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If you didn't like Sonic Blast Man, have I got good news for you. Remember that urban myth you heard long ago about sequels that actually surpass their predecessors? Turns out, that ain't no urban myth...IT'S REAL! Sonic Blast Man II gives you more of nearly everything. Even the plot is better in this game and it sucks! Thankfully, nobody really cares about the plot behind this game (or the original) though I will tell you that your objective is to deal with a diabolical alien creature called Yafu who is wrecking havoc on the humans, whom he thinks are nothing more than mere parasites. Sonia, Captain Choyear, and Sonic Blast Man go out to save their world!
The game has improved significantly in several areas, but I don't feel that the graphics have really improved much. In a number of ways, I feel that the graphics are actually worse than the original. The environments are still good (I like the missiles raining on the first stage intro) and enemies are still good in their design, but the colors seem to take a hit. Sonia's fire attack looks nice, but could have been better since the colors used for the attack aren't the best. The characters are smaller, and not quite as arcade-like, but still very good. The graphics haven't dropped much, and the audio is improved over the first game. Sonic Blast Man has his cool Japanese voice (the "Take That!" of the original was just so darn cheesy) and Sonia and Choyear don't sound bad either. The music is good and overall, the graphics and sound do the SNES justice.
The actual GAMEPLAY elements are what make this game a rare gem on the SNES. If you noticed right from reading the "General Information" at the very top, the game is now two players (and two players simultaneously at that) and the game has three playable characters: Sonia, Sonic Blast Man, and Captain Choyear (with a certain code, you can both pick the same character). Each character has strengths and weaknesses. Sonia is fast, but her attacks are weak. Sonic Blast Man is obviously the middle man. Unlike Sonia and Choyear, Sonic Blastman can still do different combo finishers depending on the directional key you are holding when you end the combo. Captain Choyear is big and slow, but very powerful. I love this guy and his ability to jump in the air and slam a guy into the ground. Instead of one ultimate attack, characters now have two of them and you have a "number" for ultimate attack power at the top of the screen. One attack is weaker and cost one off of your number stock and the other attack (that hits all enemies on the screen) costs two.
That's all fine and good, but there are other things that make this vastly more improved than SBM as well. You can now dash (complainers rejoice!), do running attacks, quickly roll left or right to avoid attacks...you even have a secondary attack button that lets out "strong" attacks. That's right. You are no longer limited to one button for attacking. You will need to know how all of the varied attacks work too, since different enemies require different strategies to beat depending on a character's moveset. You fight goons that carry shields, but if you use Sonic Blast Man's combo finish that ends with an uppercut (followed by a sonic wave), they can block the wave and retort with an attack of their own! I found this game moderately more challenging than the first, which is odd because of all the improvements the game has over the original. When I first played this, I expected it to be even easier. The game has a standard options mode (though you can't listen to the music this time around) so nothing really new as far as that goes. Overall, Sonic Blast Man II is an awesome game that's cool alone and fun as all heck with a friend. It's a shame that the game no longer has the bonus stages of the original though.
- Written by Vyse the determined - |
