Marsupilami 2 - Salsa Palombia Review - A Wild, High-Energy 2D Platformer!

Seren
Sep 1
8 min read

https://youtu.be/V7-TT-6puMY?si=_vG8gKEZ0yAulDrF

Platforms - Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC

Release date - 03/09/26

Price - 24.99

Nothing beats a good platformer, and boy, is it a genre that has some absolute bangers. So it's hard to make a name for yourself when there are so many to choose from. And like in our review of the first game, I also had absolutely no idea what this IP was until I found the code in my inbox.

Marsupilami 2, if the name doesn't already give it away, is a sequel to Marsupilami Hoobadventure from 2021, and whilst I haven’t played it, it was interesting and felt quite nostalgic in a weird way to watch SilentSigns' review of it to see how the IP had changed and hopefully improved. And it has vastly improved in terms of its gameplay, but still falls a bit short in some areas. You can play as three cartoonified marsupial-inspired characters, each with their own power, and it's their job to defeat the three music-loving mummies who have brainwashed the land of Palombia. You’ll trek across three distinct worlds and enjoy some platforming goodness along the way.

A massive improvement to Marsupilami 2 is its gameplay. One of its predecessor’s main gripes was that even though there were three characters to choose from to play as, they all played the exact same. A classic illusion of choice. However, Hope, Punch, and Twister are now unique playable characters, each with their own special move that allows them to traverse the map in different ways, but also allows you to tackle unique obstacles. In simplistic terms, Hope has a double jump, Punch can turn into a ball, and Twister can sail through the air with a double tap of the jump button. It's good that they’ve finally given these characters some versatility to their gameplay, but still, I feel like the unique powers are a tad lackluster. Instead of being able to choose from the three marsupials in each level, each map will assign you two of them that you change between on a whim. However, I often found that I didn't really need to switch all that often. Punch does allow you to bypass spikes in his ball form, but after the first world, I never found this ability to be useful. Instead, he was relegated to optional basketball hoops that scored you some extra fruit. It would have been nice to see some more innovative level design that is in tune with the unique character actions, but it all fell a bit flat for me.

This lack of innovation doesn't encompass the entirety of Marsupilami 2, though. As I played through each of the game’s three main maps, I became steadily more impressed with its level design. The jungle found in world 1 was fun enough but felt quite standard for the genre, but I found myself enjoying the use of electricity and cars as obstacles in the bustling city of world 2 and absolutely loving the scale of its snowy peaks in world 3. Marsupilami 2 is an extremely short game with only those 3 maps, so when I found the game was hitting its stride, it was a bit of a letdown when the game then came to a halt. I know there is more that this game and its level design can give, but they tantalizingly swept it from under my feet before I could see what they could do.

Like all 2D platformers, there are a range of collectibles to find, and there is more than enough content to have you going back to each level. From collecting all the music notes, finding hidden dojos, and taking on each level’s Salsa mode, where you’ll need to consistently collect as many berries as you can to form a streak. The higher the streak, the higher the multiplier on the berries you get. It's a bit of fun and definitely a change of pace with how precise and quick you have to fly through levels. You can also find hidden dojos which provide a range of rapid tests like destroying all the pots or collecting all the music notes. And finally, you can participate in cups which are just three consecutive dojo-type levels. Despite Marsupilami 2’s brief main campaign, there is still plenty to fall back on and have fun with.

Personally, I’m not a massive fan of platformers when I’m on my own, as my frustration in launching myself off a platform to my death isn't very fun when it's me screaming into the void on my own. So, I made it my mission to grab a friend and give Marsupilami 2 a go in duo mode. For the most part, it's as fun as I thought it’d be, but what exceeded my hopes was the dedicated versus mode you can access in the dojo for each map. The mode consists of 5 mini-games, ranging from a Rocket League-style football match to a Splatoon-esque game that requires you to paint as much of the map as you can with your designated color. My friend and I had a blast with these mini-games, and they offered a change of gameplay from the usual platformer. For each dojo you found, the more maps for each mini-game were unlocked. I almost had to drag us both away from these addicting lightning-paced rounds of fun to go back to actually playing the main campaign.

However, I have a couple of gripes with playing Marsupilami 2 with an additional player, one of them being that bosses are almost trivialized with how easy it is to button mash attacks as a pair. What was originally a bit more of a challenge was now turned into a speedrun where we would time at about 1 minute. The other was pointed out by my friend, who commented that the level design did not feel attuned to a two-player experience. Despite us both now having separate abilities, as I mentioned before, they are rarely utilized.

Like every platformer, there is barely any story, so there’s no surprise here. A music-mad mummy has basically awoken and placed the land of Palombia under a musical curse that makes its inhabitants act crazy. The only thing that made me raise my eyebrow is that the story for Marsupilami 2 is the exact same as the first, which I guess is standard. Peach does get kidnapped in every Mario game, so I can't throw much shade here. But what hurts a little bit is that the enemy roster is identical, and the bosses visually mirror those from the first. If I played the first one, then saw Marsupilami 2, I would have to do a double take and double-check that I wasn't playing the exact same game. There is a lack of identity when comparing the two, which I hope for the series going forward they’ll work on.

Marsupilami 2 is visually stunning with that poppy, vibrant cartoon look that did make my platforming experience easy on the eye. I especially have a soft spot for a Mexico Day of the Dead aesthetic/theme, which was present in its city world and last level. However, I was taken aback by how pretty the snowy mountains of world 3 were. Now, I'm quite biased because ice-themed levels are some of my favorites in the platformer genre, but there’s something so cozy and warm about sprinting through the snow-covered villages, to traversing through icy caves, to then bracing unforgiving winds whilst scaling the mountain. It was by far my favorite part of the game wholly for its aesthetic. Heck, there’s even a dinosaur that chases you at some point.

The music is also extremely pleasant, with a few of the tracks sticking in my head past my time playing it. There’s nothing too iconic and genre-defining, but that's okay. What I did notice, though, was how familiar some of the sound design felt. The noise that signals that you’re collecting berries sounds oddly familiar, and it plagued me for a while because I would like my platformers to be distinct from one another in terms of these little details. The sound of collecting a coin in Mario and Donkey Kong eating a banana in Banazana. It's small, but it gives the games that child-like feel and sense of identity. Instead, Marsupilami borrows a lot of that uniqueness from Donkey Kong, in how the toucans act as barrels to send you flying across a map, and the munching of the banana at the end of a level. I'm not going to stamp my feet on them borrowing these features, but it would help if they tried to craft their own identity rather than directly borrow from others.

Unfortunately, Marsupilami 2 does falter with some of its identity regarding its enemy roster too. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking base enemies from the first game to use in other games in the series. It's normal. But, where my problems arise is that there is not much variety in enemy types and designs. The same drugged-up squirrel and floating radioactive bats will appear in almost every level with, I’m not kidding, one or two new enemy designs sprinkled in here and there. Each world seems to have one unique enemy type, from fly traps in the jungle to killer snowmen in the mountains. By the time I got to the last world, I was fed up with having to look at the same enemies and also felt as if some of them didn't match the world they were in. I just wanted a bit more variety.

2D platformers can get quite visually chaotic, especially when you are playing with a friend. I found myself getting a tad motion sick in the main campaign but found that the versus mode tackled my problem quite well. The background of these levels is blacked out, with each character being highlighted by a different color, making it much easier to discern what my character was doing when contrasted with my friend. This paired well with how snappy these levels are and alleviated the confusion I normally had in the main campaign.

In terms of other accessibility options, there aren't a whole lot. You have a range of difficulty settings, but I only found it has an effect on boss battles. Normally, when you lose your three lives in a platformer, you restart the level or even retry at a checkpoint. There's always a sense of challenge in these games, both for younger and older players. However, when you lose your 3 lives in Marsupilami 2, you respawn at a checkpoint, and with the overabundance of them, I never really felt punished for dying. I would only ever lose a small amount of progress each time. However, if even that annoys you, you can turn on an easy mode that gives you infinite lives so you can soar through each level with ease. Hard mode knocks you down to 2 hearts, but as I said, with how forgiving failing is, this didn't feel like a step up in difficulty.

As an enjoyer of 2D platformers, Marsupilami 2 Salsa Palombia does an overall solid job, now and then dipping into greatness. Just comparing it to Hoobadvanture is enough to show the devs are building upon what they have established, with unique character abilities and improved level design. It's a short and snappy experience, with only around 3 hours to finish the campaign, but there is plenty of optional content to have fun with, fun that is best experienced with a friend. Despite its colorful and vibrant world, though, I always felt like I wanted more from the game. I wanted more enemies to go up against, and I wanted more intuitive level design. I'm really happy with the evolution of the Marsupilami games, but I'm expecting them to go even further in the next one, and that's why it earns itself the solid bronze genie lamp of approval.

Like

Map design that gets better and better

Improved gameplay mechanics for main characters

Versus mode is really fun

Plenty of optional content to dig into

Dislike

Was over way too soon

Enemy roster was poor

Level design could be more attuned to character abilities

Expensive for such a short game

Who’s it for

Enjoyers of short, snappy experiences