PAX East is the place for companies to show off interesting games. I made an appointment with the Atari booth to see a certain game. This game was being billed as a sequel for Pong. I didn’t know I needed a sequel to Pong but after playing Qomp 2, I now have been reassured that I needed a sequel to Pong!
As I mentioned Qomp 2 is being billed as a sequel to Pong. The only catch is the paddles you know and love from Pong are no where to be seen. You have to ace each level by deflecting and redirecting the ball through each stage. You’ll be able to smack it against the wall among other things. You also have the ability to charge your shot. What I mean by that is you have to ability to charge power into your ball and change its speed. You can slow it down to make sharp turns or speed it up to get through a certain tight spot. Qomp 2 has some crazy platforming in a game that you wouldn’t think is a platformer.
There are hidden challenges strewn throughout levels that look like tear drops that you can challenge yourself to collect. Think strawberries in Celeste as a good comparison in terms of challenge. On the plus side, there are checkpoints in levels in different locations. You will need those since the challenge of getting through each level can be pretty tough. I compare it to another tough Atari game, Mr. Run and Jump in terms of being challenging but fair.
Just when you think you have a challenging level defeated, the game brings a boss fight to you. It’s cool to see how a boss fight is implemented against a ball but they’re pretty fun. You might have to break something that belongs to the boss and then slide between two lasers to claim victory.
One of the tougher areas during the demo was similar to an escort mission. You needed to guide a blue block all the way through the level so you had something to deflect the ball off of later. There were plenty of level hazards like spikes along the path as well. I found myself changing directs quite often so my ball wasn’t out of control. This felt like the best way to allow the ball to go where I wanted it to rather than where it wanted to. There are blue whirlpools in levels at times where you can charge your ball and have it rest there. While in it, you can change the direction of the ball but it will shoot out fast so make sure you have your mind made up.
Qomp 2 is an interesting game from Atari but Atari is known for keeping it simple and adding complex to something too. Qomp 2 is no different and I’m looking forward to checking it out.