Andro Dunos II is a fun reminder of an early 90s time period that featured some amazing arcade shooters that didn’t ask anything from its gamers other than to have fun. It’s a worthy sequel to its NEO GEO brethren.
Back in 1992, if you were well-off enough to afford a NEO GEO system ($699) and the games sold with it ($199-299 each – depending on where you bought them), then you probably would have heard of the side-scrolling arcade shooter Andro Dunos. It was certainly a game that was ahead of its time and found a comfortable place among a sea of arcade shooting experiences.
For me, I couldn’t afford a NEO GEO, and even as an adult I’m positive that my wife would be like, “Do we really need that?”, something my parents probably said back in the early 90s. That said, no we don’t really need the first, but how about the sequel to Andro Dunos? That won’t cost somewhere between $199-299.
It has been 30 good years since the original dropped in your local Babbages, so developer Picorinne Soft and publishers Just for Games and PixelHeart think that you’ve been missing out on a good sequel. You know what? If Andro Dunos II is that sequel, then yes, we have been missing out.
Let’s get into it.
Not the Dark Souls of Shooters
Andro Dunos II harkens back to a simpler time in the side-scrolling arcade shooting genre, where having a lot of ships flying at you while looking forward to a crazy-ass enemy at the end of each level was more about fun than it was about difficulty. I’m getting a good Thunder Force and/or MUSHA vibe from this game, where, yeah, there are a lot of enemies, but without the impending impossibility of succeeding. For most modern games of this type, the developers generally enjoy putting players through torture, but that is not the case with Andro Dunos II.
The gameplay has some pretty simple philosophy to it when it comes to the design. To start with, the patterns of the enemies are easy to sniff out, though the challenge is more about how much is being thrown at you at once, rather than what they’re doing. You’ll be impressed with the number of enemies the game wants you to consider at once, as they erupt in waves from ground-level to air. Thankfully, the game gives you a polite warning that incoming ships are coming in hot and fast through Space Harrier-like introductions, where the ships fly in before they settle in for their attack pattern. In other words, they let you know they’re coming before they arrive to kill you. I like that polite heads-up. It gives you ample time to take care of what is on the screen before the next enemy course is served up. Again, very polite.
Because of this and the manageable waves of enemies, the game isn’t built for the gamer to fail through overwhelming odds. Rather it seems the good folks at Picorinne Soft simply want you to have fun with the experience while feeling accomplished that you can figure out how to navigate the enemy barrage. They want you to sniff out the enemy patterns quickly, then prep for handling their fire. Moving around and avoiding enemy fire while picking up flight patterns is simple, and it doesn’t feel at all overwhelming like other modern games in this genre. It just feels like they want you to enjoy the ride, even if it doesn’t last too long (stage 3 is brutal). Other than easy-to-see patterns, the game also dishes up plenty of ways to build up your ship to take care of enemies.
Andro Dunos II features weapon gathering from enemy deaths or simply sent in parts to unlock, which makes the journey even more fun. Much like shipbuilding and improvements that you would find in a game like Galaga ’88, your ship grows as you gather resources during battle (usually resources marked with letters upgrade your weapons instantly), and it offers up blue dots to gather, which you can spend at the end of a stage to upgrade your ship weapons permanently. The game also offers up multiple weapons that the ship is equipped with, which makes the experience even more delightful and a lot deeper than expected. Having played hundreds of shooters over my lifetime, it was refreshing to see upgrades at the end of each stage, which makes future enemies easier to kill. It didn’t make the game easier, but it was fun knowing that you had options to dispose of enemies. Not only does this all add up to keeping the gameplay interesting, but it also gives you the motivation to keep going in the game, as well as the infamous positive replay value that comes with the journey.
While the good folks at Picorinne want you to have fun, they also want to give you a challenge. How do they do that? By giving you a finite number of credits to continue the adventure. Just like having five quarters to spend at an arcade, you have five initial credits to continue your journey, and you will need every one of them by stage 3 (seriously, it’s brutal). Each credit carries three lives (including the one you start with), which means you have 15 chances to get as far as you can in the arcade shooter. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s going to be a fun challenge. And if you’re truly wanting an arcade experience, this is a good line in the sand for Picorinne to draw. It will keep you going, even when you fail. And you will fail multiple times. It’s just the nature of the arcade beast.
Environments to play in and old school feel
The nature of an arcade shooter is that you get different levels that contain different flavors of creativity. In Andro Dunos II, you start with a city that is under attack, then move to an outer space setting (almost a moon base), and then you hit brutal stage three which has you going interstellar and avoiding asteroids and such. The rest, you’ll find out about on your own, hopefully.
The pixelated visual delight that doesn’t stray too far away from its big brother, brings a good variety of enemies, obstacles, and just fascinating landscapes that will keep your eyes interested with what is on screen. Visually and creatively, it’s a pretty game that knows it’s 90s to its core. I love that aspect of presentation very much. I was an 80s/90s arcade kid and can appreciate what was trying to be captured and presented here with Andro Dunos II.
Does it do anything special beyond the cool bosses and with multi-targeted abilities? Not really, but it’s still containing a cool vibe that doesn’t try to be too fancy. It does what it needs to do to match the style of the original NEO GEO game, and it pulls it off brilliantly.
Anyway, you’ll have some fun with this game. It’s quite gorgeous and creatively plentiful.
Issues
There aren’t many issues with what Picorinne has done. The only glaring issue is the lack of turning around in the game. I checked the launch configuration tool and couldn’t find it. I’ve pressed every button on the controller and nada. Is it a big deal? No. Would I like that option? Yes. Should you shun this game because of it? God, no. If this is the worst part of the game, then sign me up.
Other than this one minor complaint, the game is golden. It’s got far more pros than cons to the experience.
On that note, let’s wrap this up.
Conclusion
Andro Dunos II is a fun reminder of an early 90s time period that featured some amazing arcade shooters that didn’t ask anything from its gamers other than to have fun. It’s a worthy sequel to its NEO GEO brethren.
