Magical Time Bean is a small indie developer who started out on XNA, with his First game as Soul Caster, a puzzle game. After a sequel to that title they went on to make Escape Goat. This time it was still a puzzler, but also a platformer. After releasing Soul Caster 2, Escape Goat got a PC port. In between then and today, they went hard at work on a sequel to Escape Goat 2. And true to their name, Escape Goat 2 is a magical time. Just be prepared to die as often as a fallen hacky-sack.

Escape Goat 2 is the sequel to Escape Goat, and just like the previous title, it is a platform-puzzler. The basic gameplay hasn’t changed all that much from the previous game, although the game has a very nice looking HD facelift. You are still trying to get to the exit to get to the next level. You are still going to die many times before succeeding in some of the levels. But most of all, you are still going to ask yourself: Why a Goat? There seems to be a story, but don’t try to make any sense of it. But that that last one won’t even bother you. Because the game is fun and it possesses that ‘just one more try, just one more level’ addictive quality. The game might not have changed much, but now there are new magical item that your rat friend can use to solve puzzles or get rid of nuisances. These powers help keep the game from feeling like a simple HD retread of the original title.

There are power ups such as a hammer that turns the rat into an iron block, which can crush blocks enemies, or provide cover from flame attacks. The most obvious use is as a stepping stone. Another ability is the Cape of Vengeance, which lets the mouse dart from one side of the room to the opposite, destroying anything in its path. There is also the cloning circle which can let the rat duplicate himself in order to solve puzzles, but sadly is pretty much used exclusively in conjunction with the Magical Hat. The Hat is from the original title and lets you swap locations with the rat, again letting you tele-fragging anything in the warp’s path.

The music is once again very well done, and will definitely be worth the purchase price of $10 alone. The soundtrack, much like the size of the game is short, but the tracks set up the mood of the levels nicely, and the game isn’t long enough for you to get sick of them, as there are enough levels that you will only hear repeat tracks a handful of times. The game does have innate gamepad support, and the game even strongly recommends using an Xbox 360 gamepad. It should take most people about 8-10 hours to complete the first time through, and the game takes up about 209 MB of hard drive space. There are some secret levels to unlock as well, and those levels are about as difficult as Super Meat Boy. Any shortcomings are that there needs to be more music tracks, levels, and better/more uses of some of the other powers. Other than that, Escape Goat 2 is a fun little romp that’s worth any puzzle fans time.

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