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Windjammers 2 review – resuscitated sports game brings back joy of the arcade
PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Playstation 4; DotEmuWith its special combos and metres, this frenetic and summery Air Hockey-style game has more in common with Street Fighter than with other sports games
Windjammers 2 has a character selection screen cheat code. It’s a simple thing: spin the analogue stick in circles a few times and you’ll unlock a dorky superhero named DiscMan. He plays much the same as the rest of the roster, so really it’s a minor visual difference. But this arcade throwback is Windjammers 2 in a nutshell: this game is an ode to the old school so joyfully realised and tightly executed that you can almost hear the percussive jingle of pocket change underneath the hyperactive guitars and bit-crunched commentary.
The series had lain dormant since 1994, but French developer DotEmu has revived it with flair. Boiled down to the basics, this stylised sports game is effectively Pong, or Air Hockey. Two opponents punt a plastic Frisbee-style disc back and forth, aiming to throw the other off and score a hit behind the goal line. The longer the disc stays in play, the more momentum it gathers and the tenser things get. Blocking the disc’s path is enough to intercept and throw a shot back, but before long you’ll need to get more creative.
Windjammers 2 is out now; £15.49
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