One of the most important aspects of living on the planet that we live on is that, while it does supply plenty of different resources for us to live and thrive on, we also have to return the favor at some point or another. There have been many ways that we have been able to contribute to protecting our planet, such as with cleaning up trash, planting seeds to grow more food or trees, stopping pollution in small ways, or even by using one of the most common methods, reduce, reuse, and recycle. Of course, many tend to not do any of these things, but there have also been many that do make sure to recycle often, even with video game developers pitching in as well. However… they don’t quite get the concept of recycling, and instead, they use this method for the games that they make instead, leading to us getting products like Adventures of Lolo 2.

I had covered the original Adventures of Lolo a good while ago, and for what it was, I thought it was good, and it was a decent amount of fun solving all of these puzzles, but it dragged on WAY too long with little to no variety in terms of the puzzles for me to consider it anymore then just good. After I had initially played through that game, I didn’t really have any desire to jump right into the second one, so I went about my life as per normal, but I figured one day that it was about time that I checked out the sequels to see what else this series could offer after its initial installment. However, when I went to AOL 2, I then quickly discovered that it was pretty much just Adventures of Lolo DLC sold as a separate game. Practically nothing about the game has changed compared to the original, apart from one or two changes that I will get to in a bit, and as a result, this made it so I couldn’t even be bothered to finish it, as I knew exactly what I would be getting for the whole way through. Despite my reluctance to finish it though, I can’t say that the game is anything more or less then just being ok, able to satisfy those Lolo fanatics who craved more of that insane puzzle challenge from the previous game, but it doesn’t do much for those who weren’t too big on the original title.

For the most part, the game retains the exact same elements that the original game had: the same story as before, the same graphics and art style, the exact same music track played over and over again throughout the game, the same control scheme, the same style of gameplay, the same EVERYTHING. You still take control of Lolo, go through 50 different levels across 10 different floors, push blocks, get hearts, avoid or defeat enemies using power ups you can find, the same ol’ schtick as before, yada yada, you get the gist. It is all the same shit that you have seen numerous times, and I get why it is like this, since Eggerland already had plenty of puzzles just waiting to be ported overseas, but it just simply doesn’t do it for me when there is very little change.

Although, with that being said, not everything about the game is completely the same… just 99% of it. For the final world of the game, you do move from the tower you are traversing through to a castle in the sky, and with this comes a brand new location you do puzzles in!................. It changes absolutely nothing about the gameplay, but hey, it’s at least something different to look at! But speaking of which, if you do want something new for the gameplay, then have no fear, because this game has a final boss, which you need to beat to end off your journey… and he is piss easy. I didn’t fight him myself, but I did watch someone in a video beat him, and all he did was just stand there and constantly use the fire button to shoot projectiles at him until he eventually died. Seeing this, I was glad that I chose to not play up to that point myself, because it would’ve been a huge waste of time all for no payoff whatsoever.

With all that being said, I know for that the majority of this “review”, I have done nothing but bitching and moaning, and I feel like that is somewhat unfair to this game, because again, at the end of the day, it is still AOL at heart, and it is still pretty good stuff. The puzzles this time do seem to be much harder than that of the original game, taking all of the familiar elements that game had and mixing them up for more challenging puzzles, which is something that I can really admire, and I am sure that, again, those who wanted to have more Lolo challenges would be pleased with what they get here. Not only that, but this game also has its own set of secret levels that you can access, each one of them being the hardest puzzles in the game, so that could also be able to please die-hard fans. I, however, am just not one of these die-hard fans. I do completely respect what these games do, and for the good amount of fun that they can provide, but unless they add something new to make these puzzles more interesting and less repetitive, then you can count me out, as far as I’m concerned. Say what you will about other old-school franchises that are repetitive as hell, but at least they do SOMETHING to change up the gameplay rather than doing practically nothing at all.

Overall, despite still keeping up the same quality as the original title, as well as upping the difficulty for those who mastered the original game, Adventures of Lolo 2 is just a nothing sequel at the end of the day, one that manages to add lots of new things to do for those who loved the original game, but it doesn’t do anything else to try to entice new players, or even older players, to try it out other than just by having “more stuff”. I would recommend it for those who really liked the original Adventures of Lolo, as well as those who are into simple, yet increasingly complex puzzle games like this, but for everyone else, there are plenty of other options you can choose over this if you want your puzzle fix. All I’m saying though is that, if AOL 3 manages to also be nothing more than just these same puzzles over and over again, I am going to lose my shit………………………. it’s more of these same puzzles over and over again, isn’t it?

Game #483

Well, this game is a bit of an underwhelming sequel. As far as I can tell, this is essentially another level pack for the first game. That's mostly fine, the first game had some great puzzle levels so it could have been pretty good. Unfortunately this game comparatively was pretty easy.

There is one new mechanic that wasn't utilized in the first game IIRC. Blocking enemy spawns so the enemies appear elsewhere. This is kind of a flawed mechanic right from the concept level, because there's no way to tell if or where an enemy is gonna spawn. Sometimes you can deduce it because the level would be impossible otherwise, but it's often not obvious. And the game also doesn't teach you how to do this within the game. I already knew about this mechanic going in, but it could have been pretty frustrating not knowing about an entire mechanic.

Anyways, I found I kinda just blazed through this game really easily. I don't think I was stuck on any level for more than a few attempts. I guess that's not inherently a bad thing, I was just surprised and a little disappointed.

And of course, the game did nothing to fix the issues of the first game. There's still a pointless lives system that does nothing but waste time. You can't tell which heart blocks give you egg shots so it results in trial & error and guesswork, which is only made more tedious by the lives system.
I would say I still enjoyed this game, cause the gameplay is still fun and there was at least some puzzle solving, but I was pretty underwhelmed by this one.