The Goonies II is a game I remember very fondly from childhood. I’m not really sure why I thought it was so awesome, the game was confusing to me and I just wandered around aimlessly. However, looking at my NES games this one just stuck out as a unique game play experience.
Box art for The Goonies II
The Goonies II was developed by Konami and is a sequel to The Goonies, a game which was never released in the U.S. So technically, it’s The Goonies for everyone in North America. You play as Mikey and your quest is to rescue the other Goonies (and a mermaid) who have been kidnapped by the Fratelli gang who recently escaped from jail, again. So, you have to sneak into the gang’s hideout armed only with a yo-yo to save everyone. I don’t know why he decided to bring the yo-yo, really. I would bring a bat or something, I’m not that skilled with a yo-yo. Mikey, however, can kill a man from 10 yards with one.
The game is a side scrolling platformer that looks nothing at all like the Goonies movie. There are also side passages you can explore to find additional weapons and other upgrades. You’ll face a variety of enemies, including snakes, spiders, skeletons, meat-cleaver throwing Eskimos, and giant man-eating fish, so you’ll want more than the yo-yo to defend yourself. Some of the upgrades include a boomerang, a gun, and Molotov cocktails. I wonder where the Fratelli gang got the Eskimos.
I never got anywhere near the end of the game, I got totally lost running around the apparently massive hideout. Certain side rooms have warp points, allowing you to move around the map quickly if you know where you’re going. I didn’t and would just die a miserable death. Still, not knowing where I was going didn’t matter to me, the game just had a cool feel to it, and exploring the zones was fun enough for me.
The music in the game is easily the best part. The Cyndi Lauper theme song sounds pretty good and all the other tracks are well done. Hopefully The Goonies II will be released on the Virtual Console so a new generation of gamers can experience the awesomeness of facing Eskimos wielding meat-cleavers with only a yo-yo.
Leave a Reply