What a huge expansion from the first game. There's just more of everything—more levels, more weapons, more collectibles, more secrets. There is quite a lot of content here for a mascot platformer.

Actually, it's not so much a platformer as it is a platformer/TPS hybrid. There's A LOT of shooting in this game, and some of the weapons are just your standard assault rifle, shotgun, grenade, rocket launcher like in any other shooter.

The difficulty is just about right, not too easy but not too frustrating, and the most challenging sections of the game basically come down to how well you utilize the wide array of weaponry. There is one long, tedious, repetitive boss battle with a giant robot at the thug HQ that felt lacking, though.

I don't really like the video cutscenes spoofing 90s commercials either, but they're not a dealbreaker.

Unfortunately, you do run into a bolt crunch that prevents you from buying all of the weapons and armor unless you grind the money by replaying earlier levels, and the most expensive weaponry like the RYNO are basically off-limits until new game+. The game really expects you to replay the earlier levels to accumulate bolts and upgrades, because the enemies in the later levels, like the yetis in the moonstone snow field and the robot guards in the last level, are horrible bullet sponges that render the early weapons like the nuke grenade and the rifle practically worthless. Even the awesome visibomb rocket imported from the first game becomes a peashooter in the end. This is annoying because the game kinda forces you to stick to certain weapons, limiting variety.

Still, this is a really solid, polished sequel that is an essential PS2 title.