It adds a few new enemies and gimmicks that make the game more interesting than its predecessor and incorporates the 2.5D in its levels better instead of using it just for aesthetics. It's also much harder, as the later levels are long and have difficult jumps that can easily get you killed, forcing to do it all over again as there are no checkpoints. There was also a really difficult boss which had 3 phases and felt much harder than anything else.

Overall I liked Clockwork Knight 2 a bit more than the first one. OST is still amazing too.

The Quantum of Solace of Clockwork Knight games in that your enjoyment is dependent on how soon after you're experiencing it from the first. Clockwork Knight 2 is straight up referred to as "Part 2" in the menus and is essentially the back half of a more complete game. As such, it doesn't really make any improvements over the first game so much as it just continues on as if there wasn't a break between them.

The original Clockwork Knight is a very short and simple platformer that never really exceeds mid-level difficulty, which is about where this game starts. In true Sonic & Knuckles fashion, the opening level is pretty straight-forward, but the difficulty ramps up pretty quickly after. My problem with Clockwork Knight 2 is that this increase in difficulty doesn't really feel "good." There's some paths of coins that will lead you directly into bottomless pits, hazards that are hard to plan for and only really passable after you've lost a life to them, and some platforming in the later levels that straight up feels lousy. Like the previous game, there's no checkpoints, so dying will send you all the way back to the start of the level. While this was still an issue in that game, it's exacerbated here given the overall longer length of Clockwork Knight 2's levels.

It's not that Clockwork Knight 2 is an awful game or anything, but it's definitely more uneven than the first, and is only at its best when it feels like more of that game. Which, you know, is fine. It's fine! It's just like playing Toy Story, it's fine. Really, I'm ok with not playing some big incredible game right now, I'm just after those holiday vibes. I haven't spent Christmas with my family in nearly a decade and I don't have anyone special in my life, and I live in a desert, so Christmas never really feels like Christmas unless I go out of my way to fabricate those sorts of holiday "emotions" or whatever you want to call them. Apparently I've chosen Sega Saturn games to do this with in recent years, which is nothing if not a sign of my growing mania.

There's no reason not to immediately play this follow-up after completing the first game; not only does it pick up where it left off story wise, but also it adds onto where the median difficulty ended up. The title screen even refers to the new levels as "Part 2". At the end of the day they offer practically identical experiences with different level designs, so it is clear that these two games are best played back to back. When doing so, you actually feel a lot more satisfied because the amount of content when combined is much more appreciable. On their own, they are paltry lengthed.

The cast of characters and enemies are the same, the controls and mechanics are shared wholesale, and the jagged 2D/3D mishmash aesthetic isn't "improved" upon whatsoever (not a bad thing). Even the bosses from the first game return, exactly how they were, in the context of a cool boss rush mode. Speaking of, the new big bads are surprisingly far more dynamic and actually rather stunning when compared to the first game's vanilla encounters. It's the only aspect that SEGA felt to pizzazz up rather than keep the same.

Clockwork Knight 1/2 are certainly still worth playing, mind you. Not in today's world of retro revivals will you get an experience quite like this. Its inherent nicheness and forever-exclusivity to one of the biggest flops in console history will mean that your own time playing it will feel a lot more special than the ubiquity of more well known releases.