Coba on the Run 2

Jump onto the screen like a kangaroo for no reason? Sure, if it means constant jumping over obstacles and collecting things in every level. Coba on the Run 2 is a simple platformer from the mid-nineties that simply sits you down at the keyboard and tells you to run, jump, collect.

The main character is some furry thing — not very characterful, but its purpose is clear. It travels through a tunnel from the left edge of the screen to the right, picks up whatever can be picked up and avoids things that can hurt it. A classic solution for levels where simple jumping games without big pitfalls await you. It couldn't be anything else.

It plays like the average of what the era offered — a few buttons for jumping, moving and picking things up, and then you are in. The graphics are colourful and clear, but with no effort at aesthetics whatsoever. Sounds exist, but it sounds more like someone playing around with headphones in one ear. The mechanics work, there is no bug, but no wow effect either. You look at a new level, do the same thing again, and once you have it memorised, you move on.

In the nineties the game got lost among thousands of similar platformers. It was neither worse nor better, it simply was. A few people remembered it, most confused it with anything else. Today it has no competitive advantage — it is a space for nostalgics who remember the times when graphics were colourful and that was enough.

If you want to go back to the early nineties and want a simple platformer without pretensions, Coba on the Run 2 will let you enjoy its era. It is no miracle, but it isn't an embarrassment either. A time machine for half an hour — don't expect more.