Andro Dunos II Review

The first Andro Duno game was originally developed by Visco and published back in 1992 by Shin Nihon Kikaku (SNK) for both the Neo Geo MVS (arcade) and Neo Geo AES (home) consoles and was listed as the twentieth most popular arcade game at the time.. Andro Dunos 2 is a sequel to the famous original arriving 30 years later, this time around development was handled by Picorinne Studio and published by Just For Games.

Andro Dunos II Is an arcade, side-scrolling shoot ’em up game where you take control of a Neo Type spacecraft and have to traverse through an array of enemies and obstacles through different stages. You might jump in thinking it’s an all around easy title, but the bosses are not to be underestimated.

The game boasts a “render type” upon startup, which allows you to choose from a 16/9 fullscreen mode, or a 4/3 mode, and comes with the options to have 1 of 3 different borders also. You’ll also notice a “CRT Mode” which can be toggled on/off if you fancy having a somewhat authentic arcade experience. It’s nice to have these options as I’m someone who was born in 1994, 2 years later than the original game’s release date, so at least i can somewhat get a feel for the “original game.”

In Andro Dunos II you have to control a spacecraft through 7 different missions, of which you’ll be battling an array oh different enemies, trying to memorize and judge their attack patterns on your way to reaching the final boss of each stage. This traversal is accompanied by a rather nice soundtrack for you to listen to whilst blasting away at enemy spacecraft which is composed by Allister Brimble who has also worked on the likes of Body Blows, Superfrog & Driver.

Gameplay is pretty bog standard here for your typical “old school” arcade game. Shoot bad guys, dodge incoming attacks, collect power ups, defeat boss and rinse and repeat in the next stage. So if arcade is what you are after here, you wont be disappointed as the game offers you seven stages to blast through, with an an additional 3 stages after the fact, which might I add, do not seem effected by your difficulty choices and feels like a massive increase in difficulty spike, especially on the first additional stage which requires a run through of all bosses in one sitting with only 4 lives.

Difficulty comes with a choice of easy, medium, hard and you can also choose to raise/lower the amount of credits you get within the options menu too, which is a nice touch if you struggle to make it through a stage with only 3 lives. Even then, if you do reach a game over screen, you can load back in on the stage you just failed, and be credited again, 9 being the number. The Game offers somewhat of a challenge in places, whilst easier in others.

Accompanying the shoot ’em up bullet hell action, are some lovely 2D pixel art graphics and some pretty neat sound design. You can choose between multiple different weapons that all come with a special ability and can change the position of your shields, should you manage to obtain some. These weapons are handy against certain foe but not all that useful when facing others, so it’s down to you to die, die and die again, until you work out what works best for each stage/boss. These weapons range between lasers, hawks and even homing missiles, take your pick!

Verdict

Overall you’ve got a neat little arcade game here, presented pleasantly with some good audio design and old school visuals, with limited legacy options to try and give you a more arcade like feel to it.  Where it falls short however, is the difficulty levels. A few of the bosses feel a little too easy, very easy to dodge and are just boring for the most part, but then you’ll come face to face with the next boss, who is wiping space with you guts every single damn time and being a sequel to a 30 year old game that was around before my time, I wouldn’t be able to say whether or not this is in line with the original Andro Dunos.

If you like arcade games and spaceships, it’s worth a punt. It currently sits at £12.49 on the Xbox Store and £13.99 on Steam.

DISCLAIMER: Reviewer has completed all 7 main stages with a play-time of 3 hours and 30 minutes and sits at 500/1000 Gamerscore with 7/10 achievements.