Welcome back to the wacky world of Dadish, the world of good guy vegetables, bad guy fast food, and even worse child raising advice. Dadish 2 takes exactly what the first game did and continues to build off the concept of simple platforming, retro visuals and (literal) dad jokes. This is obvious right from the beginning, but first, maybe it’s time to discuss what’s new.

Oh hey, we have new levels! Even though, duh, that’s not very surprising. Levels feel much less formulaic than they did throughout Dadish. Sure, the first few levels will get anyone used to the game’s mechanics, but the difficulty certainly spikes in comparison to the original. There are also new auto-scroll levels starring the first boss from Dadish, Burgurgular. Who’s Burgurgular, you might ask? Well, this friendly fella is a big burger who just wants to make right for the wrongdoings he did in the first game. Not to mention that, for some reason, your kid becomes friends with him. The same kid you yourself called stupid in the first game, may I add. I don’t think he’s allowed within 50 meters of a school, by the way.

This time around, instead of Dadish’s children running away while he’s trying to have a nap, they come to visit him at work. Everything goes wrong, as to be expected, they all vanish, and from then onwards, it’s the same old story, same old song and dance. Just as the kids point out every so often though, Dadish’s work place is a bit, let’s say, hostile. Some of these safety hazards include fire, spikes, and bosses sent by Space Lord Durnak, who’s totally different from Lord Durnak from Dadish. Totally different, definitely not the same guy. Trust us.

Outside of an increased difficulty, and Burgurgular levels, the main difference to each level is the new addition of enemies. The highlight is clearly a gigantic hot dog bun that keeps throwing sausages at you, who’s a bit of a pain in the butt. Quite a few levels also have Indiana Jones style “run away from the boulder” sections that actually make really good use of springs to make them bounce around and jump over gaps. Also included are Donkey Kong Country-esque cannons, vines you can swing across, pinball flippers, and more. Nothing in here is exactly game changing, but it’s more of what was already good, so there’s little reason to complain.

The graphic style in Dadish 2 is exactly the same as it was in the first game, an “in-between transition from 8-bit to 16-bit” style of art similar to platformers of old. The only improvements to the visuals are the handful of new enemy sprites added to the mix. On top of that, for the most part, the sound design is very much similar, borrowing a lot of reused assets from the first game. The tunes are very repetitive the whole way through, but match the style of game, again, in homage to older platformers.

In the grand scheme of things, Dadish 2 could have very easily been a DLC pack for the first game, but given its cheap price, it’s absolutely justifiable to pick up this sequel game if you’ve enjoyed the original. Sure, it’s pretty much just more levels on the same engine, but that’s not entirely bad. It’s a good time if Dadish was your thing, but if you didn’t enjoy that bite-sized indie platformer to begin with, this one isn’t going to change your mind.

Graphics: 7.0 The graphics are pretty much the exact same as the first game, save for adding a few new enemies. Cute, but not jaw dropping	Gameplay: 8.0 Dadish 2 adds new types of levels, new varieties of enemies, and more. All in all though, the base gameplay is basically the same.
Sound: 6.5 If you took the music from the first game, and put it in the second game, is that cheating? I don’t think so, but it’s certainly not a huge step up like one might expect.	Fun Factor: 9.5 The increase in difficulty, new enemies, and the few levels with Burgurgular actually made Dadish 2 much more fun than the original.
Final Verdict: 8.0

Dadish 2 is available now on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PS4, PC.

Reviewed on Xbox One.

A copy of Dadish 2 was provided by the publisher.