Rick Dangerous 2
Rick Dangerous 2 is a platform game developed by Core Design and was released in 1990 and published by Micro Style. As the game starts, UFOs land in London and Rick Dangerous takes it upon himself to go to Hyde Park to settle the score.
Contents
Gameplay
There are a number of changes to the gameplay to its predecessor. For a start, Rick is now armed with a laser gun and bombs that can not only be placed but slid, making way for strategic bomb-placement. The pogo stick is replaced by a punch attack. Rick can also employ a special flying vehicle in a few parts of the game, which allows for fast movement but this may also become a danger factor.
While there is a linear story to the game, the first four levels may be played in any order.
Completing the four levels...
- Hyde Park
- Ice caverns on the planet Freezia
- the deep forest of Vegetablia
- the "atomic mud mines"
...unlocks the fifth and final level: the Fat Guy's Headquarters, which ends in a boss fight.
It is to notice that Rick Dangerous was "by far" better developed than rick dangerous (first opus) as it features Intro page, musics and so on, yet both games compare well in term of fun and playability.
Unclosed ending
The very end of Rick Dangerous 2 did not complete the story. The game finished with a cliffhanger: the Fat Guy escaping at the final moment through a teleporter device, and Rick following him with the familiar captions "What will Rick do next?". Although this may have hinted at another sequel to the story, Rick Dangerous 3 was never made.
Rick Dangerous creators instead switch on to Tomb Raider, in 3D.
As many games of this time, the 3rd version coincided with avenment of full 3D engines on 16/32 bit computers.
And it was decided that the Fan-Servicable-and-largely-Boobed Lara Croft was a clever choice compaired to the Lame-comical-Cartoonish Rick Dangerous.
In a way, Rick Dangerous remains Lara Croft's Father.
Critical response
The game was highly received in most magazines: Amstrad Action gave the game a 97% rating - the highest mark given in AA history at the time - and a Mastergame accolade. In the review Adam Waring stated that the game is "a very polished product indeed. A tremendous amount of work has gone into the game design, graphics and sound. In essence, it’s a simple platform game, but the way it’s been presented makes it far, far more than that."
Palette Screw Up
It was pointed by CGNsoft that Rick Dangerous 2 may have had an error concerning its palette and ink setting.
Unmodified version.
Modified Version.
Of course the CGNsoft Patched version of Rick Dangerous 2 is available to Download at CPC-Power and at many other places of the Amstradom.
And it looks damn better.
Commercials
Game map
- Game map of Rick Dangerous II
Complete map
Level 1
Level 2
Videos
Longplay {{#ev:youtube|9pui3H18L6E|300}} {{#ev:youtube|N4QAkYdcSSY|300}} {{#ev:youtube|LQ-u9oVLrOM|300}} {{#ev:youtube|wd_gVGEA2Qo|300}} {{#ev:youtube|-JAnxBCoUdk|300}} {{#ev:youtube|ZT0UAshDXYM|300}}
Thanks to Axelino for those.
Just too bad he didn't used the Patched version...
Notes
- Waring, Adam. Amstrad Action, issue 62, November 1990.
Links
- Rick Dangerous 2 at CPC-Power
- The Amstrad CPC Games Resource
- Rick dangerous 128+
- Rick Dangerous 2 at the English-language Wikipedia
