It has been over 8 months since we last covered a Pocky & Rocky game on this website, and that is a fucking shame, so we gotta fix this problem immediately! Not just because I have been wanting to get to the next game as soon as possible, but also because I remember having such a great time with the original game. There may have been some stages with some bullshit moments here or there, but it managed to take what the original KiKi KaiKai did and then do it even better, with more variety in the stages, toning down on the difficulty, adding a second player to the mix, and providing you with the same run ‘n gun gameplay that you knew before, except they actually made it a lot more fun and memorable. And thankfully, everybody back in 1992 realized this as well, praising the game enough to where it would get a direct sequel just two years later, with it simply being known as Pocky & Rocky 2.
Unlike with the original game, I haven’t really touched the second game, or any other game after this, at all, and I don’t know why. I do own a physical copy of the game, but I never really got the urge to pop it into my SNES to give it a go for the longest time, probably because of the fact that nobody really talked about it that much. But, figuring that it was probably gonna be just as good as the original, I decided that it was about time I go ahead and give it a shot, so was it as good as the original? Uh……. yes? And if not, it is REALLY close in quality. It does everything that a sequel should do, taking what the last game did and adding onto it to make it a much more fun and enjoyable experience, but it does also have its own set of issues that bring it down quite a bit.
The story is straight out of a Mario game, where during a festival in Pocky’s home town, the fair maiden Princess Luna is suddenly kidnapped by the evil Impy and her minions, who plans to take her back to her master so that he can take her hand in marriage, so it is up to Pocky, joined once again by Rocky and a few other allies, to rescue Princess Luna, take down Impy, and stop this mysterious entity’s evil plan from unfolding, which is yet another generic plot to add onto all of the other generic plots, but at least there are cutscenes in-between all of the stages now, making it somewhat more interesting than before. The graphics are still pretty great, looking very similar to that of the last game, but with more detail given to the characters, enemies, and so on, making it look just that little bit nicer, the music is still great, providing many more enjoyable and appropriately themed tunes throughout all of the stages, even if the tracks do tend to blend in with each other too often, and the gameplay/control takes what worked from the original game, keeps it that way, and further expands it to make it that much more fun and addicting to play through with friends… for the most part.
The game is a run ‘n gun/scrolling shmup, where you take control of Pocky, Rocky, or any of the other fun faces that you see throughout the film, take on a set of 8 and a half stages through many different Japanese locations, take out many different enemies based on Japanese mythology using your trusty limitless supply of cards, leaves, or whatever else you have on you, gather plenty of different powerups to make yourself much stronger and more capable then before, also allowing you to defend yourself, and take on plenty of bosses, who at times can be pretty manageable and even easy, but for most of the time…. well, we’ll get to that later. For those who played through the previous game, you know almost exactly what you are gonna get here, meaning you will be able to jump into it and have fun with it with no problem, and even for those that aren’t experienced with the second game, there is an optional tutorial stage you can play through, so beginners and pros alike will be able to get into this and have a great time.
Unlike the original game, which just primarily focused on making KiKi KaiKai an actually good game, this one actually introduced plenty of new features that do make the game that much more interesting to play through when compared to the original. Now, whenever you defeat the many enemies you will face, you can get plenty of money, which you can now take to shops to spend on items, which is pretty helpful, and speaking of items, there are quite a lot of them in this game! Of course, you have the orbs which power up your shots, and then you have extra pieces of cloth that will allow you to take extra hits, icons that can swap the partner that you currently have, strategy guides that can give you a hint for facing off against whatever threats may lie ahead, and even some bunny ears which…… I actually don’t know what they do. I think they are supposed to make you move faster, but I didn’t notice a difference when I was wearing them, so maybe I am just stupid.
And yes, you did just read that right, ladies and raccoons, because in this game, you can swap the partners that you have with you, both in-between levels and whenever you find those icons in said levels. You can stick with Rocky the whole time, but you can also switch to the Little Ninja, who is… pretty much exactly what she sounds like, Bomber Bob, a big ol’ guy that can throw around bombs that do MASSIVE amounts of damage, and you can even unlock more partners as you go along, such as the Scarecrow and a whole-ass robot. These guys weren’t really too much help, as they would end up dying pretty quickly a lot of the time they were out, but when they did manage to help out, they did make getting through some parts of the game a heck of a lot easier, and it does give the second player quite a lot to choose from when it comes to who they want to play as, so that is cool.
And finally, as a little cherry on top of this whole experience, there are also different kinds of stages that you can take on… and by that, I mean there are two stages where you will end up riding on the back of something, turning the game into an actual shmup where you gotta take down enemies and bosses as fast as you can. These stages aren’t necessarily too much greater then the main stages, but still, they were a nice change of pace from constantly having to do the same thing over and over and over again, and they did provide quite a bit of welcome challenge, so I do appreciate that they were there at all.
Now, with all that being said, this seems like it would be the perfect sequel to the original game, with absolutely nothing wrong with it to speak of whatsoever, right? Well… not exactly. There is one problem that this game does heavily suffer from, and that can all be traced to the bosses, who are an absolute PAIN to fight, not because they are too hard or anything, but more so because they take WAY too long to die. Aside from one or two exceptions, all of these bosses are damage sponges, needing you to wail on them CONSTANTLY with your attacks if you are to even have a chance at beating them quickly, and as you could probably imagine, this made fighting any boss whatsoever an absolute nightmare, just because of how long it would take. I shit you not, some of the bosses in this game, including the final one, managed to take 15-20 minutes to kill, and I had maxed out strength during all of these fights, all just because they take SO MUCH TIME to kill, making it so that I dreaded getting to these fights rather than looking forward to them.
Overall, despite how much the boss fights completely fucking suck, Pocky & Rocky 2 is still a worthy follow-up to the original game, giving you the same basic, yet very fun and addicting co-op action that you know and love, with some new features and gameplay mechanics to mess around with. I would definitely recommend it for those who loved the original game, as well as those who are big fans of old school co-op games in general, because even though you are probably gonna hate having to fight all of the bosses, you will still have a great time with the other 90% of the game, and that can make all the difference at the end of the day. It’s just a shame though that, after this game, we would never see another entry in this series ever again……….. until 7 years later. Then again, most of you probably don’t even know about Pocky & Rocky with Becky…….. which speaking of, who the FUCK is Becky?
Game #613
Unlike with the original game, I haven’t really touched the second game, or any other game after this, at all, and I don’t know why. I do own a physical copy of the game, but I never really got the urge to pop it into my SNES to give it a go for the longest time, probably because of the fact that nobody really talked about it that much. But, figuring that it was probably gonna be just as good as the original, I decided that it was about time I go ahead and give it a shot, so was it as good as the original? Uh……. yes? And if not, it is REALLY close in quality. It does everything that a sequel should do, taking what the last game did and adding onto it to make it a much more fun and enjoyable experience, but it does also have its own set of issues that bring it down quite a bit.
The story is straight out of a Mario game, where during a festival in Pocky’s home town, the fair maiden Princess Luna is suddenly kidnapped by the evil Impy and her minions, who plans to take her back to her master so that he can take her hand in marriage, so it is up to Pocky, joined once again by Rocky and a few other allies, to rescue Princess Luna, take down Impy, and stop this mysterious entity’s evil plan from unfolding, which is yet another generic plot to add onto all of the other generic plots, but at least there are cutscenes in-between all of the stages now, making it somewhat more interesting than before. The graphics are still pretty great, looking very similar to that of the last game, but with more detail given to the characters, enemies, and so on, making it look just that little bit nicer, the music is still great, providing many more enjoyable and appropriately themed tunes throughout all of the stages, even if the tracks do tend to blend in with each other too often, and the gameplay/control takes what worked from the original game, keeps it that way, and further expands it to make it that much more fun and addicting to play through with friends… for the most part.
The game is a run ‘n gun/scrolling shmup, where you take control of Pocky, Rocky, or any of the other fun faces that you see throughout the film, take on a set of 8 and a half stages through many different Japanese locations, take out many different enemies based on Japanese mythology using your trusty limitless supply of cards, leaves, or whatever else you have on you, gather plenty of different powerups to make yourself much stronger and more capable then before, also allowing you to defend yourself, and take on plenty of bosses, who at times can be pretty manageable and even easy, but for most of the time…. well, we’ll get to that later. For those who played through the previous game, you know almost exactly what you are gonna get here, meaning you will be able to jump into it and have fun with it with no problem, and even for those that aren’t experienced with the second game, there is an optional tutorial stage you can play through, so beginners and pros alike will be able to get into this and have a great time.
Unlike the original game, which just primarily focused on making KiKi KaiKai an actually good game, this one actually introduced plenty of new features that do make the game that much more interesting to play through when compared to the original. Now, whenever you defeat the many enemies you will face, you can get plenty of money, which you can now take to shops to spend on items, which is pretty helpful, and speaking of items, there are quite a lot of them in this game! Of course, you have the orbs which power up your shots, and then you have extra pieces of cloth that will allow you to take extra hits, icons that can swap the partner that you currently have, strategy guides that can give you a hint for facing off against whatever threats may lie ahead, and even some bunny ears which…… I actually don’t know what they do. I think they are supposed to make you move faster, but I didn’t notice a difference when I was wearing them, so maybe I am just stupid.
And yes, you did just read that right, ladies and raccoons, because in this game, you can swap the partners that you have with you, both in-between levels and whenever you find those icons in said levels. You can stick with Rocky the whole time, but you can also switch to the Little Ninja, who is… pretty much exactly what she sounds like, Bomber Bob, a big ol’ guy that can throw around bombs that do MASSIVE amounts of damage, and you can even unlock more partners as you go along, such as the Scarecrow and a whole-ass robot. These guys weren’t really too much help, as they would end up dying pretty quickly a lot of the time they were out, but when they did manage to help out, they did make getting through some parts of the game a heck of a lot easier, and it does give the second player quite a lot to choose from when it comes to who they want to play as, so that is cool.
And finally, as a little cherry on top of this whole experience, there are also different kinds of stages that you can take on… and by that, I mean there are two stages where you will end up riding on the back of something, turning the game into an actual shmup where you gotta take down enemies and bosses as fast as you can. These stages aren’t necessarily too much greater then the main stages, but still, they were a nice change of pace from constantly having to do the same thing over and over and over again, and they did provide quite a bit of welcome challenge, so I do appreciate that they were there at all.
Now, with all that being said, this seems like it would be the perfect sequel to the original game, with absolutely nothing wrong with it to speak of whatsoever, right? Well… not exactly. There is one problem that this game does heavily suffer from, and that can all be traced to the bosses, who are an absolute PAIN to fight, not because they are too hard or anything, but more so because they take WAY too long to die. Aside from one or two exceptions, all of these bosses are damage sponges, needing you to wail on them CONSTANTLY with your attacks if you are to even have a chance at beating them quickly, and as you could probably imagine, this made fighting any boss whatsoever an absolute nightmare, just because of how long it would take. I shit you not, some of the bosses in this game, including the final one, managed to take 15-20 minutes to kill, and I had maxed out strength during all of these fights, all just because they take SO MUCH TIME to kill, making it so that I dreaded getting to these fights rather than looking forward to them.
Overall, despite how much the boss fights completely fucking suck, Pocky & Rocky 2 is still a worthy follow-up to the original game, giving you the same basic, yet very fun and addicting co-op action that you know and love, with some new features and gameplay mechanics to mess around with. I would definitely recommend it for those who loved the original game, as well as those who are big fans of old school co-op games in general, because even though you are probably gonna hate having to fight all of the bosses, you will still have a great time with the other 90% of the game, and that can make all the difference at the end of the day. It’s just a shame though that, after this game, we would never see another entry in this series ever again……….. until 7 years later. Then again, most of you probably don’t even know about Pocky & Rocky with Becky…….. which speaking of, who the FUCK is Becky?
Game #613