Did you know that "windjammer" was a common name for a sailing ship once upon a time? The name makes some sense, but I could never have guessed from the name alone that "windjammer" was also a 90s sports game, in which two opponents engage in a fierce battle of frisbees.

Is this a real sport? Not really, but a quick search revealed that there is Ultimate Frisbee, which has teams and is played on a large pitch.

The basics of Windjammers and Windjammers 2 are more or less the same. Not only the controls and design, but also the aesthetic has a throwback feel to it. The new sprites are smooth and hand-painted, with the same bold colors, representing an idealized, feel-good 1990s where the sun is always shining and everyone is here to have a good time. Like the old days when the Power Rangers weren't fighting rubber people from outer space or doing backflips. I'm not immune to this nostalgia, even if its sunny excesses hardly reflect my experience in the actual 1990s. There is a naivete and ease to [Windjammers 2] that makes me enjoy the absurdity of frisbee, especially as an extreme sport. I, however, have never played a game in which the frisbee is launched up in a ball of flame.

The game is quite simple: Frisbees are handed out each round, and points are awarded to the player who hits the wall behind his opponent's back first or fails to let the disc catch him. Specials allow the player to break through the opponent's defense or throw the Frisbee faster, but the depth comes from the different ways in which the throws can be curved or sped up with ricochets and counters. The precision produced by the simplicity of the controls is mesmerizing, but the learning curve is steep, even with easy difficulty settings, and quick reaction time is required to win. A little fooled by the smiles and sunshine, Windjammers is cruelty itself.

But once you master it, you are drawn into its fast pace. I started by making basic throws and managing small back-and-forth volleys, but things progressed at a slow, awkward pace, lasting only up to a round or two. After a few hours, however, the game became a frenzy of counters and special moves, and I began to react without thinking. There are only a handful of buttons to think about, mostly dodging and throwing (and I definitely recommend playing on the pad). However, there is so much more to the arc of a throw and the timing of a throw back that you can feel your opponent slowly approaching the screen to analyze even the smallest movement.

Much of Windjammers 2, especially against a human opponent, can be a tricky game of guessing your opponent's next move. At 100 miles per hour. My later games looked more like Dragon Ball Z fights than the child's play I started with.

There were several superstars, all dressed in fun costumes with exaggerated and sturdy protective gear. They each have different levels of power and speed, determine throwing and moving moves, and have unique special moves that can only be discovered through play. the only thing in Windjammers 2 that looks like a tutorial is the "How to Play" section of the main menu, with text and screenshots A slideshow of text and screenshots explains only the basics of which buttons to press. The nuances of play and the major differences between characters can only be learned through matches. A single-player mode would have bothered me less, but "Windjammers 2" offers little to the single-player player.

Windjammers 2 stays close to its arcade roots and sticks to three modes, two of which are simply online against other players, and a choice of offline against friends or AI. Online is a big draw, as human opponents are far more satisfying. Arcade is the closest thing to a single-player campaign, with matches chained together and interspersed with mini-games for a change of pace. The Frisbee-throwing mini-game for the dogs (they are given special protective sunglasses) is wonderful and makes one think that the game would have been full of carefree energy if more alternative activities were allowed in between intense matches. However, in direct contrast to the over-the-top visuals, everything is rather bare-bones.

More mini-games and a more complex overarching structure would have given "Windjammers" something more. As it stands, it's basically a 20+ year old game with a new paint job and online play that can stand up to disk speed.

Hardcore Windjammers fans (of the game, sailors, look elsewhere) will probably dig the nuances of its simple mechanics and get maximum depth. Watching high-level players engage in heated competition is sure to impress. For us amateur champs, there is enough style to soak in, but little of real value to hold our attention for more than a couple of hours.

Even on easy difficulty, Windjammers 2 is clearly built with the difficulty of the original 90s arcade version in mind: punishingly hard. Enthusiasts who have been playing for years will be pleased, but as a newcomer, I was left feeling a bit defeated because I had no way to practice other than to suffer repeated, numbing defeats. The more my opponents used it, the more I began to understand the depth of control and availability. The difference between blocking and grabbing, the advantages of jumping instead of dodging, and even how important timing is to accumulate power are not at all evident in the game.

Windjammers 2 is a blast once you get in the zone. However, despite its core of fun, it feels like a failure to bring this classic game to a new generation. Just as its style is stuck in the aesthetics of yesteryear, so is its approach to design. There's a lot to like, and some may welcome the fact that the challenge has been stripped away, but most will wonder what all the fuss is about. When I see old folks clutching neon Frisbees, I ask myself, "Is this really what you were into?