Beat in slow motion mode. Upon starting I thought this game was older than the previous Joe game, not a sequel. The graphics were noticeably worse, the controls less tight, the beginning gun was a rinky dink little thing that only shot 1 simple projectile, and there was no up or down aiming. Otherwise it was very similar, and I liked the Mario 3 style overworld map. You could backtrack to take other paths but not redo any stages. I began by mostly using punch and only using gun when enemies were positioned in a bad place to melee, or on certain tough melee guys. The game was going well until I got to the 1st mini boss, who proceeded to rip general Hawk a new asshole a few dozen times before I finally figured out what to do. This was when I slowed the speed. So the hammer enemy moved too fast to kite or jump over, and rushed straight into melee. The trick was to stand there and duck then punch just before each hammer swing. Then stand back up to bait the hammer again, but also move left a little each time to counter how the boss moved a little with each swing. Soon I was pressed up against the edge of the screen and had to take a hit to jump over to start kiting right. The boss had ridiculously high hp too and I think I had to jump over him once more. It boggled my mind how the developers thought putting such a poorly designed crushingly difficult encounter right at the beginning of the game was in any way a good idea. I can only imagine how many people dropped this game there without even trying the rest. After that I went north clearing out everything up that way. The enemies on hover bikes were the ones most likely to cause me damage because of their spread shot. Often times I used the gun on them. Powering up the gun gave it an additional up diagonal projectile for each level, so at max level 4 it was shooting 5 projectiles spread from straight ahead to around 75 degrees. The constant air vehicles with a gun and missiles were annoying too, reminding me of the damn infinite enemies in Rygar. At least the foot enemies only respawned after moving off screen from them, but item drops were 1 time only and if I missed it because of the stupid way they bounced away faster than the player could move, then killing that enemy again did not offer the item again. I got Road Block and powered him up as my 2nd fighter. Wet suit was just there waiting for a water stage. Road Block had the unique ability to go prone and crawl through narrow areas, which was prominent in the lab stage were Snake Eyes was found. I had such trouble figuring out that stage that the time limit ran out, so I had to redo it. Snake was awesome again with higher jumping, but very low hp. He also shot medium range magic on melee attacks after it was leveled up, which was a great way to kill regular enemies, some mini bosses, and even a proper boss or 2, to save ammo. It did low damage though.

Then I went south to clear out every other area until the final boss. I never used Duke or Storm at all. Wetsuit got some use in 1 stage where I went under water. Surely there had to be more than just 1 underwater place? Storm seemed redundant with Snake, and Snake was powered up quite a bit by this time. I did see some too high to reach places in the final stage so I wonder if Storm jumped a bit higher or otherwise how to get up there. The hammer bastard came back several times, along with some kind of tentacle head guy that fought the same. I was never able to beat those without taking damage. The 2nd I had to beat the hard way by punch ducking but the rest were best burned down with gun while standing there tanking the hits. The maxed out laser killed very fast but by the time I had switched to it I had already taken a hit or 2. All the other mini bosses and even bosses were much easier with very predictable patterns for avoiding the damage. There was just nothing that could be done about a fast tank that rushed in for contact damage. Such poor design. It needed to be slow or have an obvious tell for dodging. The actual bosses had too much hp but were too easy once their patterns were figured out. The final boss was pathetically easy, I didn't even get hit once. Even easier than the previous game. I didn't even have to use the shield, healing or ammo drop specials at all during the entire game. Stage design was much more varied. Most were simple left to right action to reach the end. There was 1 bomb planting stage like in the previous game, but it was simpler, and another hostage rescue stage that was functionally the same. The lab and warehouse were slightly more complicated with specific doors to go in. I got the other weapons late. Pulse rifle was pretty much melee range but killed faster than melee. I did not like it. Laser rifle was OP with insane damage. Never tried rocket launcher. Powering up fists gave new moves. The kick seemed stronger than punch but required standing still and pressing a direction, I think. The flying drop kick was powerful with insane distance covered, but was often more trouble that it was worth. Snake did a vertical down attack, which was good, and double press direction for a slide, which I hated.

I began this game with poor impressions that went into the toilet with hammer guy, but after beating the game I actually enjoyed it more than the previous game. I think the less tedious stage design was the main reason. Both games did a lot right with the variety of characters and powering them up. This game in particular improved on that with other weapons, unique abilities, and a more open world, but dropped the ball on difficulty and a few other annoyances. Overall I think the 1st was the better game.

7.4/10