If you thought the city of Santa Destroy was an important character in NMH, then you will hate NMH2. Because it's gone. One of the major appeals of the original NMH for me was that all this fantastical shit was happening in the this sleepy little desert town. That whole feeling, the essence of the game (imo), is straight up gone from NMH2. It's like NMH without the soul.
Also, mini-games are the ONLY way to earn extra money in NMH2 (no more killing a bunch of people for the fuck of it side-missions), and they get old as shit really fast.
NMH2 is a much worse game imo.