Pandemonium 2

Pandemonium 2
Developer(s)	Crystal Dynamics
Publisher(s)	NA Midway Games EU BMG Interactive JP Bandai NA Crystal Dynamics (PC)
Platform(s)	PlayStation, Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	PlayStation NA September 30, 1997 EU October, 1997 JP May 21, 1998 Microsoft Windows NA 1997
Genre(s)	Platform
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Kids to Adults (6+)

Pandemonium 2 (Miracle Jumpers in Japan) is the sequel to Pandemonium, released for PlayStation and PC. a platform game, developed by Crystal Dynamics, for the PlayStation and PC. It features Fargus, a pyromaniac court jester, and Nikki, a would-be sorceress, who seek the power from a legendary comet. The goal of the game is to reach the comet as Nikki or Fargus, before the evil Queen Zorrscha does, who plans on using the power to manipulate the world for her further malevolent needs. For each level, the player can choose which character to be. Each has their own abilities - Fargus can deliver a special spinning attack and a Sid attack, and Nikki can double jump, in addition to different abilities gained from picking up powers. The game consists of a great variety of colorful and psychedelic landscapes for each level, as well as a unique gameplay with two-dimensional surfaces twisting and bending in a three-dimensional world.

In the PlayStation version, rather than using a memory card as in most PlayStation games, progress is saved using a password system.

Plot

The game focuses on a powerful celestial body known as the "Comet of Infinite Possibilities". This comet passes over the land of Lyr once every 300 years, dusting it with magic. There are rumours that encased within the comet is the source of the magic, condensed and unlimited.

It is this power that the young Sorceress Nikki craves. Nikki is no longer a limpet-eyed young naif. She has grown, blossomed, "leafed-out and sapped" as it were. And as she has sprouted, so have her desires.... and her means to achieve them. Additionally, Nikki is just too busy to hang out in some drafty library poring over dry, dusty, worm-riddled tomes of magic. Instead, she decided to cut some corners on her way to becoming the Sorceress Supreme and snatch the comet's legendary power.

Sadly, the years have not been as kind to Nikki's buddy, Fargus. Being a few eggs short of an omelet, Fargus's maturation took a downturn after several laboratory 'mishaps' and the infamous Pancake Incident. Fargus got into the habit of spending his days - and nights - riding his hobby-horse Big Ernie and cackling uncomfortably. He also looted a new outfit from the Liberace collection. As Nikki explains: "Fargus is a freak, but in a good way. He's proud of his violent, maniacal side. He can't even tie his shoes, be he can build a thermonuclear bomb from common household items, and set a fortress on fire before you can say Werner von Braun. He may be an idiot savant, but he's got great hair." Fargus's sour sidekick, the armless, legless, buttless Sid, is reportedly the lost soul of an ancient warrior. Whoever's boot he dropped from, he forgot the laces and shoe polish and ended up with the tongue. Sid can cross verbal wits with the best of them. Sid would like to dump Fargus and get closer to Nikki.

Back in Lyr, the Goon Queen Zorrscha with her evil seductive charms has enslaved the entire Goon Empire. She is using this cheap, expendable, non-union labour to construct a fleet of rockets to fly her to the mystic comet in her personal quest for the mythic power. The race is on to stop the evil Goon Queen from her quest to plunder the magic of the comet and pervert its power to her twisted desires.

Gameplay

Like Pandemonium, Pandemonium 2 renders polygons in a typical 3-D fashion, while gameplay is 2-D. The area of gameplay can be described as a two-dimensional surface twisting and bending in a three-dimensional world.

Along the way, the player can gather treasure. Collecting 500 treasure grants the player an extra life. The player can also activate the bonus level, "Boarder Run" (which is an updated version of the "Speed Greed" bonus level from the first game) by collecting enough of the treasure in one level (80% or more of the total treasure in the level). Enemies and powers also count towards the total treasure of a level. In Boarder Run, the player must collect treasure while simultaneously keeping ahead of a pursuing vortex. If they can make it to the end, they are rewarded a large amount of treasure, enough to give the player at least one extra life. In Boarder Run, the player automatically has three "tries", which are separate from lives. If a player loses all of their tries or makes it to the end of the level, the level ends.

There are two unique powers that the player can collect. When Nikki gets a power, she loses all other powers she had before it. When Fargus gets a power, it depends on what power he has and what power he gets. If he gets the fire power while he has the fire power, the duration of his fire power is reset. If he gets the lightning power while he has the fire power, or vice-versa, he first uses the fire power. Then, when its finished, he has the lightning power. If a player gets a power he/she already has, nothing happens, with the exception of Fargus' fire power. Each power is different for the character the player is using. The fire power (a red ball with small orange balls circling it) grants Nikki fireballs, which she can aim forward, upward or downward. This will destroy most enemies in one hit, but it will take some enemies more hits. For Fargus, he becomes invincible and can destroy any enemy by merely touching them, but he can't stop moving forward while using it and he can't use any of his other abilities while using it, aside from jumping and movement. Time is also limited for this ability. The lightning power (a glowing ball in the middle of a glowing triangle with sparks circling) grants Nikki the ability to use a lightning chain with a spark, homing in on the nearest enemy, connecting Nikki to the enemy. Once the chain connects, the enemy is stopped dead in their tracks and cannot move. Then, the player must repeatedly press square to send the spark to the enemy. The spark starts at Nikki's side. If successful, Nikki can kill any normal enemy with this, but if not fast enough, the spark can be sent back to Nikki, hurting her. Nikki can move while the chain is connected, but if she moves too far away, the chain will break, damaging neither her nor the enemy and allowing the enemy to move again. For Fargus, Sid starts glowing several different colors at a time and when he connects with the enemy, the player can press square to inflate the enemy. Three times will kill the enemy, and it will kill any normal enemy. If Fargus is too slow, however, the enemy slowly deflates, and if Fargus moves, he can't inflate the enemy again without hitting them again with Sid. He can also use the inflated enemy as a trampoline to get to places that he normally can't get to by jumping.

At several points in the game, after passing a certain area the player will use a certain machine or equipment; passing another area or ending the level will cause the player to lose this machine or equipment. The player will use a tank, a turret positioned at the back of a train, a robot, a train and a pair of jet boots throughout the course of the Hate Tank, Mr. Schneobelen, Collide-O-Scope, The Zoul Train, and The Bitter End levels respectively. Each strip the players of their abilities except for movement. The Tank grants the player missiles and the ability to run over enemies, and it has its own health meter, separate of the player's health, though it does not appear. The tank can take about 15 hits, but if its destroyed, the player will die. The turret allows the player to deflect bullets and both the player and the train that the turret is positioned on have their own health, the train can sustain about 4-5 hits before the rail on the back of the train falls and takes the player with it, killing him/her. The turret's movement is limited, due to the short length of the rail it is positioned on. The robot grants a higher jump, the ability to shoot missiles and a shield. The train's movement is limited. it can only rotate to dodge obstacles. The boots allow the player to jump to extreme heights by holding down the jump button after jumping. The challenges of the level then reflect the abilities of each machine or equipment until the character loses them later in or at the end of the level.

On the screen, in the upper left corner, there is a red symbol (a ball with three wedges around it), representing health. Each wedge and the ball represent one hit point. Rare bonuses (life pieces) allow the player to add four more hit points to their health, changing the color of the symbol to the next color of the rainbow(indigo isn't one of these colors), so that the player can store more than four hit points at once. Loss of all symbols and colored layers results in the loss of a life and the return to the latest checkpoint. Loss of all lives ends the game.

Life Pieces

Like Pandemonium's heart containers, Pandemonium 2's "life pieces" are the most coveted of all treasures and are nearly impossible to find. They add four hit points to the normal health (the player starts with four), and additionally change its color to the next color of the rainbow (excluding indigo, the normal health symbol starts at red). In order to gain access to a life piece, the secret area where the life piece dwells must be located.

Ending

Unlike the first game, the ending of Pandemonium 2 varies depending if it is completed with Nikki or Fargus. If it is completed with Nikki, she has control over the universe, using galaxies like turntable disks, then turning into a comet while Fargus watches in the background. If the game is completed with Fargus however, he now has created his own world where the environment has his face (a kind of nod to the ending of the first game, when Fargus used the third wish to mistakenly wish that everyone back home could be just like him), and Fargus himself has become the sun, much to Sid's chagrin (so much that his head explodes.)

External links

• Pandemonium 2 at MobyGames
• IGN.com Pandemonium 2 Walkthrough and FAQ