Review: Crazy Penguin Catapult 2
by Staff Writer
July 11, 2009
Overview
In Crazy Penguin Catapult 2, you play as the penguins that are looking to rescue their penguin brethren from the clutches of the polar bears. To get your caged penguins back from the polar bears you’re going to need to attack them, and pound them into submission. The Polar Bears didn't learn their lesson from the first time, so know you going to have to try harder. Each level gives you a certain number of penguins to launch, and then you dive bomb the polar bears.
After catapulting the penguins, there's a cut scene, and they fly one at a time above the gameplay field ready at any moment to be directed downwards. Each level has a varied arrangement of polar bears with a few different obstacles (mainly ice). In each level you have a goal number of polar bears to hit to advance. Penguins bounce around after the first contact, and can hit multiple bears.
Features
Crazy Penguin Catapult 2 provides 50 new levels of polar bear smashin’. There are two gameplay modes like the first, with campaign mode and survival mode. Campaign mode is playing through the 50 levels rescuing your kidnapped penguin friends along the way. Survival mode on the other hand is a turn based strategy game similar to risk. There is a grid filled with varying groups of penguins and polar bears, and you play as the penguins trying to conquer the entire map.
Each level has a certain number of polar bears, like 10, and you only need to hit around 8 to advance. Some levels have more soma have less. If you hit all of the polar bears than you get three stars, if you just miss all of the bears you get two stars. Finally you only get one star for barely reaching the goal. There are also bonus levels where you collect all the items on screen like fish.
There are nine penguin upgrades as you progress in campaign mode. You can unlock grenade, Houdini, drill, ninja, and super bouncy penguins. Each unlockable penguin improves their skill, like Houdini penguins transport locations to where you tap rather than following their original path. Or drill penguins have drill helmets to better get through ice. Also you can add the twins which provides two more penguins on each level.
The controls are as easy as can possibly be. You tap to catapult a penguin. Then in the next screen when the penguin is flying overhead you tap or swipe to have them dive bomb. The special upgrades require one more tap at most.
The Good
The gameplay is really addicting, and always is a good time. Guiding penguins to dive bomb polar bears is a super fun experience, and the levels seem to be more of the same from the first one, which is a good thing. Replayability is high for this game as you're going through campaign mode. It’s pretty easy to get one star on every level, and complete the entire campaign. It’s supremely difficult to get three stars on every level, and in trying to do so you’ll find yourself playing individual levels over and over. The included strategy mode adds more game time, and includes four difficulty levels. In strategy mode there is a cutaway with each battle showing the penguins and bears bouncing in to fight each other which is always hilarious.
The animations are great with the penguin's salute once they’re finished bouncing around, or the different actions of the polar bears from some practice boxing to other eating cheese puffs. The crushing of ice, and penguins bouncing around are highlighted by orange flares from each hit.
When you catapult a penguin into the wall rather than through the opening they squish and slowly slide down. The eye reactions of all the characters really add humor, and just add to the overall experience.
The controls make it playable anytime, and help this game appeal to anyone. The campaign mode saves your overall progress, but not in level. The levels are pretty quick, but still challenging, and 50 is a lot in this case. The difficulty amps up seamlessly so that each level gets more challenging, but you’re prepared as you slowly but surely get better.
The Bad
I wouldn’t say the overall visuals are bad, but they don’t fall under the good category. Like most digital chocolate titles the graphics seem about average for a mobile title with nothing special. The sounds are nice to begin with, but it’s the same over and over so the more time you spend with this title the worst the music will become.
The game doesn’t improve on the first one; it just provides more of it. Granted that’s not a bad thing, but I would like to see a little innovation. The strategy mode isn’t that engaging with only two groups battling for conquest. Also it gets repetitive pretty quickly.
