Ophelia Payne

I’ve been playing a lot of platformers lately. It’s a genre I have a very mixed love/hate relationship with, but if you give me something with a fun character (and difficulty setting options), I am more than happy to lose a few hours in it to see what it’s about. I reviewed this on my XBOX Series X.

Marsupilami 2 – Salsa Palombia, from Microids and Ocellus Studio, is a sequel, but you don’t need to have played Marsupilami – Hoobadventure from 2021 before diving into the action, and you don’t need the backstory to enjoy it. I hadn’t played the original game and wasn’t familiar with it, but I am familiar with the IP as I vaguely remember the cartoon TV series and the toys from the 90s. Apparently, Marsupilami has been a staple in Europe since the 1950s, where the French-Belgian long-tailed marsupial has appeared in comic books, cartoons and even a movie.

In Marsupilami 2, you play as a combination of 3 furry friends, Twister, Hope and Punch, each with their own skills. Their job is to defeat the music-loving mummy who has brainwashed the land of Palombia. You will play as a combination of them as you work through the levels, and you can swap between whichever 2 you have at any point in time. This allows you to move through the level using the skills needed. The abilities include letting you air-dash and hover (Twister), double jump (Hope), and bounce off dangerous surfaces. You can also turn into a rubber ball of sorts and bounce off any surface (Punch). While this might sound complicated, it’s very intuitive, and you will be prompted when you use specific skills or characters on screen. This feature makes the game very approachable to gamers of a variety of skill levels.

Marsupilami 2 – Salsa Palombia is visually beautiful, full of colour and personality. The 4 unique worlds are loosely based on jungle, city, frozen mountainsides and an after-dark carnival. I loved the Day of the Dead type of aesthetic that was found throughout some of the levels, and the winter levels made my Canadian heart happy. While I may not love the winter weather, there is always something cozy about dashing through snow-covered levels in a video game. There is a lot of variety in each world, and while you will often find the same sort of gameplay throughout, as is the case with 2D platformers, I was surprised at the variety I found while playing and loved discovering something new.

While there is generally 1 route from start to finish in each level, there are a lot of optional routes you can take to gather more fruit or the collectible music notes throughout. While looking around, you may discover some hidden rooms to gather extra musical notes; these are needed to open the boss fights. Once you complete each level the first time (adventure mode), you can go back in at any time (salsa mode) if you are a completionist and you want to mop up missed collectibles. Salsa mode also introduces a multiplier, and if you are collecting the fruit quickly and consistently, it will stay active. The higher the collection streak, the higher the multiplier. While you need the musical notes for boss fights, you need to amass a lot of fruit to open hidden levels in the game.

Each level also has a hidden dojo challenge room where you can earn additional musical notes by completing challenges. This ranges from collecting everything on the screen, defeating all the enemies in the room, or simply surviving until the time runs out.

You can play Marsupilami 2 solo or as a duo via local co-op. I love that local co-op exists, as this feels like a wonderful game to play with family, friends, or a partner. You can play through the levels co-operatively or challenge each other in a dojo competition mode. 5 mini-games challenge you and your friendship. I played the entirety of my gameplay in solo mode; having the ability to play online co-op would be a bonus in cases like mine.

I briefly mentioned difficulty settings at the beginning of this review, and they do exist. The Easy mode means you have unlimited lives, making it a stress-free experience. With a lot of checkpoints available in the game, even normal mode wasn’t particularly punishing. When you die, you respawn at the closest checkpoint and don’t have to retrace too much of what you already completed. Hard mode starts you with 2 hearts of life versus the Normal 3.

While the soundtrack may not be something that will stick in your head long after you finish playing, it was upbeat and reminiscent of other 2D platformers in that its bounce keeps you moving forward. The sounds when collecting fruit and musical notes are also familiar in a nostalgic sense, and it was easy to find myself transported back to being a kid playing games with my younger brother.

This is a relatively short game but has a good amount of replayability. Priced under $25 USD, I think it’s a lot of fun and would be a great game for a wide variety of gamers.

Until next time…be good to yourself and be good to each other.

**Special thanks to Microids for the review code**