Gobliins 2: The Prince Buffoon

The Good
Gobliins 2: The Prince Buffoon is a game similar in style to the first game, which I enjoyed the first time I played it. It had multiple protagonists that you could take control of, and every scene in the game is a puzzle in itself. So I expected more of the same with the sequel, and I was not disappointed.

The amusing introduction shows what happens to the Prince Buffoon and introduces us to Fingus and Winkle, the two goblins who will accompany you through the game (hench the two i's in the title) named Fingus and Winkle, both of them having different characteristics. Everything in the intro is amusing, from the wizard to the father who mourns for his son.

Gameplay remains the same as the first Gobliiins, with numerous tasks to complete on each screen, and the two goblins are expected to work together to accomplish them. Everything highlighted on each screen can be interacted with and can be an experiment to see what they do. Both goblins can talk to other characters within the same screen and communicate with the player through gestures such as wagging fingers at them if they can't interact with an object and giving the player the thumbs up if they do something right.

Part of the fun is getting Fingus or Winkle to hurt themselves, and you can do this as often as you like as there is no such thing as an energy bar in the game. But doing mean things to them is sometimes necessary to finish some tasks. In the first screen, for example, Winkle must be hit with a sausage so that while the villagers laugh at him, Fingus can get the milk bottle. Once all possible tasks are completed, they can move onto the next screen. Some tasks require the two goblins to walk between screens.

The hand-painted backgrounds are quite colorful, and the animations are superb. The copy protection that the disk version used was quite creative at the time, and it still requires your manual if you want to get into the game. The copy protection screen looks excellent. In fact, it looks much better than the graphics in the game, in my opinion.

There is excellent background music, and there are also zany sound effects. Fingus whistling a mini-tune while he is waiting patiently is a nice touch. There is a CD version of Gobliins 2, which replaces the background music with audio tracks. However, if you already played the CD version of the first game, I doubt that you would want to listen to the game's audio tracks.

Gobliins 2 packs a few nice features, and among them include the ability to save games which is more efficient than the password system that the last game used, since you can give each one of them meaningful description. Jokers allow you to get hints on the scene you are in, but you can use up to three of these. I don't know whether there is a cheat that allows you to get infinite jokers. jokers. Finally, a notepad allows you to write notes on how to overcome any obstacles, in case you want to have a break and then come back later and have a go at it again.

The Bad
Most of the puzzles rely on quick timing, especially those at the end of the game. In some situations, I had to repeat my actions about ten times because I wasn't fast enough.

The Bottom Line
So Gobliins 2 has the same gameplay mechanics as its predecessor, but with some additional features. There are several tasks in each screen and each goblin must work together to accomplish them, but some tasks require you to go back and forth between screens. The game provides a little bit of humor, both in the introduction, and in the way that you need to hurt one of the goblins in order to complete a few tasks. (Thank god there isn't an energy bar then!). The graphics and sound is excellent as well. The added music is good, although the music in the disk version is much better than the CD version. This is an excellent sequel every Gobliiins fan should not miss out on.