At the request of Enix of America, Actraiser 2 ditches its predecessor's careful intertwining of genres to only include the platformer segments, and aside from being super devoid and hollow in comparison, it's also somehow so, so much worse to play. The Master is so fucking slow this time that a wooden crate could beat him in a footrace, and combined with bulky enemies flat out spammed across every level it makes for one of the most miserable platformers I've sat through.

There may be strong graphics and presentation but there is not a moment of enjoyment to be found here for the whole runtime. It's certainly no affront to humanity or anything, but as such a bitterly disappointing sequel it would probably be better off not existing.