Permit me another formalist critique. When I was talking about this game with others, the subject of Sonic inevitably came up. Now, I have nostalgia for those 16-bit Sonic games, but many people, myself included, feel frustration with those old 2D Sonic games because they “don’t let you go fast”. They throw spike traps in your way, they make you bump into walls, they make you do annoying sliding block puzzles. And it doesn’t help then that getting back up to speed feels incredibly slow sans spindash. But a 2D Sonic Defender dissented. There are people who insist that Sonic was never about going fast, and I find this patently absurd. Speed was a heavy aspect of Sonic’s marketing and it’s incredibly hard to ignore. However, the 2D Sonic Defender changed the angle a bit: it’s not a matter of speed, but of momentum. This seems like a fine distinction, but it’s one that’s worth taking up. Because momentum, rather than speed, doesn’t prioritize the rate at which things happen, but rather the duration and weight of player agency. Momentum is not just speed, but also slowness, and the way we move between them. When a Sonic game throws road spikesin your way as you’re trying to move through a level, and then you have to rev up again, the game robs you of your momentum. At its worst moments, Sonic does not respect your inertia.

So here’s how Freedom Planet 2 takes numerous steps to maintain, respect, and foster your momentum. If nothing else, I think it should be remembered as a game that did this. The first game, Freedom Planet, felt like a serious attempt to turn the elements of those early Sonic games into a game that felt good for players who weren’t prepared to master Sonic’s weird physics and memorize its sometimes uncompromising level design. I think it succeeded at that pretty well, and enjoyed it. But Freedom Planet 2 feels like a step above, creating a new echelon that every game in this lineage is going to have to reckon with. And while I’m a bit of an outsider (I like Sonic but I’m not one of the gremlin crew) as I’ve not been completely dedicated to all those games and their fan projects or things that take it as inspiration, I feel very confident in saying that this game did a better job of allowing me to have fun with inertia than any of the ones I’ve played. Freedom Planet 2 empowers players to harness and control their momentum, and I think it blows every game that inspired it out of the water.

Now, the game does this in a number of ways, with a lot of level design affordances to keep you speedy. (Even the puzzle sections here are snappy and fast.) In fact, almost every other new level mechanic the game springs on you is a way of playing with and transforming inertia. And I could get into specifics there, but I think it would be both tedious to write and read descriptions of levels. So I think the most prominent and immediately understandable way that Freedom Planet 2 powers up your momentum is through its player character design. There’s one thing that every character has that, if it were alone added to a game like this, would be great: the player has a guard button they can simply tap to evade damage. The guard has a marginal impact on your speed, and lets you dodge the knockback and slowdown you’d receive if got hit. So even in the event that you are moving too fast, aren’t prepared, and careen into a laser blast, if you’re quick to dodge (or turn on the auto-guard option in the assist menu!) you won’t suffer that consequence, and your momentum is maintained.

But there’s more! Every character also has a moveset that enables them to quickly gain speed, so even from the get-go, and even if you do get hit, it won’t be long before you’re back to zooming. I played through the game with each character (this is not normal for me, I just think this game is very good) and here is a rundown of how that works

Lilac: Water dragon protagonist. The most straight forward in this sense, Lilac has a super dash that does damage as she rockets off in a straight line, and even bounces off wall in that mode. It reminds me a bit of Epsilon Eagle’s dash. She also has a dive kick, and a spin attack double jump. But a lot of Lilac’s speed comes from that dash and using it right.

Carol: Bad bitch catgirl. Carol’s special throws a disk attack that she can zip to. She also has a little dash she can perform after jumping, but if performed close to the ground before landing, will give her a real boost. Holding down as she runs will also turn her into a little ball of fury and deal damage to what ever she rolls through. She can also snag a motorcycle power up that boosts her speed by a lot, and actually acts as her jump disc!

Milla: Green magic dog scientist. Milla is weird but that weirdness makes her really cool. At first she doesn’t seem to have a lot of speed options. Her jump ability is a flutter jump. Her special is a projectile/shield and her melee attacks dont move her forward. However, when you guard, Milla gains a floating green cube beside her which powers up her projectiles and also completely transforms her melee. Now, her melee unleashes a big column of green energy which does a ton of damage, but more importantly blasts her back. Newton’s third law, fucker. Utilizing this lets you jump higher and move faster. Building speed with Milla is probably best done by summoning a cube, jumping just a little bit, and then blasting behind you to propel yourself forward. Done repeatedly, you can really start zooming, and combined with the flutter, the air time Milla can get is unbelievable.

Neera: Icy nationalist panda knight. Neera works the least for me. She has the tools but they never feel quite right to me. Neera can enter a “Frost Art” mode, when she can freeze enemies, and one of her abilities spawns a bunch of frost spires that she can bounce off of. The main way Neera gains momentum though is by attacking twice. When you attack the second time, in the air or on the ground, Neera gets a boost. This works and you can get some major speed, but feels like her only tool for momentum. Also, she has a spear, but you can’t even pogo with it, which is frankly a crime. Unfortunately, this ends my little list on a down note. The irony is that in most other games Neera would feel like a standout, but in Freedom Planet 2, where all the other girls feel dynamic and snappy, Neera feels a little incomplete.

The result is a game that feels invested and supportive of player inertia, enabling you to zoom around and have fun in its environments. It’s a triumph, and not just for that. There are a lot of reasons this game owns bones beyond this: the soundtrack is full of bops, the spritework is beautiful, it’s got a million cool boss battles, the story gets really serious about colonialism, and also there’s lesbians, too. There’s a reason it’s a GOTY contender. Treasure-tier shit. I’m not even a furry. I just think it rules.

Anyway, please consider playing Freedom Planet 2. It’s very fun and I liked it.