soundodger 2

About

soundodger 2 is a single player casual shooter game. It was developed by onemrbean and was released on April 10, 2023. It received very positive reviews from players.

Soundodger 2 is an experimental dodge-em-up music game that turns every song into a choreographed dance of bullets, lasers, and challenges to weave through in order to survive. The sequel to 2013's award-winning Soundodger+, Soundodger 2 is bigger, better, and dodgier than ever before. With an all-new selection of songs from international musicians and a fully-featured level editor to use your own…

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95%

Audience ScoreBased on 168 reviews

music24 positive mentions

story3 negative mentions

Extensive and versatile level editor that is easy to learn and allows for creative, complex level design, highly praised by both casual players and level creators.
Highly polished gameplay with smooth performance, even on modest hardware; adds many new bullet types, power-ups, and visual effects that enrich the bullet hell experience compared to its predecessor.
Strong, varied, and well-integrated soundtrack; excellent visual presentation with psychedelic, colorful effects; supportive and active community producing high-quality custom levels, boosting replayability.

Steep difficulty curve with levels that can feel unfair or require heavy memorization, making it less accessible for newcomers or casual players.
The implemented health system and hit effects are divisive; many players find it intrusive and disruptive to the gameplay flow and enjoyment.
Lack of built-in browser for custom or user-made levels makes accessing community content somewhat inconvenient; some users report occasional bugs, rendering issues, or input mode switching quirks.

music
87 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
28%
69%
3%
The music in Soundodger 2 is widely praised for its dynamic, drum-heavy, and electronic-infused soundtrack that enhances the bullet hell gameplay by syncing projectile patterns closely with musical beats. While some find the official song selection less compelling than the original, many players appreciate the diverse, engaging tracks and the ability to create and play custom levels paired with a versatile soundtrack. Overall, the music is considered a core, immersive part of the experience, making the game especially enjoyable for rhythm and bullet hell fans.
- “The soundtrack is a certified banger.”
- “The music is often drum heavy, and most of the shapes that appear on the screen either show up exactly on a clearly audible drum beat, or during the notes of a main melody that is carrying the rhythm.”
- “If you enjoy psychedelic visuals for their own sake, or wanted a rhythm game that leans heavily into being a music visualizer, you'll probably like this change.”
- “The songs and levels that come with the game are really not that great.”
- “The music is fairly bland and most of the levels really don't have that many interesting or unique patterns that are fun to play.”
- “Originally I did have a review up for SD1 and my main points were that the game's soundtrack wasn't as interesting as I'd have liked.”
gameplay
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
58%
13%
The gameplay is highly praised for its innovative bullet hell rhythm mechanics, diverse and unique bullet types, and seamless integration with music, offering both challenge and creativity. The game's intuitive controls, extensive level editor, and additional features like practice mode and mods enhance replayability and player engagement. Overall, it provides a fresh, polished, and enjoyable experience that appeals to fans of rhythm and puzzle games alike.
- “Sd2 is a fun, simplistic, and well engineered bullet hell rhythm game with a large selection of levels that showcase the game's mechanics in great ways, everywhere from unique and interesting usage of visual effects, to insane patterns that I know I never would've thought of on my own.”
- “The gameplay is simple: weave through rows of bullets of different shapes and colors, all choreographed to whatever song is playing as if you were dancing with death.”
- “Each bullet type is unique in their mechanics, from the simplistic arrow, to homing shots, plus shots that boomerang back towards where they came, hug shots that you need to move into in order to avoid damage, and more.”
- “In choosing to recognize this extra mechanic at play, this becomes its own entire second scoring system.”
- “Each song's 'challenge,' the third version using only a small portion of the song, is where I think the gameplay shines brightest, each providing a very unique, often mind-boggling challenge as you even sometimes have to puzzle out what to do.”
graphics
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
47%
33%
20%
Soundodger 2 features vibrant, psychedelic visuals that enhance its musical bullet hell gameplay, offering smooth performance even on integrated graphics. The graphics are praised for their creativity, fluidity, and strong integration with the music, although minor bugs appear when running on Proton/Linux. Overall, the visuals greatly improve upon the original, making the experience both visually stunning and enjoyable.
- “Works incredibly well as a sequel to Soundodger+: way more projectile types = way more fun, cool (sometimes schizophrenic) graphics which run smoothly even on integrated graphics.”
- “Everything great from the original expanded upon in every way: better level design, better visuals, better everything all around.”
- “Fantastic visuals, gameplay, and level editor.”
- “There are various graphic bugs when running on Proton (e.g., the window went black when I tried to screenshot something and alt-tabbed), but at least it launches and runs smoothly most of the time.”
- “If you get frame drops, the game needs to be identified by your graphics card.”
- “Better graphics; (implying previous graphics were lacking).”
story
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
60%
The story in Jsab is present but repetitive, while SD2 lacks a story entirely, which some users find acceptable. However, many feel that even a simple narrative would enhance the experience, as currently multiplayer and user-created levels in SD2 offer more variety.
- “JSAB is a game with a story, SD2 is without a story, but it's not something that's necessary.”
- “I would think that even a very simple and bare bones story would please most of the players.”
- “Jsab is the same story again and again, and even with multiplayer, SD2 is better because there are a lot of levels made by many users.”
- “There probably needs to be some semblance of a story or narrative.”
- “I would think that even a very simple and bare-bones story would please most of the players.”
optimization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is well-optimized, running smoothly even on integrated graphics and showing significant performance improvements over its predecessor. However, some graphical bugs persist on Linux via Proton, though the game remains playable. Overall, the optimization is polished, enhancing stability and performance.
- “Works incredibly well as a sequel to sd+: way more projectile types (= way more fun), cool (sometimes schizophrenic) graphics which run smoothly even on integrated graphics, good song library (many intersections with sd+ lib, but new tracks are fire).”
- “The performance issues, the bugs, all gone and replaced with quirky little features and, more importantly, an incredible amount of polish (not to mention the ability to bring back all the old levels).”
- “Linux moment: there are various graphic bugs when running on Proton (e.g. window went black when I tried to screenshot something and alt-tabbed) but at least it launches, and again, runs smoothly most of the time.”
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game offers high replayability, especially through its easy-to-use system for uploading user-made levels, which significantly enhances its depth and ongoing engagement.
- “If constantly keeping on your toes and having high replayability is valuable to you, then you'll probably like this change.”
- “It's a simple process uploading user-made levels, which adds so much more depth and replayability to this game.”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game’s new practice mode, which allows starting from any section of a level, greatly improves the grinding experience by reducing tedium and making it easier to master expert levels. This quality-of-life addition effectively eliminates previous frustrations associated with repetitive grinding.
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is noted for its humor, with players finding it genuinely funny and entertaining.