"The thinking man's Mario"

I've played the first Klonoa GBA game and that was a fun, simple, but puzzling affair. The PS2 version had awesome graphics and boss battles and would rival many a Mario game. The beach volley variation was er.. not too bad actually! But now I'm writing home about the 2nd GBA title and really it's more of the same, but overall I didn't enjoy it as much. See why.

GRAPHICS 6/10
Very simple, perhaps too simple. And there are some framerate discrepancies in the underwater levels. I know it could've been done better, as it really looks much the same as the prequel. But that said, simple does work quite well with a game like this.

SOUND 6/10
Good use of effects WAHOO! But the music is same throughout a world, which although sounds good, grates with the repetitiveness very soon.

GAMEPLAY 7/10
Puzzle-based platforming is the heart of Klonoa. 'Tis true here, but there's something different.. levels are structured just like in the first GBA game, with each world having 1 racing stage (this time vertically scrolling like in the PS2 game) and 1 moving stage (ala Mario Bros. 3) with the rest comprising of pure Klonoa gameplay. I wish there were more of the 'deviant' levels as it does get boring at times with the slow pace. At times it does get particularly repetitive with finding star fragments in levels which only look a bit different.

One thing I missed was the typical boss battles; instead here we have race based final levels for each world which are nice themselves, but not as fun as beating a real boss. But at least the final boss is a nice challenge. A slightly different style, which is a nice change, but not much better than the original formula. And more uses of the unique enemies would've been nice too.

OVERALL 7/10
I can recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the first GBA title. Those who have been spoilt by the home console brethren might be put off by lacklustre graphics, but what's inside is what counts, and with Klonoa 2 DCT the puzzling aspect of platforming is as good as ever.

- Good Game

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/06