Around a month ago, Toree 2 was released on the Nintendo Switch, and I immediately purchased it when I found out about it. Now, I wasn’t going to do a review on this game, but after playing it, I realized how different enough Toree 2 is from Toree 3D, so I’m going to talk about it. This review is not going to be in-depth on mechanics, controls, and the basics of Toree. If you want to know that, check out my review on Toree 3D.
Toree 2 starts out with the same exact plot from the first game, which gave me the assumption Toree 2 is just going to be like Toree 3D, just with new levels. However, this assumption turned out to be very incorrect. Immediately as I stepped into the first level, Hidden Headquarters, I realized how much Toree 2 changes. The level introduced two main elements that help change Toree 2, the dash ring, and the boosters. Dash rings can be jumped into and will launch you a significant distance, and boosters allow you to accelerate faster for a brief period of time. The most important thing these two do is speed up the gameplay. Toree was always a fast game, but the first game never really had sections where you were forced to maintain speed. It was either you run through, and go quickly through the level design, or go slow, and play it safe. The dash rings and boosters are used in a way that makes certain level segments memorable. They are often used together in parts where you are meant to go fast, run, and react to obstacles, and jump. Dash rings are also used to skip through certain hard segments of a level. This helps quicken the pace of the game at certain parts, which makes these two new gimmicks great additions.
Another improvement I noticed in the first level deals with speedrunning and getting the ranks in the game. In Toree 3D, you had to do these levels without dying to get a good rank, because the timer does not reset when you die. In Toree 2, when you die, the timer resets. If you're beginning the level, when you die, the time resets to zero, but when you cross a checkpoint, the time resets to the time you had when you crossed the checkpoint. This is good because I hated having to restart levels in Toree 3D when I was trying to get better ranks. This also makes this task slightly easier. With this system, getting the ranks can now be broken up into segments to minimize the time spent on each segment, instead of taking the whole level in one go. However, A ranks and the new S ranks are still hard to get.
What else is different about Toree 2? Well, there is a new unlockable character. In order to get this new character, you need to unlock Macbat, who like in the first game, is unlocked by collecting every star in every level. This new character is unlocked by collecting CDS, which there is one in every level. Most CDS require Macbat’s infinite jump to collect because most of them are far out of the bounds of the normal level design. I like this addition, because it gives the player a reason to unlock Macbat, and explore the levels with him, something I loved to do in Toree 3D. Speaking of CDs, the music in Toree 2 is very different when compared to Toree 3D. It’s hard to explain it honestly, so I’m just going to say I like Toree 2’s soundtrack more than Toree 3D’s soundtrack,
I didn’t find any new problems with Toree 2, however, there is one problem from Toree 3D that is still prevalent in Toree 2. The camera still causes a few issues in Toree 2. I can recall one level, Torch Tower, being a bit of a pain with this camera. The camera is manually controlled and is not easy to adjust if you're trying to go fast. Torch Tower is a short level, but it’s timed, because of a big monster approaching the stage, killing you if you take too much time. the stage is also vertical based, basically having you climb up a tower, which means you got to turn the camera when you change directions. It’s not that bad, but when speedrunning, it will likely lead to you making blind movements, which is never okay to me.
There isn’t more I can mention without spoiling what the final level is like. Playing Toree 2 has been an amazing experience for me. I sat down one Sunday afternoon, just wanting to relax with a game, and decided to do a playthrough of Toree 2. I wasn't going to review it, especially since I covered Macbat 64 in my last review. I honestly do consider Toree 2 to be one of the best games I played this year, especially for its price. Toree 2 is a significant upgrade to Toree 3D and does almost everything a sequel should. Please, buy Toree 2 if you have not already, you don’t even need to play Toree 3D, to understand, and enjoy Toree 2.
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