Don Doko Don 2 Review by: iN008 - 5.5/10

Game-play :
Since there isn't actually a game-play category I will cover it here. The game-play in itself unique, you travel across stages with a mallet wielding dwarf on a quest to get a potion, along the way you encounter various enemies, such as fire-shooting mushroom-monsters, flying pigs who throw boulders on your head and even crazy styled bosses. You can take hold of blue squares ( no clue what they are actually called... ) to increase you maximum life, hit windows to obtain keys, notes and upgrades such as the fire staff to shoot fire at your foes whom you could have hit with your mallet which would have allowed you to pick them up and throw them at there peers... which drop blue or red gems after they die, blue gems being worth 100 points and red being worth 500. After smashing your way through a certain amount of stages to meet the boss, who after a good number hits die allow you to travel to the next location.

Graphics : 6/10
The graphics could have been better but I guess I couldn't do better, the style is unique with flying pigs, angry shrooms, floaty-princesses and those crazy bosses. Now time to go into detail, the main character is not what you would expect as a hero, stubby and old... a unique choice in my opinion, his mallet is bigger than his head... which is a bit weird but meh... Japan. The shroom-monsters have a slightly better look that there Mario counter-part goomba's in his respective NES games. Okay comparing Mario to this game seems a little strange but considering they are both on the NES I thought it would be a good comparison as they are similarities between the tubby plumber and the shroom-smasher. Mario and the dwarf look similar in style with the obvious difference of a beard and mallet both are small and slightly fat in retrospect, the dwarfs design isn't better than Mario's, but it can hold its own. Now one of my favorite level designs is the area in the sky where you jump from biplane to biplane!

Sound : 5/10
The in-game music really isn't the best but it isn't bad, it gets the job done anyway... a lot of the time it doesn't feel up-beat and unique but at the same time it doesn't hurt your ears whilst playing. There isn't much to say about the sound effects either, half the time I didn't even notice they were there but I guess that's just my headphone volume. Moving swiftly on.

Addictiveness : 4/10
Honestly play it once, your done... It doesn't offer much towards re-playability making it a one play wonder. Doesn't really help that it failed to receive an English translation so getting into the story really isn't easy unless you get it translated or just make a story up... The lack of re-playability makes it a title that you wouldn't expect to be played frequently... This causes it to gain a low addictiveness score which is unfortunate as it was a unique style of game, I mean name another game, that isn't Don Doko Don, that you get to run around smashing things with a mallet?

Story : 5/10
Unlike the usual save the damsel in distress styled story in this game you search for a potion to return a prince to his original form because he was turned into a frog / toad by a bad who interrupted a wedding. This seems to lean towards the unrealistic wacky-styled story much like those of Twinbee. This isn't the kind of story that gets you into the character's mindset making it hard to relate with the character... ( doesn't help he is also a dwarf.... and unless you are a dwarf I find that very unlikely ) which is always a bad thing for any game especially games where the story is the main objective / focus of the game.

Depth : 3/10
Scoring very low as there isn't much to do or ways to beat it you follow a more linear path to beat the game which in some ways can be good, but unfortunately this is not the case for this game, for games like this staying linear causes the game to blend in and become another carbon copy of the game next to it. Unfortunately the game didn't achieve its max potential and that actually saddens me to the point in which I try to ignore it's existence.

Difficulty : 5/10
Now this games difficulty is up to you, if you want to make it easy for yourself, gather all the upgrades and blue squares to increase you life as you can... of make it hard on yourself by using just your mallet and collect no blue squares what so ever to keep your life at three hearts. Now this lets the game become a little less linear as you do have the option to avoid upgrades and more health but that really isn't recommended for casual gamers.

Overall : 5.5/10
Unfortunately I wouldn't recommend this to any type of gamer. The game is more generic that it first appears which really isn't good. Play it once and your done.

Pros and Cons of playing it :
Pros :

• Fight through unique stages and enemies to reach great bosses
• Gain upgrades to fight through the game

Cons :

• Doesn't offer much for re-playability
• Storyline doesn't help you understand the game

5.5