Line Rider 2 seeks to monetize a concept available in a free flash game. But is it worth it? That depends on if you really like CGI cut scenes, trial and error puzzles, and electronic music.
The game has 3 modes. Story Mode, which introduces new players to the game’s concept pits your character against Chaz as you try to guide your character’s sleigh from point A to point B. Of course, doing this is not so easy thanks to gaps on the track your sleigh must follow. Players must fill in these gaps to collect medals on the track in order to complete each stage.
Freestyle mode is what most players familiar with the flash game will be used to. It lets you create all sorts of tracks to send your character through.
Puzzle mode lets players create tracks like that of Story Mode with obstacles and gaps to conquer.
The Wiimote and nunchuck are not as precise as I had hoped them to be; trying to create sprawling tracks in Freestyle and Puzzle mode is an exercise in frustration. A zoom-in ability would have been nice. There is a plethora of tools to choose from in creating a track, but the user-interface felt clumsy and it was difficult to quickly switch from one tool to the next. I could also have used a quick way to tell what tool I had selected.
Story Mode was where I spent most of my time in the game and what I would consider most enjoyable for those who like problem solving. The game starts off fairly easy at first with a couple of stages where I only needed to make a line from point A to point B to cover the gap, but difficulty quickly ramped up in the second challenge.
Getting through each gap or obstacle is mostly a practice in trial and error, which gets frustrating when you can’t make precise movements with the Wiimote. Many times, I drew a curve, thinking it would connect to the next portion of the track only to realize during the playthrough that there was a small bump at the end of where I drew that would completely overturn my sleigh. Oops.
Spending so much time on each stage perfecting my lines would have been more frustrating if the background music was bad, but thankfully I was spared. The electronic music that accompanies each stage is quite good and catchy. Maybe it’s a little too catchy because I found myself humming a couple tunes long after I left the game.
Line Rider 2 is worth shelling out for if you’re one to enjoy puzzles, but it’s not worth it if you just want to create freestyle tracks to ride through. While there are more tools to choose from in Line Rider 2 as well as backgrounds and clip-art to decorate the lines with, it’s just too frustrating trying to draw precise lines with the Wiimote. After a few hours with the game, I found myself enjoying the music more than anything else the game had to offer.
Images courtesy of Genius Products.
