What is Lode Runner 2?

The legendary Lode Runner was a best-selling game on the Apple II and became one of the most popular video games on several other platforms — Commodore 64, Turbo Grafx-16, and Nintendo, to name a few. Its challenging, addictive gameplay not only made it a success, but also a classic in video game history. Now, 15 years later, Lode Runner 2 has emerged, and what a remake it is! Nostalgic gamers will enjoy the return of the original game’s key elements, such as the dig and the climb. The new 3D, isometric environment with cool-looking, colorful levels and graphics appeals to newcomers and pumps up gold-hunting, enemy-dodging, precisely timed action, while evading badass monks. In Lode Runner 2, as either Jake or Jane, your goal is to pick up every piece of gold on a level so you can advance to the next one. There are more than 150 eye-popping levels spanning five worlds: Industrial World, Mona World (dedicated to da Vinci’s famous subject), Wacky World, Jungle World, and Gear World. Gathering gold sounds easy, doesn’t it? It’s not. You have to solve tricky puzzles to get the gold while evading evil monks who want to pummel you to death.

Gameplay is quite challenging because of all the puzzles. The Welcome level to each world is a piece of cake, but the levels that follow vary in difficulty, and some are excruciatingly hard. Flip a switch the wrong way and you unleash an evil monk onto your path. Dig a few blocks and drop down only to discover you’re trapped. If your timing isn’t precise, a monk catches you, then beats you into a pulp — it’s not a pretty sight — or a bomb you just set blows you up. Navigating is easy enough, but when all those things are happening simultaneously and you’re always trying to think two or three steps ahead, you can go positively nuts. Once you figure out a tough puzzle, though, it’s as if a ray of wisdom penetrates your entire being. For that reason Lode Runner 2 keeps you wired and is better than the best espresso-induced caffeine high.

Going for gold level after level may seem repetitive, but Lode Runner 2’s eye candy and surreal levels keep you buzzed. Even after you master certain skills, each level presents a unique combination of puzzles that requires logical deduction and analytical thinking. Plus, you don’t have to play the levels in a linear fashion. One minute you can try a Wacky World level where “trees” morph from amorphous blobs into familiar, organic structures. Next, you can tour a Mona World level with ubiquitous frescos of the Mona lisa. Better yet, use the included level editor to invent your own levels. You can create infinite levels, so Lode Runner 2 has the longevity gamers crave. $29-99 is a very, very small price to pay for unlimited playing potential.

Lode Runner 2 is a blast, but it requires brain work. It proves that a game doesn’t need real-time rendering of polygons or single-pass multitexture processing to satisfy discriminating players. We highly recommend Lode Runner 2 to all types of gamers except those with frontal lobotomies. Go, Jake! Go Jane! 

Ho, Jennifer. (January 1999). Lode Runner 2. MacAddict. (pg. 48).

Download Lode Runner 2 for Mac

Architecture

IBM PowerPC

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.5 up to Mac OS 9.2

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: SheepShaver