Rick Dangerous 2
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The Top League
(1991)
Description official descriptions
Your role as Rick Dangerous demands that you stop the Fat Guy and his evil plans to help an alien race take over control of our world. The journey takes place in Hyde Park, Ice Caverns, Forest and Atomic Mines. He must solve positional puzzles and memorise the locations of laser bolts and booby traps, as well as avoiding enemies including robots, penguins and nomads. As in the first game, a fifth level is unlocked after you complete the four standard levels.
Rick can climb ladders and crawl through tight spaces. He is equipped with a laser gun and six little bombs, but can also punch with some effect. The controls are very easy to understand: pressing fire+up shoots the gun, pressing fire+down places a bomb, pressing fire+bottom-left/bottom-right makes Rick slide a bomb along the floor in the specified direction.
Groups +
Screenshots
Promos
Credits (DOS version)
11 People
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| Sprite 'Smelphing' Utility |
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| Game Concept & Programming |
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| Game Copyright © 1990 |
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| Manual Copyright © 1990 |
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 84% (based on 26 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.3 out of 5 (based on 62 ratings with 1 reviews)
More eyecandy, less frustration
The Good
Right after surviving his first adventure, Rick Dangerous has no time for vacations. For his new mission, he gets rid of the old Indy-style hat and coat, revealing a dashing superhero outfit - complete with blue cape and laser gun. This time he's up against the evil Fat Guys from outer space, to defeat them he has to make his way through five big levels.
Each new world has it's own characteristics: The alien ship that has landed in Hyde park is protected with laser traps and patrolling robots, the ice planet Freezia features falling icicles and thawing ice blocks containing malevolent penguins. In the Forests of Vegetablia Rick has to climb huge trees while avoiding sharp spikes and poisoned arrows, and the Atomic Mud Mines are infested with slime monsters and dripping acid pools.
The game mechanics have not much changed from the first part, they're still simple, but effective. Rick's new ability to slide bombs along the floor is most welcome. Technically the game also has improved a bit, the 16-color graphics are presented with a pretty VGA color palette, and for sound effects the AdLib card is supported.
The best new feature is the level selection. While it's still required to complete the whole game in one go without losing more than six lives, all but the last level can be selected for practising. This makes the game a lot less frustrating than the predecessor.
The Bad
Unfortunately the level design is not as devious as in the first part of the series. The new traps and enemies cannot conceal the conservative layout of the levels and a general lack of original ideas. Ideal for beginners, but anyone who played the first Rick Dangerous game might get bored after a few screens.
The Bottom Line
A solid platform action game with nice graphics and cute animation. Simple gameplay and slow pace appeal to beginners, players who look out for more challenging puzzles should play the first part of the series instead.
DOS · by 5u3 (196) · 2006
Trivia
Adlib support
Adlib support works if only you have the SOUND.COM utility which was originally supplied with the Adlib card. It nevertheless works with Adlib compatible cards such as the SoundBlaster (again you have to find SOUND.COM from somewhere and run it before the game).
Amiga version add-on
On the Amiga, there is an add-on disk, titled Rick Dangerous 2 1/2. It was a bonus level of the sequel that never appeared in the game but was given away free on the cover of The One Amiga magazine.
Unresolved ending
The final cutscene is open-ended - the Fat Guy escapes in a teleporter and Rick follows him, with the caption "What will Rick do next?". Sadly Rick Dangerous 3 was never completed.
VGA colors
In the VGA version of the game, the same 16-color palette is used in all of the levels although the perceived color scheme of each level differs a lot from each other.
Awards
- Amiga Power
- May 1991 (Issue #00) - #17 in the "All Time Top 100 Amiga Games"
- Commodore Format
- July 1993 (Issue 34) - Modern Classics: Arcade Adventure
- March 1994 (Issue 42) Heaven – The Path to Righteousness: 20 Essential Games
- November 1994 (Issue 50) – #21 The All-Time Top 50 C64 Games
- October 1995 (Issue 61) – The Top Ten C64 Games of all Time
- EMAP Image's Golden Joystick 1991
- April 1991: Game of the Year - 8 Bit
- ST Format
- January 1993 (issue #42) - #39 in '50 finest Atari ST games of all time' list
Information also contributed by Andrew Fisher and Blood.
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Related Sites +
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AtariMania
for Atari ST: game entry database; downloadable release; advertisement; magazine reviews; additional material -
CPC-Power (in French)
for Amstrad CPC: game database entry; package material; manual digitalizations; goodies; advertisement; magazine reviews; downloadable releases; additional material -
Cambridge Centre for Computing History
for Amiga: exhibit reference ID CH14588; additional material -
Hall of Light
for Amiga: game database entry; digitalised manuals; package material digitalizations; screenshots; additional material -
Lemon 64
for C64: game entry database; magazine reviews; music; manual; cover art digitalizations; additional material -
Lemon Amiga
for Amiga: game database entry; magazine reviews; instructions; additional material -
Rick Dangerous - Resurrected
Fan site with extensive information about the Rick Dangerous games (all platforms). -
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
encyclopaedic entry for combined platforms -
World of Spectrum
for ZX Spectrum: downloadable releases; additional material including – cassette inlay, advertisement, instructions; remakes links; player reviews; magazine references; magazine adverts
Identifiers +
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by robotriot.
Amiga added by Famine3h. Amstrad CPC, Atari ST added by Martin Smith. Commodore 64 added by festershinetop. ZX Spectrum added by Terok Nor.
Additional contributors: IJan, Yearman, 5u3, Jo ST, FatherJack, ZeTomes.
Game added December 20, 1999. Last modified June 17, 2024.