Windjammer 2 Switch Game Review Did you know ‘windjammer’ was a slang term for a sailing ship once upon a time? I can see some sense in that name, but I could not have guessed from the name alone that Windjammers was also a ’90s sports game about two opponents locked in an intense battle of competitive frisbee—essentially Pong with special abilities.
Is this a real sport? Not really, but a quick search showed me there is Ultimate Frisbee, which has teams and is played on a big pitch? I’ve learned so much from Windjammers 2, a delightful arcade game I only wish was better at teaching me about itself.
The fundamentals of Windjammers and Windjammers 2 are more or less the same. Not just in controls and design, but in the throwback vibe of their aesthetics, too. The new slick, hand-drawn-looking sprites capture those same bold colors to convey an idealized, feel-good 1990s where the sun is always shining and we’re all here to have a good time. Like the bits of old Power Rangers when they weren’t fighting a rubber man from outer space and doing backflips. I’m not immune to this nostalgia, even if its sunny excess barely reflects any of my experiences during the actual ’90s.
There’s naiveté and easygoing nature to Windjammers 2 that’s endearing, especially as it revels in the absurdity of frisbee as an extreme sport. Though to be fair, I’ve never played a game of frisbee where anyone launched it in a ball of flame—these folks are definitely on a different level.
Windjammer 2 Switch Game Review
Matches are pretty straightforward: Each round you’re served a frisbee, and points are awarded to the first player to either hit their opponent’s back wall or make them fail to catch the disc. Specials allow you to knock through opponents’ defenses or hurl the frisbee faster, but the depth comes from all the various ways you can curve your throw or build up speed with ricochets or counters. While the degree of precision that emerges from its simple controls is enthralling, even on the easy difficulty setting there is a steep learning curve, and you’ll need fast reaction times to stand a chance. The smiles and sunshine fooled me for a bit, but Windjammers is as brutal as they come.