Windjammers 2 Review

This review is based on 30 minutes of playtime on an Xbox Series X.

Windjammers 2 is available now (as of January 20th, 2022) on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch, for $19.99

Coming into Windjammers 2 as someone who never played the original game, I had little to no expectations. I knew the first game was loved by many–or, at least, those who played it loved it–and knew it was some kind of sports game, but that was the extent of my knowledge.

To get straight to the meat and potatoes of my peanut butter and jammin’ sandwich(?), I don’t like Windjammers 2. I don’t think it’s a bad game, but it’s not a “me” game and, even if it could be, it does such a poor job of onboarding new players that any potential for me to enjoy my experience was doomed from the start.

If you’ve never played the original game and have no idea how Windjammers works, the only way to learn the game is by going through a slideshow of control explanations and that’s it. There is no player interaction involved and, even if you wanted to, say, practice the controls in-game and reference the information while playing, you can’t access the “How to Play” section from anywhere other than the main menu–you can’t even see something as simple as the controller layout when pausing the game–so if you forgot how to do something, you’ll have to back out to the main menu and check there. This is an incredibly user-unfriendly system and went a long way in making Windjammers 2’s first impression a bad one.

But none of that would matter (much) if I ultimately enjoyed playing the game. I did not. Windjammers 2 is basically a mashing of Pong and volleyball. I'm not much of a Pong fan and have rarely enjoyed volleyball, digital or otherwise, so Windjammers 2 already had an uphill battle in front of it; however, I’m always open to being surprised and was more than ready to be surprised by Windjammers 2. I was surprised, but not good surprised. The movement was not as smooth as I would have liked and I found dashing borderline useless, leading to more misplays than good plays. Throwing the disc feels fine, but I never did anything other than straight and bank shots despite the numerous nuances within Winjammers 2's controls. But none of that is my problem. When the game does such a poor job of teaching newcomers how to play, it's hard for me to feel at fault; that said, what feels good to me isn't necessarily what feels good to you (and vice versa), so, while I may not have liked the way Windjammers 2 feels, that doesn't mean you'll feel the same (and, maybe if the game did a better job of teaching me how to play, I'd feel differently too).

Scoring is simple enough–points are rewarded for scoring goals and if your opponent lets the disc hit the ground–but it would have been nice if the game reminded you of how many points each part of the arena was worth when pausing the game. Each arena is different, scoring-wise, and depending on the size, location, and difficulty of getting the disc there, scoring a goal is worth either three points or five points, but no such information is provided except when first starting a match because Windjammers 2 loves nothing more than providing the player with as little information as possible.

After playing Windjammers 2 for a half hour, exploring the arcade mode, the versus mode, and dipping my toes in the online arena, I quickly learned that Windjammers 2 just isn’t for me. Thankfully, if you’re like me and unsure of whether Windjammers 2 will be your jam or not, it is available on Game Pass, so you can try it worry-free if you happen to be a Game Pass subscriber. If you’re not, well, shit, I’m sorry. I can’t really help you then. Just know I went into Windjammers 2 with an open mind and was genuinely excited to check it out, but what I experienced when I got there was a game that felt like it was made for fans of the original game and no one else. This is fine for said fans, but for anyone like me who genuinely wants to be part of the club, it kind of sucks when your experience is the equivalent of seeing a sign saying, “No Girls (or however you identify) Allowed.”