Commander Cool 2 is likely from one of my many groupees bundles purchases. While I talked about this with some trepidation back in march or so, Greenlight stepping up its game has led to an influx of indie games on my list, and with it a wide variety of titles to get my card on. Or I don't know, maybe it came from some other bundle, but whatever. It doesn't matter. I have this game for cards, and cards I shall seek.
I've been pretty happy with the greenlight into indies experience on Steam. Certainly most of the games aren't good, but it is an interesting way to experience gaming. It's nice to pick up a title, play for ten minutes and just throw it away if I don't care for it.
I'm not exactly certain what the story behind Commander Cool 2 is and I largely don't care. The game stars a dude who is a sarcastic epitome of "Commander Cool, too" and he is doing platforming levels in the stone age. The game is more of a "speed run" platformer in line with something like Volchaos, or maybe Dustforce, which is sort of sad to admit since Dustforce is noted as a good game and Volchaos was bad enough I'm not even sure I bothered to write up a review. Anyway, levels are short and platforming is quick. The game's load times are good, but it does have some weird shifts in design.
For one thing, you don't "die" exactly when you "die" in a level. Instead, your character is teleported back to start and a death is added to the pile. The difference here is that various things you've done in the level are still active, meaning you don't exactly restart, and your timer certainly doesn't. This is actually sort of a nice idea for letting people beat levels casually, although it doesn't always have a meaningful impact. You also don't have to accomplish all of the various ranks to the level at the same time - you can do the time attack, collect all coins and take no damage or whatever else runs separately - which does make them easier but also allowed the designer to balance them as something you can't accomplish in one run.Meaning you need to do levels more than once at the very least.
The visuals in Commander Cool 2 feel very loonie tunes, almost like a game you'd expect to see in the SNES area albeit far less pixelated. They're pretty smooth looking, though the animation isn't exactly the work of talent. I do appreciate how the eponymous Commander Cool taps his foot when you stand still. I don't know why it stands out, but he seems to just be cool with what is happening. He looks cool like a 90s anti-drug rhetoric ad. Cool kids don't smoke that mambo jambo kids! Be cool like me, only drink and smoke and pursue legally endorsed activities of equivalent intoxication but pursued by the taxation process of our democratically elected government! Cool!I had about an hour of fun with Commander Cool 2, mostly because the way you can complete levels then try them again to get the ranks or achievements or whatever feels very natural. What unfortunately does not feel very natural is the controls. The game moves pretty smoothly when you're just hopping around, and doing the platforming sections is pretty good until you need to do very precise jumps or rapidly change up directions. There the game feels like it is actively fighting you, and then you're just frustrated. The "partial reset" structure is pretty good when you're just trying to finish levels or collect all the coins, but it is kinda frustrating when you're going for time since it usually still tracks at least some of your stats forward to the next attempt.
It's not really a game I would recommend, but it's not really a game I would say was bad more a little mediocre in the controls department to its severe detriment. I had fun with the game, like I said, but it's not a game I would recommend picking up. I need a new category for "try it if you get it in a bundle" but I can't think of a catchy phrase to describe it that doesn't sound weirdly pornographic.
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