.

The best new feature is the level selection. While it's still required to complete the whole game in one go without losing more than six lives, all but the last level can be selected for practising. This makes the game a lot less frustrating than the predecessor.

The Bad
Unfortunately the level design is not as devious as in the first part of the series. The new traps and enemies cannot conceal the conservative layout of the levels and a general lack of original ideas. Ideal for beginners, but anyone who played the first Rick Dangerous game might get bored after a few screens.

The Bottom Line
A solid platform action game with nice graphics and cute animation. Simple gameplay and slow pace appeal to beginners, players who look out for more challenging puzzles should play the first part of the series instead.