Stick ‘Em Up 2: Paper Adventures
Developer: Whatever Games
Genre: Action & Adventure
Available On: XBLIG
Co-Op Mode: Local (4 player)
Price: 240 MS Points ($3)
Demo w/ Co-Op Available: Yes
Last week we took a look at Papercraft, a twin-stick shooter with some RPG elements with a paper plane and felt board art style. This week we take a look at Stick ‘Em Up 2: Paper Adventures, an action platformer that also utilizes paper style graphics and co-op action.
Across the 6 levels (including a tutorial level), you and your co-op partners will shoot, fly, race, and cross blades with pirates. Each level comes with its own unique weapons or mechanics to use in order to complete it. The Japan level, for instance, has you wielding throwing stars to fell your paper foes while the Treetops level relies upon the old bow and arrow. There’s also a level that puts you behind the wheel of a moon buggy type craft and racing around the moon. While all of the levels are fun and keep things interesting by changing up the look and gameplay, the Space Race level is definitely the best when it comes to playing co-operatively. Racing around in an environment where the gravity’s been lessened a little provides all kinds of opportunities for pulling off some crazy flips as you fly off the ramps.
As far as the co-op experience goes, playing with your friends essentially just adds to the craziness. Completing the levels doesn’t necessarily get any easier with the addition of one, two, or three more players, but it does get more fun. Distracting enemies with one player while the others sneak around to kill the foe from behind certainly can be achieved, but showering your opponents in a hail of bullets just seems like the more entertaining option. For each level, players will have just two lives and a health bar to help see them through. Should a player fall, he or she will have to sit it out for the remainder of the level until his or her friends, hopefully, make it through.
Replaying a level for the sake of another player, though, does come with certain benefits as each player can earn “goals” (essentially in-game achievements as XBLIG don’t come with XBLA achievements) by achieving certain tasks, such as flipping the moon buggy 720 degrees. Earning some of these goals will likely take a couple tries, so there is a sense of replay value here. Additionally, Whatever Games is currently developing additional levels for the game, which will be released as part of a free update to the game, provided you get it now at the 240 MS points price.
While Stick ‘Em Up 2: Paper Adventures may not be a game that relies upon co-op in order to make levels easier to complete, it does implement one of the more important co-op principles we hold to here: making the game more fun.
Wrap-Up
Stick ‘Em Up 2 is Geared Towards: Platform gamers that enjoy a change of pace from level to level
The Co-Op Experience: Team up with up to three other friends to shoot foes, pilot helicopters, race moon buggies, and do battle with pirates and ninjas