Hands On: Windjammers 2 Needs to Come to PS4

Under normal circumstances, port begging would be a bannable offence, but we make the rules here and we can’t exactly purge our own accounts. Look, here’s the thing, Windjammers 2 is shaping up to be a superb sequel, but it’s not currently announced for the PlayStation 4 and that’s keeping us awake at night. Having gone hands on with the title at EGX 2019 last week, we came to one conclusion: it needs to come to the PlayStation 4.

It’s a bit strange that Sony’s system isn’t currently confirmed, because the re-release of the 1994 Neo Geo original was announced during a PSX press conference – of course, that was back when the Japanese giant used to invest effort into titles beyond just the big brand names. Nevertheless, if you’re reading this DotEmu, you know what you need to do.

Anyway, what about the game? It’s awesome. Honestly, there’s very little we need to add from those two all-important words: you move around one half of a court, throwing Frisbees towards your opponent’s goal while simultaneously attempting to defend your own. Characters are class-based, so you get power protagonists who move slowly and vice versa.

The cartoon artstyle will prove divisive among purists as the pixel visuals of the original still stand strong today, but we like it – only the character portraits disappoint, but they’re so bad that we’re going to assume they’re placeholder for the time being. In-game, everything looks crisp, and the animations are impressive to say the least.

Gameplay-wise there have been a few subtle tweaks: Power Moves are now tied to a recharge metre, and can be used in both offensive and defensive contexts depending upon what you need. You can also jump, turning the tides when your foes attempt dastardly drop shots by slamming the Frisbee back into their goal.

It’s really, really good – a real crowd-pleaser that attracts attention as rallies rapidly go back-and-forth. The title doesn’t quite feel finished – those character portraits are, like we mentioned, really bad – but DotEmu’s got the gameplay and general art direction down. Now it just needs to finish the project off – and, y’know, actually port it to the PS4. Port begging’s irritating, but we’ll allow a small exception in this instance because… Well, c’mon – it's Wind-freakin'-jammers 2!

Are you a fan of the original Windjammers? What do you make of the sequel’s overall look? Let’s play Frisbee in the comments section below.