Rating: 4

Version tested: 1.1

Description: Pekka Kana 2 is a highly playable old-school 2D platform game that offers big detailed levels and excellent visuals and audio.

Pekka Kana is the name of the exceedingly cute rooster who is the protagonist of this game. His (and your) goal is to travel from the beginning to the end of each of the levels, in a quest to rescue chickens from an ‘evil crow’. This involves avoiding and/or fighting evil characters and collecting bonuses and other useful items, while solving various puzzles along the way.

All the typical platform game elements are there; moving platforms, monsters patrolling specific areas, hidden bonuses, locked doors, bottomless pits or lakes that you should avoid, traps that you trigger that cause objects (or walls) to fall or give way. Objects you can collect include eggs (for bombing foes, obviously), megaphones (a rooster’s makeshift gun), feathers (for restoring energy), keys (for opening doors), and a number of others.

There are 2 sets of levels (Rooster Island 1 and Rooster Island 2) that, in effect, make for 2 different games. What is more, there is a downloadable level editor that you can use to create your own custom levels, as well as an entire site full of fan episodes that you can download and play (you can also find these in other sites across the web).

This game is like a Big Mac, in that you know exactly what you’re getting, you know you’re not getting a gourmet meal that you’ll be talking to your friends about later on, but you will enjoy it a lot all the same. It looks and sounds really good with a lot of attention paid to detail. If you enjoy classic platformers and want a jolt of mindless fun you could do much worse than give this one a shot.

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the download page to download the latest version (approx.6.6 megs). The game home page.