If you asked young Lyle about his favourite games, he’d probably talk for hours about Super Mario. There was one series though that I loved just as much as my precious plumber, and that’s Donkey Kong Country. These classic Rareware games featured top notch platforming, spectacular visuals, and so much to collect in each stage. They instilled in me a love of jumping around and grabbing shiny shit, that has served me well in life. Marsupilami 2 – Salsa Palombia is a game that seems to have as much love in its heart for Donkey Kong as I do, and based on a few stages I’m very excited for the full game.
In a world being taken over by a mysterious melody, there are only three creatures who can save the day. It’s the Marsupilamis of course, who are three adorable mascot marsupials with different coloured fur and platforming abilities. The opening cutscene was certainly charming enough, and paved the way for a fun adventure.
The demo of Marsupilami 2 – Salsa Palombia featured three levels to play, complete with different combinations of Marsupilamis to play as. Every one of them controls just like a Donkey Country character, with the right level of weightiness that feels seriously satisfying. They can all run, jump and do a dash attack to charge through foes, but have some important differences too.
Each colourful protagonist has a different jumping ability, and they’re useful in different situations. The yellow critter can dash forward in the air, and then glide to cross larger gaps. The red fella instead can perform a double jump, which is great for getting higher. My favourite though was the purple marsupial, who can turn into a bouncy ball to get over spikes and wreck anything in your way. It’s fun to have different characters that you can switch between, especially because it means you can reach more collectibles.
Each stage of Marsupilami 2 Salsa Palombia has a bunch of notes to collect, which I assume will be important in the main game. There are ten total, with five to find hidden in hard to reach places, three granted for collecting lots of fruit, and a couple more in special challenge rooms. These are especially Donkey Kong coded, tasking you with grabbing a load of fruit or smashing enough crates within a time limit. The formula may be familiar, but that doesn’t make collecting all the goodies any less satisfying.
The familiar sides to this game don’t stop there either, with its lush jungle stages and toucans you can fire out of like barrels. You could try and call it derivative or uninspired if you wanted, but quite frankly I don’t care what you say. These three stages sold me on the concept, showed me that the foundation is there, and that there’s plenty of stage variety to be had from the full game. Marsupilami 2 Salsa Palombia is a title that I reckon I’d have enjoyed in every stage of my life, and that includes right now.
There’s not a whole lot more to talk about from this demo build of Marsupilami 2 – Salsa Palombia, because it’s about half an hour long and you’ll be able to play it for yourself very soon. I’m excited to see how later stages evolve, what the collectibles actually do and how the difficulty ramps up though, because these things will dictate if the game is good or great.
I left the demo of Marsupilami 2 – Salsa Palombia confident that this is a game made for people like me, who grew up loving platformers and want a hit of nostalgia with a twist. The different characters add an extra layer to the jumping and collecting too, and I can only hope this continues throughout the game. One thing’s for sure though, when this marsupial mascot adventure releases, I’ll be hopping in on day one.
Marsupilami 2 – Salsa Palombia is coming to PC via Steam on September 3rd.
