After the success of the
NES game
The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino and Hoppy, developer
Taito released a sequel in 1993:
The Flintstones 2: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak. The sequel plays similar to its predecessor:
Fred Flintstone still wields his club and can cling to the edge of platforms, for example. Something new, however, is the inclusion of
Barney Rubble as a playable character. His weapon of choice is the
slingshot and his skill is the ability to shimmy across tightropes. Players can switch between the two characters at any time by pressing the Select button. Special weapons are still available and they include the
ax, a
bowling ball (which is lobbed at the enemy), and a lunchbox that refills an ailing health meter. In the first game special weapons required coins to fire, but this time these weapons have their own power meter. Each time the wepaon is used, one unit is deducted from the meter and when it's empty, the weapon is depleted until refilled. The meter begins at 3 units, but can be doubled over the course of the game. The same can be said of
Fred's club power meter, in that it begins small and be increased as time goes on.
The story of the game begins as Pebbles and Bamm Bamm are trapped at the wrong end of a lava flow from a nearby volcano. The Great Gazoo informs Fred and Barney that if they can talk to the Fire Dragon who lives in the volcano, they might persuade him to stop the lava flow. However, to get to the volcano's peak they must seek out the pterodactyls to fly them up the side of the mountain. To reach the pterodactyl nest the duo must venture to the far side of Bedrock through a series of side-scrolling platform levels.
The Sports Ace from the first game returns, only this time he challenges the duo to a game of ice hockey in addition to basketball. The old wings/scuba/jump upgrades from the first game are gone, however, and have been replaced with power upgrades for the slingshot and club. After beating the Ace Fred can charge up his club for a power blast by holding down the B button, and Barney can shoot stronger projectiles from his slingshot (no charge needed).
The Flintstones 2 plays almost identically to its prequel and shares many of the same graphics and sounds. In fact, it feels more like an expansion pack to the first game than it does a whole new adventure. Like it's prequel it also lacks a general Flintstones feel to it, as the levels could have once again come from any platform game out there.
After convincing the Fire Dragon to stop the lava, a series of cinema scenes show that the children were actually just about to roast marshmallows over the lava flow and are very upset that their fathers went to the end of the world and back to save them. Ungrateful little cavemen larva, pah! This was the final game based on The Flintstones for the NES, and the Taito/Hanna-Barbera license agreement continues with the Super NES title The Flintstones: Treasure of the Sierra Madrock.