Second verse, same as the first.
Taito’s still calling Puzzle Bobble “Bust-A-Move,” so the name’s gotta change; 989 were terrified
by the last iteration so they’ve jumped ship, forcing a pre-Square Enix to publish
the game in the West, and - most infuriatingly - there’s still no lag calibration.
So this review’s gonna look just as bad as the last one, especially since the timing
seems to tighten near the end of any particular song and it becomes more and more difficult
to consistently hit a third of a beat early.
It goes against everything I came to know in a decade of marching band.
And it pains me.
But, Bayani from PA foisted the game upon me, and there are redeeming factors to the
game... not the least of which is apparently a carhop, because all video games would be
better with carhops.
I’ll have a bacon cheeseburger and a Coke.
You want anything?
The gameplay remains the same as in the original; you need to serve your opponent (a bacon cheeseburger
and a Coke, apparently) by following the on-screen inputs and hitting the indicated button on
the fourth beat (or, as it’ll probably happen if you’re playing this on any modern system,
a third of a beat before the fourth beat.)
The “jammer” attacks return, allowing you to trip up your opponent if they’re
not expecting a crane or a giant cake from the sky, which are totally sanctioned dance
moves as I am to understand.
The multiple-input options have gone the way of the dodo, though, in favor of more linear
progressions through your sick gesticulations.
The cast has expanded, from 14 dancers in the previous version to 18 in this one, including
a creepy panda-painted guy who may or may not be a pedophile and/or an elaborate reference
to a Yukio Mishima novel, and those who are familiar with Mishima’s oeuvre know that’s
pretty damn dangerous.
You’ve been warned.
Like its predecessor, Bust A Groove 2 remains a ridiculously valuable game today, consistently
occupying a spot in the top 20 PS1 games.
Unfortunately, also like its predecessor, it hasn’t aged well at all, as changes in
displays and hardware have wrecked the very rhythm of this rhythm game.
And that’s a problem that’s affected a number of games in the genre, rendering this
particular chunk of nostalgia kinda obsolete.
I genuinely enjoyed these games - back in the day - but today, if you want the same
experience, you’ve gotta jump through hoops to craft a legacy system, probably including
an old TV (that you were totally just using as an end table at this point, admit it) and
that PS1 you’ve been using as a doorstop.
Granted, the best music games are, were, and always will be full-size arcade systems, which
don’t have these problems.
Bust A Groove 2 doesn’t bring the same kind of immediately-recognizable soundtrack, though,
that larger-scale operations like DDR can offer, and in fact re-recorded a number of
the original J-pop tracks in English.
And you thought getting stuck with the instrumental version of After the Game was bad.
(Though I’m still waiting for an apology for the US version of DDR Extreme.)