Don Doko Don 2 tries to be different by ditching the single screen gameplay of the first and going for a side scroller. It's pretty good but it's sort of expected considering Natsume made this game.
The gameplay has you whacking things with a hammer and throwing flattened enemies. There's only 5 levels and they are good for the most part. It's biggest issue for possibly many is the game is pretty easy especially when you can have up to 8 hit points. Despite the short range of your hammer, nothing is too challenging to beat. You can even get some special weapons.
There's some creative stuff here like having to hit the moon in the background to open the door, to going up to a location via planes smoke they leave behind, and even a door that loops the room forever. The water level is even a normal one meaning no swimming controls which is nice for once. The bosses sadly are all pretty boring and don't have much thought into them. They basically revolve around throwing enemies at them till you win with some pretty obvious spots to dodge that IDK how the devs missed. The game also lacks co-op which is odd considering the first game did and even has that 2nd player in the intro but no where else in the game.
Overall it's a good game that should be played by anyone interested in the genre. It never got a US release but it does have a fan translation for those interested. I should also note this game had the unfortunate fate of coming out the same day as Bucky O'Hare and Gimmick, two games that have lots of fans especially Gimmick. Still regardless, it's 2023 and you should give it a try someday. While this isn't a Taito developed game, they own the series so might as well say happy 70th anniversary Taito!
The gameplay has you whacking things with a hammer and throwing flattened enemies. There's only 5 levels and they are good for the most part. It's biggest issue for possibly many is the game is pretty easy especially when you can have up to 8 hit points. Despite the short range of your hammer, nothing is too challenging to beat. You can even get some special weapons.
There's some creative stuff here like having to hit the moon in the background to open the door, to going up to a location via planes smoke they leave behind, and even a door that loops the room forever. The water level is even a normal one meaning no swimming controls which is nice for once. The bosses sadly are all pretty boring and don't have much thought into them. They basically revolve around throwing enemies at them till you win with some pretty obvious spots to dodge that IDK how the devs missed. The game also lacks co-op which is odd considering the first game did and even has that 2nd player in the intro but no where else in the game.
Overall it's a good game that should be played by anyone interested in the genre. It never got a US release but it does have a fan translation for those interested. I should also note this game had the unfortunate fate of coming out the same day as Bucky O'Hare and Gimmick, two games that have lots of fans especially Gimmick. Still regardless, it's 2023 and you should give it a try someday. While this isn't a Taito developed game, they own the series so might as well say happy 70th anniversary Taito!