Snes pocky and rocky 2 series#
Snes pocky and rocky 2 240p#

It looks great, and the artists had a strong sense of visual humor.Snes Central: Pocky & Rocky 2 / Kiki Kaikai - Tsukiyo SoushiĮmail: & Rocky 2 / Kiki Kaikai - Tsukiyo Soushi

Snes pocky and rocky 2 240p#

The graphics have a surprisingly intricate level of detail to them for a 240p game. The music is catchy and fits the game’s style perfectly.

That is to say, Pocky & Rocky 2 aged very well and is still a load of fun to pick up and play.Īside from the game design, steady controls and fun gameplay, there’s a lot more to Pocky & Rocky 2 that really makes it pop. It’s a far cry better effort than Super Adventure Island II‘s timid first steps toward what Super Metroid would be 4 years later.

While Pocky & Rocky 2 was far from the first time anyone tried adding more action/adventure elements to a shmup, I dare say it was the first time it was done well. Whether their random attacks prove useful is down to luck, a second player can control them, and you’ll find them far more useful this way than Tails was in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. A standard power-up drop allows you to switch to another, desired helper, including any of your recruits. Aside from Rocky, a tanuki, you can start a level with Little Ninja or Bomber Bob. Helpers follow a few steps behind Pocky, occasionally throwing their own attacks and generally being nearby so Pocky can pick them up and hurl them at enemies. You see, the helpers is where Rocky comes in. You can take alternate paths, find hidden treasures and powerups, visit stores for gear and townsfolk for advice, and even encounter and recruit characters to use as helpers.

Though the camera places most of the viewing area ahead of Pocky, you may freely backtrack unless you’re in a scripted battle, like a boss fight. In these games, you control the pace of the game with your own movements. Indeed, until we get a good look at Reshrined, Pocky & Rocky 2 represents the high water mark of the series, which started with an ’80s arcade cabinet and ended (until later this fall) with a Game Boy Advance entry that wasn’t quite as good. Whereas Pocky & Rocky was a Japanese folklore-styled free-scrolling shmup (and still pretty damn great), Pocky & Rocky 2 was a step closer to something like, say, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures.

Snes pocky and rocky 2 series#

While the first game had a lot of the charm of the second, we’re here to focus solely on the second due to some innovation of the series gameplay. But sadly, few think of either of the SNES Pocky & Rocky games, because it seems they were harder to find than a NES Classic. Okay, maybe the cool kids will think of Axelay or something. Or perhaps Phalanx if for no other reason than the insane cover art. What do you think of when you think about 2-D shoot-em-ups on the Super Nintendo? I’d say most people think about Super R-Type or Gradius III. We won’t be using the grab bag format this time, but rather focusing on one game in particular: Natsume’s Pocky & Rocky 2.Īnd it’s a great time to take a look at this classic, with Pocky & Rocky Reshrined coming soon, (which I am NOT going to get caught flat-footed on like I did with Actraiser Renaissance). However, there is a reason this game was held out of all of the SNEStember/tober articles thus far, and that reason was to feature it here instead.

I’m not quite done doing SNES versions of all my feature article series though the dust on this one was mighty thick.