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APPLE JACK 2 |OT| core gamers herald the return of Xbox 360’s best platformer

Tyrax

Member
This game looks great. I am always a fan of wall sliding and wall jumping in my platformers. Nice work Trumpets.

Game get!
 

clav

Member
Bought.

Far less aggravating than what Super Meat Boy is in terms of level design. I was afraid after watching the trailers it would be like Super Meat Boy, but from what I played so far, it's far from that nerve-racking gameplay.

In fact, I feel somewhat relaxed playing it.

Combination of smooth guitar chords and simple gameplay really are a treat.

Nice game Trumpets. Loved the intro video.
 

Trumpets

Member
toythatkills said:
I think the problem with that is that people will just exit to the main menu to restart a no-death run. And if they're able to do that, you may as well just reset the deaths if they go back to the start from the pause menu 'cause you're just making extra work for the player.

In level 24, one of the enemies got caught outside the box and I hit a checkpoint that made it impossible to finish without restarting. Might be worth having a switch at the end that makes the box disappear, just in case that happens.

Good point about the death counter. The level data tracking was a late addition to the game and I didn't consider that or a running coin counter which has also been mentioned. I'll patch them in.

L24 is a bit of a slog anyway, so it could do with altering.

claviertekky said:
Far less aggravating than what Super Meat Boy is in terms of level design. I was afraid after watching the trailers it would be like Super Meat Boy, but from what I played so far, it's far from that nerve-racking gameplay.

It gets more meat boy-ish late in the game, but for the most part you're right, the trailer makes it look like more of an assault course than it is.

This playthrough of the first 4 levels gives a better impression of the game (includes amusing commentary): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q90BkxPyPpE

Otherwise, I'm glad people are enjoying it! Development stretched out way longer than I planned for so it's a relief to finally get it out and have people play it!
 

Trumpets

Member
In most cases you just need to press jump while touching a wall.
You don't need to push towards the wall to jump off of it, but you can if you want.

If you want to jump a bit further you'll need to push in the direction of travel after jumping.

That's about it for general wall jumping advice!
 

Gaspode_T

Member
Are you porting it to WP7? Not enough good platformers there, your competition is this game and this game only I think:

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/c181c7c9-65ce-447e-93e6-a0a56d8679ac

Cartridge is not even really bad, it just is kind of Mario-esque but slower and feels weird. A lot of people thrash Platformance games in reviews, so it seems a little tricky to port platformers to phones...

Otherwise...you should get in the Indie Royale bandwagon ;P
 

Santiako

Member
Just bought it because it's made by a gaffer and it's the sequel to one of the best (if not the best) xbox indie games.

Thanks Trumpets for such awesome games!
 

Cranzor

Junior Member
I was really impressed with the trial. I'll definitely pick it up when I add some points. Also, that Apple Jack song in the OP is absolutely terrifying.
 

Trumpets

Member
Are you porting it to WP7?

Like you say, the controls would be a big problem on a smartphone. Unless I changed most of the levels to make them more forgiving the frustration level would be off the scale! I'm not sure how smoothly it would run either.


Otherwise...you should get in the Indie Royale bandwagon ;P

Once the PC versions are done I will certainly do my best to jump on it!
 

Gaspode_T

Member
I think Level 4 is the one where you are like "Oh, I actually have to think or I am going to die quite a lot"...it is a good thing! Anyway I am one of your XBLIG purchases...the cover is SMB2 awesome.

I love the effects when you smash things together...

Only piece of advice is you dont give potential buyers any sense of how many levels there are or tease, maybe after Jack jumps out the window you can show a quick skippable montage like 10 secs of one of the later hardcore levels
 

qupe1975

Neo Member
Been experiencing a few bugs on this today.

On some levels featuring the Shadow guys every now and then if I use say a normal panda guy it will take out 2 shadow guys that are right next to each other, meaning the level can not be completed.

Happened on Chapter 29 today, I think, and I was left with one enemy. Happened on an earlier level and caused a code 4.

My daughter laughed today when on Chapter 30, the Stacking level, I was moving blocks and fell through the red moving block, died obviously.
 

pmj

Member
My patience with hard games isn't nearly what it used to be; I'm only something like 20 levels in and I've already reached my breaking point. I just can't keep retrying in order to eventually clear the level, as the only thing I'm likely to get out of it is an even harder level.

Loving the aesthetics of the game though, and I'm a bit disappointed that I'll never see the conclusion to Apple Jack's adventure.
 

Trumpets

Member
Gaspode_T said:
Only piece of advice is you dont give potential buyers any sense of how many levels there are or tease, maybe after Jack jumps out the window you can show a quick skippable montage like 10 secs of one of the later hardcore levels

I tried to pick screenshots that give an idea of the harder levels (big panda, lots of saws), and I imagine most people take a look at those before downloading the game. I wouldn't want to spoil the flow from the intro to level 1 by adding a montage, but a screen that comes up when you quit the trial showing screens and game info would be a good idea.

qupe1975 said:
Been experiencing a few bugs on this today.

On some levels featuring the Shadow guys every now and then if I use say a normal panda guy it will take out 2 shadow guys that are right next to each other, meaning the level can not be completed.

Happened on Chapter 29 today, I think, and I was left with one enemy. Happened on an earlier level and caused a code 4.

My daughter laughed today when on Chapter 30, the Stacking level, I was moving blocks and fell through the red moving block, died obviously.

Ooh, nasty, sorry about that. I've not seen either of those. The first one should be easily fixable, but the 'falling through block' thing is more worrying. The block collision code is held together with string at this point, so it's kind of amazing it doesn't go wrong more often!

pmj said:
My patience with hard games isn't nearly what it used to be; I'm only something like 20 levels in and I've already reached my breaking point. I just can't keep retrying in order to eventually clear the level, as the only thing I'm likely to get out of it is an even harder level.

Loving the aesthetics of the game though, and I'm a bit disappointed that I'll never see the conclusion to Apple Jack's adventure.

Fair do's, It isn't for everyone. Hopefully you got your 80 points worth anyway:)

SapientWolf said:
How does the rewind feature work?

Hold Y. The difficulty level dictates how often you can use it.
 

Murrah

Banned
Just wanted to say I showed my friend the trailer to this and he instantly bought it, and we've been trading off lives the past hour. So thanks for making this awesome game, and thanks to the OP for bringing it to my attention. Reminds me of renting platformers in the 16-bit days as a kid in a way that not even stuff like meatboy was able to do. Is the soundtrack available or going to be available to purchase at some point? It's really very lovely
 

Trumpets

Member
Murrah said:
Is the soundtrack available or going to be available to purchase at some point? It's really very lovely

This is the band's website. The soundtrack isn't up yet but you can buy their 'proper' album if you like.
 

Blue Lou

Member
Trumpets, congratulations on making such great games. I really enjoyed the first Apple Jack and I'm also enjoying this one.
 
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