Gunman Clive 2

So, here's supposedly how the meeting went: "hey, we just released our first game and we put in some of the worst possible mechanics in all of video gaming stolen from the 8 bit and 16 bit eras of video games, so now what?" The reply came "let's add even more of the worst possible mechanics to put inside of a video game!" In this aspect, this game clearly surpasses its original but it is in the worst possible way. From the few minutes I played, I can confidently state that now we have AI enemies that read your inputs and react, even if it makes no sense, like one enemy jumped because I jumped when he was completely safe from me and any possible bullets I can fire. Furthermore, there were some annoying pixel-perfect jumps in the first game but there were like three. Three total. In the first couple of levels, this game already had like five and that's when I decided I've had enough of this game. No, I didn't beat it. I have no patience for something that's designed to be stupid to play.

While I do think Gunman Clive 2 is overall an improvement from the first game, it's not without its quirks. Gunman Clive 2 has a more grand adventure than the first game; while the first game was mostly a western setting minus the final world, this is more of a globe-trotting adventure, starting in the Wild West and then ending up in places like Russia, Australia, Japan, South America, China, etc. The variety in settings definitely allowed for more creative level design as well. There is also more of a variety of music in this game, and the music selection in this game is quite good. It plays just like the first game, retaining its solid platforming controls. Where this game ends up slacking a bit is in some of the extra characters you can play as. Gunman Clive plays great and Mrs. Johnson (like Clive but with a SMB2 Peach hover) plays good as well. The problem is with the other two playable characters. The final character (who I won't specify for spoiler sake) doesn't have it too bad, but the main gimmick of that mode is not being able to attack but having better mobility. Not being able to attack is a problem in vehicle stages and, while the better mobility is actually usually more of a boon, it can be kind of a bane in areas with wonky gravity mechanics. The character to definitely get the worst of it is Chieftain Bob. If Gunman Clive is Mega Man, Chieftain Bob is Zero. He goes around with a low range melee spear, though the spear does do double damage. Bob's low range not only is a problem in the vehicle stages like with the final character (basically not being able to hit the vehicles most of the time due to your poor range) but there are segments of the game and even entire boss fights that become insufferable due to your lack of range. Also, for some reason, they didn't think to give Bob power-ups like they did Clive and Johnson. Chieftain Bob is definitely a low point of the game, which is a shame since I actually really like the idea of him conceptually. Overall, a pretty solid game with a couple minor quirks that I would recommend to any fan of side scrolling platformers like Mega Man and Contra, especially if they were fans of the first game.