Ok, first of all I would like to say that one should read my review of Fox Battle I, since the two games, I & II are so much alike.  Also, I won't be describing the controls or any other instructions for the game, since all of it is included in  simple .rtf and .txt files within the game folder.

Basically Fox Battle II is a bigger, better, updated version of Fox Battle I.  If you liked the first game, I would encourage you to play this one. The gameplay is almost identical, although the "foxsnails" seem a bit heavier than their forefathers. Game-wise, this really didn't make much of a difference.  At least it didn't in my opinion. For example, Fox Battle 2 has two gamemodes.  First, you get the regular "kill-or-die" mode.  And you also get the TAG mode, in which the tagged player dies when the game round time reaches zero.

A new thing worth mentioning about the gameplay itself, is a new function - the turbo button. You have a small meter which slowly recharges after being used.  When that meter has some juice left, you can press your turbo button to accelerate your speed for a short time. This is a nice new element, and makes battling your friends a bit more interesting. Also, in the first game you could only have one weapon. In Fox Battle 2 there's a weapon-change key with which you can cycle collected weapons (you only have the railgun when you start but you can collect more from yellow powerup-orbs).  Fox Battle 2 is meant to be played as a two-player game (just like Fox Battle 1). There is no single player option.

The graphics are better than in the first game (more shining stuff, a few nice surfaces etc), but that's mainly it. The game levels still lack the sort of eyecandy detail which could make this game very pleasing to the eye. Now please don't get me wrong now, I enjoy games like ADOM, so I'm not the kind of guy who goes around whining if a game doesn't use the full power of a 3D card.  Another thing new in Fox Battle 2 is the fact that there are shadows, and small particle effects in it, which actually look quite nice.  They make the game feel more alive.

The levels still consist of just a few key elements - blocks, normal terrain and ice terrain (you can once again slide on ice, this time with better physics). A new feature is that the ground breaks underneath you. If you move over a tile which is already cracked, it will break. A player falling into the black pit formed this way will die. If you're fast you can actually sprint over such terrain without dieing. This also adds a new level of tactics to the game.  There are more hazards in this game. A total of three (four, if we count in the breaking floor tiles). New hazards are turrets, which fire on players if they get too close. Luckily you can destroy these "turrets".

This time around, there are more levels to choose from - 8 regular levels and 4 tag levels. One thing that really makes the  game a whole lot more enjoyable experience, is the built-in level editor. You can now build your own level, and I've always  liked the possibility to make more content to games. The level editor itself is quite simple and easy to use. I was a bit  unhappy though, since you should be able to lay a lot of blocks quickly when making walls.  This should be possible if you hold CTRL while dragging your mouse, and it is, but you need to drag your mouse reaaaalllyyyyy sloooowwww for this to work correctly. It gets a bit tedious after a while.

A weird quirk when using the level editor is, that even if you try to press EXIT without saving your level, you won't be able to exit if you don't first place a starting point for each of the two players. A minor design flaw, I guess.  One more note about the levels which come with the game. The design is a bit quirky in a couple of levels, and moving can be a bit painful at times.

Sounds are present. It sounds fun when you collide into a block of wall, like hitting your nail on glass. Then there are the weapon sounds, which sound good enough (well, the railgun sounds mostly like a peashooter but hey, this ain't Battlefield) to do their job. The music is quite nice but as in the first Fox Battle game, there is not much of it. I guess the creator(s) just chose quality over quantity. I personally prefer less good music than more bad music. And there's always the option of turning off the music in the game to listen your own.

All in all, Fox Battle II is a nice enough game for two friends to play on the same computer. It might be fun for a while. Also, Fox Battle II is an improvement over Fox Battle, so maybe the third game in the series would be very good already.

Two and a half points + a thumbs up for development.