Charlie II is a refreshing step back into video game history.  This game will remind long-term gamers of the Super Mario and Sonic series when they were each in their infancy.  It heralds back to a time when kids got together, not to beat each other up on video games, but to swap secrets of things they had found in a game.  Starting with Super Mario Bros., there were many games, in which you could play straight through a board set, or, if you were slightly more skilled, you could find every secret a specific board offered.  Super Mario started this tradition by hiding items in blocks, making invisible blocks that would take you away to secret levels, and offering a plethora of hidden items in a board that would take hours to find.

Some point along the line of Video Game evolution, all of that was lost.  Perhaps it was because in a true 3D environment, players can go anywhere, so hidden rooms that can be accessed by running through what you thought was a wall, would be impossible to find.  In any event, for anyone who enjoyed the early days of Sonic and Super Mario Bros., or other games such as Wizards & Warriors by Rare and Bonk's Adventure by Hudson, Charlie II is a treat waiting for you to discover it!

In Charlie II, you play a duck...yah, a duck!?  As you move through the fantasy land, you have only one weapon at your disposal, your big webbed feet.  By jumping on enemies, they will quickly be dispatched.  However, there are some enemies that even the feet won't take them out...for those, all you can do is hope you find an invincibility power-up somewhere.  Your other abilities include being able to run really fast.  If you combine running with jumping, you'll find Charlie will jump a very long distance.  While jumping long distance, you often fly into animals you didn't realize were there.  Ravens and Robins always seemed to give me the most trouble.  Thankfully, Charlie has 3 hearts at the start of each level, each one reflecting one point of damage that you can take from an enemy.  On each of the 3 stages that the levels are part of, you can find an additional heart, giving you 4 total...which is greatly needed as you advance onto the end boss of the stage.

Game play progresses in 2D fashion, with each level starting at the left of the screen and progressing in an entirely haphazard towards the right side of the screen.  Many of the levels provided something of a maze to get through, with levels like the egyptian levels, having large areas that looped if you weren't able to find the correct tunnel out. 

As is the case with any good game of this genre, the game is really about finding thing on the levels.  Often as you progress through the game, you'll see platforms way up above your, or open areas in the ground below you that look really interesting...but getting to them is another issue entirely.  You'll have to be quite innovative to find everything in the game, but some good advice is to never take anything at face value.  Just because something looks like it is a wall doesn't mean that it is.  Also, if you see a bush, there might be a spring board behind it.  You can often dive into the water and appear in another section of the level, or in a secret room, much like the pipes in Super Mario Bros.  Honestly, there are so many different secrets, and ways to do them, I cannot begin to list them all, but it is a lot of fun trying to figure them out.

Though there are 18 levels in Charlie II, you won't automatically be able to play them all.  Six of the levels require that you go through a secret exit on a previous level in order to reach them.  Moving through the game, after you have passed any one level, you are able to move on to the next level, and game play is saved so that you can continue on at the next level at a later time.  My only regret with the saving system is that it does not allow you to go back to a previous level and try to find things you might have missed.  To do that, you'll have to start the game over from the beginning.  Each level also has a checkpoint or 2.  If you make it to the checkpoint, the game is not saved there, but any remaining extra men you have will start there if you happen to meet an untimely demise.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to play all the way through Charlie II.  I did play many of the secret exit levels, and all the normal levels, but after playing the final end-boss of the game three times, I decided I didn't have the patience it would take to play enough times to get lucky and beat him.  That was sad, but it doesn't take away at all from this game that kept me up late for many nights trying to unlock all its secrets.  And honestly, I didn't even come close to finding everything that is in the game.

Graphics: 7
The graphics in Charlie II are very reminiscent of late Super Nintendo graphics.  They are a bit pixilated, at least they were with every viewing option I choose.  Still, they do a very good job of creating a fantasy world for Charlie to hop around in.  The multiple parallax scrolling backgrounds look very good, and provide a very good feeling of depth.  While many of the graphics are repeated throughout the game, the different shades and other minor changes, such as sunset and snow, lead to keeping the graphics fresh on each board.  In addition, the Egypt-esque level has a very singular look to it.  The graphics are very well done and do add to the overall feel of the game.

Sound: 6
Most of the music tracks are midis, and while they do add a little atmosphere to the game, they lack the real heart of a great sound track.  I enjoyed the ambiance, but it could have been improved upon.  The sound effects of Charlie in the game are very similar to Super Mario Bros.  They work well, but are not anything revolutionary.  I enjoyed the quacking, but again, it wasn't of the highest quality for sound effects.

Game Play: 7
One of the keys to being a master of video games in the old days was being able to control your character.  Today that has mostly been replaced by being able to have quick reflexes.  While that is also true in the older games, I believe that mid 80's to early 90's titles involved a lot of playing as you learned how to get your character to do everything you would like it to do.  Unfortunately, a lot of the time the reason you had to learn how to play your character is that it didn't move the way you might think it would.  With Charlie, that was also the case as I often found myself stepping off of platforms inadvertently and running into enemies that I had no way of avoiding.  I certainly don't mean to disparage the Game Play.  This is a very playable game, and you will quickly come to grips on how to control your duck, but it certainly won't come as second nature as you are trying to make long jumps across dangerous territory, and I'm sure you'll find yourself doing it over and over again as you fall in places you didn't think you'd come close to the edge.

Options: 8
There are a great number of options in Charlie, from different video and sound configurations, to the all important save feature.  Being able to set the difficulty level is also a nice little feature as it increases or decreases the number of coins and diamonds you need to find on the level in order to leave the level.

Concept: 8
This concept has been done before, but certainly not recently.  Charlie II, doesn't really bring much new to the concept, but it is one of the best executed games of this type that I've played.

Fun: 9
It has been a long time since I played a video game, and found myself thinking the rest of the day, trying to figure out where there might have been a secret that I may have missed.  Charlie II is a lot of fun, and the number of well placed secret rooms will keep you playing for MANY hours trying to find them all.  The only drawback on the fun was the last end boss, who was not enjoyable at all to play...however, I don't think that really negatively impacts the game.


Overall: 8
Looking at the category scores above, you might ask how they average out to an 8?  The reason why is that this was a game I had a hard time putting down for 3 straight days.  I played and played, starting over at the beginning several times, to see if I could find everything hidden on a board, or if I could find the secret exit that would level me to hidden levels.  It is rare today to find a game along these lines that is so well made.  The levels are long and challenging, and the secrets hidden everywhere on the levels are a joy to find, and rewarded me with many enjoyable hours playing.  Anyone looking for a great game that will gives you a fantastically fun challenge with a very high number of game play hours, and a wonderful replay value, for a very low price should give Charlie II a very serious look.