More labs, more action, more Barry.
Craig: Legitimate Research has been getting pretty sick of all your break-ins and finally decided to do something about them... Introducing the Legitimate Research Guardbots!
Barry: Obviously I'm just going to shoot them down.
Craig: Hey! You were supposed to leave all guns in the little box in the lobby!
Barry: Obviously I'm just going to shoot them down.
Craig: Hey! You were supposed to leave all guns in the little box in the lobby!
Jetpack Joyride 2 is a sequel to Jetpack Joyride and the fourth game in Barry Steakfries series, developed and published by Halfbrick Studios.
The biggest addition to this game is the Shoot 'Em Up mechanics alongside the Auto-Runner elements of the original. While you still have to dodge missiles and zappers, the game periodically sends the groups of "Guardbots", an Airborne Mecha-Mooks, which you have to either shoot down, or dodge.
While there is an Endless Mode, the primary focus of the game lies within it's campaign, which follows Barry Steakfries and Craig as they travel through the laboratories of villains from Really Bad Corp, an evil organisation lead by Barry's Arch-Enemy, Professor Brains. Each lab has 10 levels ("sectors"), with either a Boss battle or Piñata-based Bonus Stage at the end. They must be reached by earning required amount of score, with the needed number increasing the further you progress. You can score more points with the help of unlockable "Jetpack Cores", upgrades to your shooting power and health resistance and Badges, the equivalent of Gadgets from JJ1.
The game was publicly announced and soft-launched on February 26, 2021 in Australia, Canada and New Zealand with the subtitle Bullet Rush for iOS and Android. It became available in Netherlands, Poland and Spain in April, but entered closed development exactly a year after its announcement
. On August 2, 2022 the game was announced to be an Apple Arcade exclusive and released on August 19th.
Previews
Soft-Launch and Pre-Launch
- Announcement Trailer
- Official Gameplay Trailer
- Apple Arcade - Announcement and Pre-Registration
- Apple Arcade - Gameplay Sneak Peek
- Animated Short - Red Carpet Premiere
- Animated Short - Barry Steakfries vs Hot Nugs
- Launch Trailer
Post-Launch
TROPE LIST
-SECTOR 1-
- Athletic Arena Level: Footbot minigame takes place in a soccer-themed hallway of Legitimate Research lab, complete with crowds of scientists cheering in the background and In-Universe ads on the small boards. Barry is set up as the goalkeeper and has to defend the goal from striker bots, a set of robots that can fire soccer balls.
- Big, Thin, Short Trio: The original three villains before subsequent updates added more were Professor Brains (short), Minertaur (big) and Mik (thin).
- Bland-Name Product: Cola Jet is a jetpack made out of a bottle of a "Jetcola" brand, a stand-in for Coca-Cola.
- Bonus Stage:
- Vehicles now play closer to this trope, as they change the location altogether (with the sole exception of the Big Stomper up until 2.1.10 update) and are timed.
- More straight example happens at the end of Sectors 1, 3, 6 and 8 of each laboratory. Instead of encountering a boss, you are presented with a short mini-game, where you shoot down Piñata and collect coins it drops.
- Boss Battle: Earning enough score in a sector leads to one. Sectors 2, 4, 7 and 9 are followed by the battle with a bigger and stronger version of Guardbots, Sector 5 has you battle The Science Crew and every 10th sector is a Boss battle against the Leader of the laboratory (In order, Professor Brains, Minertaur, Mik, Queen V, Red Photon and Nixie).
- Boss Rush: A mode was introduced in July 2023 update, which allows to fight all boss Guardbots, The Science Crew and main villains in random order.
- Circling Birdies: When Barry is KO'd, three Profit Birds (one of the vehicles from the first Jetpack Joyride with bird-like design) will circle around his head.
- Colony Drop: Ancient Tech Powerup rains a huge wave of small meteorites at enemies, followed by the gigantic one at the very end.
- Critical Hit: Lucky Shot badge allows your main weapon to do random critical shots with the chance of getting them being increasable by upgrading it. Said shots deal two and a half times more damage than the regular ones.
- Enigmatic Institute: We are introduced to a variety of labs very similar to Legitimate Research in concept, being shady secret organizations controlled by the villains affiliated with Brains. Such laboratories include Subterranean Labyrinth (the lab located inside the mine, and despite what its name indicates, is a corridor), Arctic Industries (located somewhere in Arctic and partially inspired by the typical Soviet factories), Moon Tomb (heavily based on the Egyptian pyramids), Neontropilis (Japan-influenced but rather dated example of Neon City) and Catacomb Sewers (resident sewers level).
- Flying Saucer: Tutorial stage ends with battle against Professor Brains on a green hovercraft. It later becomes one of the unlockable vehicles, where it's known as the "Galaxy Ship".
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Laser Eraser's description claims that it's able to erase everything (Except for the past. The past cannot be erased). While it deals with Guardbots with ease in-game, it does nothing to zappers and most missile variations.
- Hold the Line: Arcade mode offers two mini-games based on this concept:
- Spicy Party has you protect Taco ingredients from Guardbots and slimes with the help of the Spicy Explosion weapon.
- Footbot is a mini-game based on the Association Football. Instead of trying to attack you, Guardbots fire soccer balls, and your goal is to not to let them strike three goals in the gate behind you in a patterns not unlike S.A.M. from the original game.
- Homing Projectile:
- Pigeon Launcher fires robotic pigeons that automatically fly towards enemy bots.
- Big Stomper shoots energy balls from one of its arms that immediately target the upcoming robots.
- Hypocritical Humor: During one of the dialogue scenes in Subterranean Labyrinth Craig makes fun of Minertaur's scientists for wearing the same uniform. Craig himself has the same equipment as his co-workers at Legitimate Research (who are also working under the same umbrella as Minertaur and his minions to boot) and the only reason he can even be distinguished from the others is because of the cracks on his helmet's glass, something he got in Jetpack Joyride Shorts by accident. Barry hesitates to point it out.
- Mustache Vandalism: One of the monitors at the beginning of Legitimate Research stages has a portrait of Barry with a mustache and horns sloppily painted on it.
- New Game Plus: Completing all levels unlocks "Prestige", which allows to replay the campaign from the beginning, but resets all the currency and slightly increases the difficulty. There are total of five levels to the Prestige, each unlocks Gold and Galaxy-themed hero skins, jetpacks and avatars. You can use Prestige afterwards, but no new items will be unlocked, nor will the difficulty increase.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Averted unlike the first game, Barry has a health bar, and the vehicles he uses have a timer bar, getting hit in a vehicle only knocks a small amount of time out of that bar a la Adventure Island: The Beginning
- Polar Penguins: Arctic Industries levels feature plenty of penguins in the background, and one of the enemy robots was built to look like a penguin.
- Power Trio: Not counting skins for them, the three playable characters are Barry, Betty and Robo-Barry.
- Recurring Riff: Main theme from the first Jetpack Joyride. Aside from getting a full remix for Legitimate Research levels, some of its snippets are remixed into the main menu, most of the laboratories that follow Legitimate Research, the piñata bonus stages and the sector completion theme.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The Easter Event. Professor Brains has promised a prize to whomever gathers the most eggs. However, the end of the event reveals that he just wanted to use the eggs for cooking, and there was no prize at all. He doesn't get any payoff either, since he wanted an omelette, but the heroes were collecting chocolate eggs.
- Spread Shot:
- The very first Power-up you get is the Cross Fire, an Initial Burst-type weapon firing three green lasers at a time.
- Update 1.3.10 added Pop N Weapon, a popcorn-firing cannon that shoots 5 bullets at the time, but at slower rate compared to Cross Fire.
- Timed Power-Up: All power-ups are available for a short period of time. This is also the case for the vehicles, which no longer explode upon hitting an obstacle, but have their lifebar drain over time.
- Villainous Breakdown: While Professor Brains is already livid throughout the campaign, he completely loses it after Barry and his team defeat The Science Crew in Catacomb Sewers and calls out the entire Really Bad Corp for their failure to stop them.
- Wave-Motion Gun: Laser Eraser powerup allows to unleash a laser beam on incoming Guardbots.
- Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: Subplot of Moon Festival event is about Red Photon, Brains, and Queen V all being interested in doing something evil related to the moon.note Barry, Betty, and Robo-Barry's attempts to negotiate with them go nowhere, so they ask Craig for help as the last resort. Craig quickly comes up with the plan... to simply do nothing, since the three villains are also against each other and stopping one of them will only ensure the other will succeed.
- Your Little Dismissive Diminutive: Before his boss stage, Minertaur angrily insults Barry by calling him a "little rat" to show he's getting fed up with him.
SECTOR CLEARED!
