Where’s Our Windjammers 2 Review?

Windjammers 2 launched today, giving ‘90s arcade fans or those who discovered the game via the 2018 remaster a new arena to lob discs at each other. My review is currently in progress, but since the online mode didn’t go live until today, I’ll need time to test that out in a live environment before giving my complete assessment. These are my impressions thus far. 

It’s still fun to play Windjammers. For those unfamiliar, two players face off in what’s essentially a hybrid of tennis and air hockey. For points, your opponent must throw the disc at you. You can earn them points for touching their disc. Due to the many disc throwing options, this game is a great fighting game. These matches feature fast, fast-paced exchanges with flashy tricks and flying discs that ricochet until one loses. 

It feels quick and responsive. I was responsible for any saves that were lost. That’s good because Windjammer 2’s CPU opponents are tough, even on Easy difficulty. I choked down several bowls of L’s before I finally conquered its otherwise brief arcade mode. The presentation and soundtrack are appropriately ‘90s (in a good way), and the multi-cultural roster characters, each with speed/strength differences, harken to Street Fighter’s worldly appeal, granted they aren’t as memorable. There are many arenas that offer fun and interesting gimmicks. Some have a roulette-style scoring system, while others can change shot trajectory. 

It’s good that the core game is fun because that’s about all Windjammers 2 has to offer. This package includes arcade, online, two-player and multiplayer versus games. I’m most disappointed by the tutorial, which consists of a simple slideshow of commands. As I noted earlier, Windjammer’s gameplay is deep and not unlike a fighting game. This genre has made great strides in the way it connects its players with their systems. Mortal Kombat 11 is a prime example. I wish Windjammers 2 had more in-depth lessons or a dedicated training mode to help me better understand why I would want to spike the disc instead of throwing it because staring at several slides of button commands isn’t ideal for retention. It’s also egregious that you can’t access the move list in the pause menu. For a refresher, you will need to go back to the main menu if you are unable to remember how to do a particular maneuver in a match. 

We’ll see how the online shapes up, but Windjammers 2 seems aimed at existing diehards who simply want to throw discs without any extra frills. That’s fun for a while, but there may not be enough meat on the bones to retain newcomers or even fans for the long haul.