What? Another random post instead of an RPG Spotlight? Well, truthfully, awesome obscure RPGs are slim at the moment, at least until I go out scouring again, so unless anyone has any suggestions, you're stuck with me branching out into the dreaded "New Column Idea" territory.

Anyway, I figure that although many people complain about the casual games market, and how it's ruining gaming for the ZomgponiesHardcore gamer, that sometimes it's nice to relax with a game that doesn't require hours of investment. Of course, nobody said you WONT end up playing them for hours.
To get things started off on the right foot, I present to you good folks of Destructoid, Jardinains 2!


Goodness, Gracious, Great balls of fire...and lightning...and ice...

Jardinains 2 is at its core, an arkanoid clone. Same rules apply here, you have a paddle, a ball, and a bunch of bricks just itching to be destroyed. Many different powerups appear including the all-time favorite laser. However, the game differentiates itself with the addition of nasty little gnomes that pop up from the bricks. These gnomes try to make your life horrible by tossing various objects down at your paddle, and if they hit you, not only do you lose points, but you're frozen in place for a second. Sometimes, this makes all the difference between catching the ball and missing and losing a life, so you'd do well to dodge any incoming flowerpots, anchors, ninja stars, bones, cacti, etc. However, don't think you have to take this sort of abuse quietly.


It's a proven scientific fact that bouncing gnomes has many health benefits.

If the ball manages to break the brick the gnome is standing on, or even hit the gnome in passing, it will be knocked off, usually with a high-pitched "Whoa!". Sure, it's a good way to get rid of the pesky gnomes, but the real fun comes in bouncing them off of your paddle. Each bounce increases in point value, and if you keep it going long enough, the gnome will freak out, explode, and turn into a powerup. The gnomes taunt you, and even laugh at you when you die, so don't feel too bad about sending them to an explosive end.


Mr. Destructoid has something in his teeth...

In addition to the game, the full version also includes a level editor which can be accessed by pressing Ctrl-E at the main menu. You can use it to edit and save levels to your heart's content. These levels are saved as .xml files, so they should be simple to pass around to friends as well.

Jardinains 2 was programmed and designed by one man, Tom Darby. There is both a free and a paid version, with the free version being limited to 100 levels (the full version has 300) and a limit on some of the powerups that appear. The full version is sold for $20, so it's not a bad price for something that you can pick up and play on your downtime. There are 4 difficulty levels, ranging from Easy to Insane, and Insane is definitely correctly named.

For all those interested, check it out at http://www.jardinains2.com