Game:

Cactus McCoy 2: The Ruins of Calavera (2011)

Duration: 16:20

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The final countdown! Here we go! A level to beat, a final boss to defeat and a winged bird lady to save. We've finally arrived in Calvera after 11 levels!

This place has a strong Bowser's dungeon feel to it, creeping along in one of those castles looking from the princess as Mario. Its a lot greener than those levels owing to the fact its in the middle of a jungle but the foreboding metal construction that looms builds this sense of anticipation as I traversed deeper into the ruins. Overall I really love it. Gettiung the to the final boss fight is pretty easy actually, the level itself doesn't feel like its about the challenge so much as the journey of penetrating the outer areas of the ruins and crushing a host of those poor stupid Eneimgos. It only actually took me 10 minutes of painless travel to find Malana Mire.

Fittingly this guy isn't screwing around and is quite able to kill just about anyone as demonstrated by casually blasting the two previous level bosses (Alpaca Jack and Dumb Bell) off the screen for not killing Cactus McCoy. He wields some sort of sycthe weapon called the the Serpent Blade that looks really cool and has the feel of a forbidden artifact. Being the last boss fight its the longest, composed of two different parts.

The first part is relatively simple. What I basically did was jump around to get behind his back and smacked him around with a long sword a few times before moving to avoid his attacks. He can deal out some serious damage by spinning that blade of his at close range so staying in front of him is something to be avoided. He also has a habit of throwing out both the blades of his weapon out but this is so comically easy to avoid I never had much issue.

So after beating on Malana for a while he goes all crazy and decides to go all floaty with a blue death aura on me shooting laser beams everywhere. Eventually after spazzing out for minute he seemingly burned up all his energy and decided to take a nap in the middle of our fight. As a gentleman I found it my duty to punch him in the head several times to help him feel fresh when he woke from his slumber. After a couple rounds of this he finally laid defeated and I stood as the victor.

The the last thing to mention is the comic book cinematic that plays to end the game. Its just OK really. The style is a lot like the one at the start of the game but its really short so its not that pleasing, I would have wanted something more grand to end the game. Unexpectedly Dumb Bell and Alpaca Jack decide to help you escape, probably because they are unemployed and their last employer tried to kill them. Bit of a cop out but this game was never about the plot, just interesting locales and platforming.

Regardless evil is defeated, good wins and with a bit of treasure to show for its efforts. So ends Cactus McCoy 2 and my review of the game. Its a lovely game and I encourage everyone to check it out, its a great way to spend a rainy day. If whatever reason you've never played a platforming game before check this out, it introduces you to the basics of the genre in a very friendly package. That is all folks, take care.

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