The affair between Streets of Rage and the films of Bud Spencer and Terence Hill is back: welcome to our review of Slaps and Beans 2
Before even writing one reviewwe can only be happy that Bud Spencer & Terence Hill: Slaps and Beans 2 does it exist? The boys of Trinity Team e Buddy Productions they set themselves the goal of bringing Carlo Pedersoli back among us and giving Mario Girotti his youth back, and in an extraordinary redemption the videogame medium has given its audience a product that would send any lover of cult Italian cinema into jujube soup. Of course, Raffaele “RT Poop” Tamarindo’s montages on YouTube brought the duo together in the delirious Storyland project, but here the same happens without a parodistic pretext to act as glue.
The stage names of the two actors, Bud Spencer for Pedersoli and Terence Hill for Girotti, gave the duo international prestige, thanks to which their inimitable taste for slapstick has achieved considerable success even outside our shores. The game, in what has become with the Zerocalcare animated series on Netflix the second youth of Made in Italy in pop culture, aims to do the same for a new audience. And yes, there are those who loved the antics and punches to the head enough to elevate the first game to a hidden gem of beat-em-ups in the indie scene. What, then, about a sequel that intends to expand it in more aspects?
They continued to call it Trinity | Slaps and Beans 2 review
The plot of Slaps and Beans 2 opens with a pretext that distantly recalls Banana Joe, but which in reality starts from where the predecessor of today’s review object ended. Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, in the role of “oneself but not too much”, I’m adrift, aboard a raft that leaves much to be desired. The adrift landing sees them immediately face (with the sound of slaps, and God forbid!) unscrupulous banana traffickers in the beating heart of Africa. And yes, the occasional ethnic stereotype finds its way from time to time, albeit contextualized in the duo’s golden years.
The narrative heart of the game is presented as a pretext, but with the sole purpose of re-proposing the best of the two actors’ film careers, taking us “from set to set”. This translates into a pastiche that amalgamates, as its predecessor did with other feature films, several films togetherthanks also to a quotationist narrative frame (no, Trinity Team, Agent Smith and Agent Anderson did not go unnoticed, ed.) and to one of the additions with which the new plot suddenly comes to life: a full dubbingwith Bruno Schirripa making his debut as the voice of Bud and Michele Gammino in his fourth role as Terence (There’s No Two Without Four, Miami Supercops: 8th Street Cops, Christmas Bash).
The two almost flat superfeet | Slaps and Beans 2 review
The premise of gameplay of its predecessor has not undergone any particular changes. The two’s fistfights, purely slapstick to distinguish them from their former contemporaries (grier and more violent action films), therefore become the basis for a beat-em-up. The esteemed side-scrolling fighting game family features members of all stripes, from pioneers like River City Girls Zero to cheesy experiments like Itadaki Smash. Where does Slaps and Beans 2 fit in? The essence of the genre is intact, as well as embellished with themed moves such as Bud’s inevitable “pigeon” from above (“POUNK!”), but what about the rest?
The controls remain mostly unchanged compared to the predecessor, but there is no shortage of improvements. What stands out first and foremost is the presence of contextual skills, with which each of the two can take advantage of different resources. For example, Terence Hill can swing from one pole to another and take advantage of his greater agility to go around his opponents so that they hit a wall, hurting themselves. Bud, for his part, is able to lift weights to later throw back onto the unfortunate person in question. The individual identity of each character, therefore, finds a way to shine here more than what was already seen and appreciated in the first chapter.
Odd and Even | Slaps and Beans 2 review
In this sense, sometimes in the levels the action nails in favor of the occasional enigma to be solved by alternating characters. Nothing that the co-op component (not exploited during our scrutiny, but widely appreciated in the development team’s debut title) cannot make up for, but it must be said that the initial impact with the explicit invitation to change characters frequently it left us stunned. At the beginning, positively: seeing the level design work to accommodate the different talents of the two heroes, while remaining faithful to the film of origin for each section, is one of the many signs of pure love for the cultural heritage of the films.
However, this does not mean that the puzzles shine with clarity. It may seem like fussiness outside of any kind of logic, but the highly detailed settings (thanks to pixel art in a pure state of grace) contribute to making the various puzzles more difficult than they should be. Again: we trust that in co-op we will get stuck much less, but we wouldn’t have minded understanding first which element in the background allowed us to interact. That said, anything that gives the genre of scrolling fighting games a minimum of variety in terms of gameplay deserves praise regardless.
Born with a shirt | Slaps and Beans 2 review
Since we’re talking about beat-em-ups, the bare minimum to avoid limiting yourself to punches and slaps also allows you to vary the theme in this case. The objects fallen objects, from sticks to pans, can be collected, thrown and used to cause some additional head trauma to enemies who will be happy to welcome us into a group even on the lowest difficulties. Similarly, pans and food allow us to fill the various bars of the case. The life one is the one that we must avoid emptying (under penalty of a game over, unless a timely character change is made), while the three smaller blue ones give access to special moves. Seeing Bud help two unfortunate people to humiliate themselves is a joy to behold every time.
Worthy of note are the power-up introduced once the accounts were closed with the prelude in Africa. When the plot turns to Miami Supercops, training marks the debut of helmets, skates and other amenities to collect. By activating each upgrade you can make your character temporarily invincible, run faster and so on. As a gameplay element, perhaps, it is more “generic” than gimmicks such as the pans full of beans with which to quickly associate this title with the legacy of Bud and Terence. But from the perspective of hard and pure game design, the strategic potential of game design still evolves.
The four of the Ave Maria | Slaps and Beans 2 review
Returning from the previous chapter, rather, are the minigames. The purpose of these sequences, which on paper is also praiseworthy, is to adapt the gameplay to particular sequences of the films which are impossible to reproduce in turn in a beat-em-up key. There’s a bit of everything: a mashup between the classic Memory and the rapid exchange of cards, a binge-eating competition worthy of Kirby, the barge loaded with bananas to be brought safely to your destination and even the legendary choir of firefighters (and woe betide you if it isn’t already echoing in your head!), while the first chapter has already captured other cinematic cornerstones of the duo.
As with puzzles, though, this tends to fall on its face a little when it comes to clarity. We only emerged unscathed from a few minigames after trying them several times, rereading the on-screen instructions without fully understanding where we were going wrong. Then understand that in single player a single controller moves both characters on the boat, or that during the banquet it is necessary to aim for the largest flow rate and not necessarily what our character is in front of. Naturally, as seen with puzzles, even in this case our criticisms can be sterile and questionable, but every subjective problem can be confirmed by other players.
… Stronger, guys! | Slaps and Beans 2 review
The title screen presents us with more options, in addition to the appropriate menu (the same one that put a stupid smile on our faces when noticing the presence of Italian voices). The voice Partygame (yes, without spaces) allows you to try every minigame in the story mode, with a nice addition: accessibility to four players simultaneously. In this context, the minigames immediately find a new raison d’être: nothing compared to the pantheon of variety that is Mario Party Superstars, but still an anthological and museum-like demonstration of the moments that made the history of Spencer and Hill’s films.
The other option, obligatory both here and in the first chapter, is that of Jukebox. Nothing to complain about: the work of the Oliver Onions it is fully usable here too, with the live and pixelated band intent on playing in the background. Unfortunately, Bud, Terence and the many protagonists of the brawl in the foreground are also playing them, which can only be smoothed out by setting the sound effects to 0%. It’s nothing to diminish the game’s merits, but it’s at least bizarre to see the audio test and the adjustment of the two primary volumes in the same place. Not regrettable, but certainly strange.
Turn the other cheek | Slaps and Beans 2 review
Let’s try to summarize the technical sector of the game, starting from graphics. As previously mentioned, the graphics are one of the game’s many highlights. If possible, the already commendable pixel art in the first title has been further improved: the fluid animations, then, almost manage to touch the heights reached by Daniel “Abysswolf” Oliver with his Souldiers. Although the game manages to “hold up” (and beatings) even when the frame moves away to make room for many henchmen to fight with, however, every now and then some bugs showed up. Nothing that went beyond a level to reload due to the initial cutscene not starting, but it happened.
And what is there left to say about the sonorous, for which we haven’t already praised so much? The voices, to the detriment of some occasional uncertainty for the extras, perfectly convey the atmosphere of a film by the two, albeit an unreleased one in which to see the late Pedersoli relived. And in terms of music, leaving aside the missed loop during the battle with one of the first bosses, these are once again songs taken from the historic films. To close the circle we have excellent sound effects with which Bud and Terence’s slapstick is fully realized. The various “HSGCH!” that echo with every slap are, pun not intended, music to our ears.
God forgives, i do not!
How is it possible to close a review worthily for the rough diamond which is Slaps and Beans 2? Naturally, other newspapers outside our borders have maintained the most total impartiality, austerity curbing any enthusiasm for what, we admit, in some…