Control is the same as before. Use the [arrow] keys to move, pressing [up] to go through doors, and [down] to crouch or interact. If you press the [spacebar], you'll jump, and if you press it again it midair, you'll double-jump. You can slide down or jump off a wall by pressing the [arrow] keys against it while you're in midair. There is no pause button, so presume that if the phone rings during a particularly finicky bit of jumping you're about to hate whoever's calling forever. There are, however, "safe" places throughout each level, which are merely spots where nothing will come after you. When you find one, take your time and shake out the tension; death in Wrath of Anubis is a single hit from an enemy or the environment and will send you all the way back to the last door you came through, undoing all your progress to that point.
Even the sort of person who enjoys it (as I did) is going to hate it a little (as I do). Wrath of Anubis 2 has the sort of ridiculously twitchy gameplay that is as addictive as it is difficult; although dying may be frustrating, each time you play you get a little farther, and a little better. (Yeah, I'll give you whoops!, death-text, just you wait.) It's a little bit Spelunky, and a little bit Lester the Unlikely and a lot bit absolutely ridiculous level design. Seeing how incredibly elaborate the levels get the farther you go is both fun and funny, and nailing the timing to sail through it all is that much more satisfying. If that sounds good to you, or if you're the sort of person who loves those deliberately soul-crushing Mario Rom Hacks, then have at 'er. Just don't expect a "Let's Play" video from me on this one. The language would be somewhat... less than poetic.
Well, I see the jump mechanic is still based on the physics of organic peanut butter.
If TL;DR applies to blogs, TH;DP (Too Hard; Didn't Play) applies to games.
Judging from the difficulty level of the first few stages, I don't want to see where this one goes. Which is sad, because I really enjoyed the first half of the original.
...it's fitting that the character is dying in the screenshot, because that's what you spend a lot of your time doing in this game.
Can't even get past second level, fml.
Yeah this is ridiculous. Good grief. Well, that's something I'm never going to try again.
Yea that was impossible!!! Especially that you only get one hit before you die.
Ohh its really impossible how we survive when only get one hit before you die.
I really enjoyed the first one, so I expect to enjoy this one! Glad to see it's up.
Okay yeah, this is definitely a CONTINUATION of the last game, and not a new game in itself: this does not start with the easy levels! The difficulty definitely assumes you have already beaten Wrath of Anubis 1.
Which I like! Like I said in the comments of the first, this is good tight but complex platforming at it's finest! Reminds me of Commander Keen 4 somehow, even though the controls aren't really similar.
Okay, now I'm having troubles. Sorry for the triple post.
The title screen says "Save File Found." But pressing space brings me back to the opening tutorial, with zero statues or points! I have cookies enabled, and can't figure out anything on my end that may be causing this. Any ideas?
I'd love to play this, but space bar jumping is so terribly antiquated.
Please, anyone? I don't know why my progress is lost every time I play, but it's quite unpleasant.
I have the same problem as StephenM3. Mac OSX, doesn't matter if I use Firefox or Safari. It looks like a good game-- I liked the first one-- but a game this difficult and extensive can't be played in one sitting. Unless this problem gets addressed, it sounds like it'll be unplayable for a lot of people.
I'm having the same problem as StephenM3. Google Chrome, cookies enabled.
I really can't do this with it restarting me every time I need to take a break.
Good lord the jumping mechanics suck. When are we going to get past the "I don't /feel/ like double-jumping today, chump!" thing in platformers?
The double jumping works fine if you understand what's going on. 90% of the time this happens, you probably jumped RIGHT AFTER you walked off a platform, and used up your double jump when you thought you were just jumping. I haven't had any problem with the controls in this game, and in fact the jumping mechanics are my favorite PART of the game.
Only things I would change is that spacebar IS a little silly as a jump button. And the whole "unplayable without a save" thing.
Until JIG uploads the corrected .swf file, save files won't work. As of right now, JIG has the only swf on the internets as I was waiting for your feedback before releasing to other websites.
Jeff
Developers:
I hope you enjoyed making this game, because nobody is going to share that joy with you by getting past the first level or two because it's TOO BLINKIN' HARD.
Who enjoys games like that? Who EVER enjoyed games that impossible?
New version now online that supports save files. Thanks, Jeff!
THIS is the kind of game I sift through JIG every week looking to find - a very difficult platformer with quick restarts, lots of dying, retro feel and sound, and a feeling of ultimate satisfaction when you finally get the timing JUST right. It'll probably take me days to pick away at the harder levels, but I'll finish it eventually. It's something to look forward to!
My one complaint, which was also my only complaint with the first, would have to be using sticky ol' Spacebar to jump. Definitely not a game-breaker for me, but I feel that the controls would have been tighter with a smaller key, say Z or A.
As for the difficulty, I wouldn't say that it's as hard as, say, Battletoads.
This game is GREAT. The difficulty and level design are PERFECT. The graphics and gameplay are both EXCELLENT.
I only wish that my keys wouldn't keep getting stuck, as in pressing a key and the game thinks I'm still holding it down when I've obviously taken my finger off and it only realises its mistake once I press the same key again. I know this problem isn't Wrath-of-Anubis-2-specific because it happens with about 50% of the games I play online. And when I come across a gem like this it nearly brings me to tears to realise that I can't play it all the way through!
I've tried it on 3 different PC's and one laptop; all of them suffer the same fate. So far I have not found a fix for this issue. Nor have I tried searching for one. Maybe that's something for me to do...
Jeff, I'm not sure what's with unleashing a broken version of the game on us in order to get our "feedback". Genius works in mysterious ways, I guess. Still, I'm glad you fixed the save bug, and you've designed an excellent, tricky game.
But, I've found another design flaw. A very annoying one, which everyone should know about before they play too much.
The flaw is this: EVERYONE, PLAY THE TUTORIAL LEVEL! Or else you render the game unwinnable.
Since I had been somebody who had played the game quite a bit before the Save bug got fixed, I chose to skip the tutorial when I came back to the now-saveable game. It's possible to skip it by pressing "Esc", and so I did. I was eager to get on to finally playing the game in a saveable fashion.
This was a big mistake. Once you exit the tutorial level, you never get to access it again. Not even if you reload the game (unless you delete your save file). But, it turns out there is a chest in the tutorial level that YOU NEED TO FINISH THE GAME! I can't tell you how $%$$&% frustrating it is to manage to get 18 chests in this godforsaken hellishly difficult game, and find that the 19th chest was on the now-inaccessible tutorial screen!! (I confirmed this by -- ugh -- deleting my save file.)
So once again: EVERYONE MAKE SURE TO DO THE TUTORIAL LEVEL!
Because if you didn't, you might as well stop playing now, if you ever want to actually finish the game.
This is overall a very fine game. But a mistake like this -- coming on the heels of the saving problem, AND a similar chest counting problem in the first chapter of the game (there were more chests than the game recognized, and if you actually got all of them, the game wouldn't let you access the bonus stages) -- seems to show a too-ready willingness to unleash a broken game on the public.
There is no way I can go through what it took to get this far in the game again any time soon. This is me, broken and defeated, rage quitting. Over and out.
Quin, hold on to the save file (don't clear your cache). This will be fixed for next week (Monday?). If you play the updated game here your save file will still work.
Jeff
I just re-read your message.
Here's what I'll do. I'm going to add a secret door in the bonus area (It'll be a fake wall with a secret door).
In it, you will receive a secret chest...
And more. WHAT!!?!?!!! Hopefully I can convince you to play again! Look for it next week.
Hey Jeff,
Thanks for the response-- it's good to know you're on top of fixing problems! But, I already deleted my old save file, in order to confirm my theory that my missing chest was in fact from the tutorial level. Still, I'll probably give the whole game a go again at some point. Right now I've had enough, but it was a blast while it lasted. (Except for the #$%&ing ghosts!!! Grrr.)
Looking forward to the secret chest!
I'd like to apologize for being unduly harsh earlier, by the way. It's the nature of the game -- its payoff comes in success only after rising frustration. But I wrote my first comment at the height of my frustration! Anyway, I understand that things don't always work out the first time the way we plan. No big deal in the scheme of things. Either way -- even if it were unfinishable -- it's an excellent game.
Can't play this game or the previous one. Game loads just fine, but when it says "Press SPACEBAR to start" pressing spacebar does nothing. In both games. And in both FF and Chrome (Mac OS X).
Though from reading the comments, made that's a good thing.
This game was worse than the first.
The audio was scratchy and tended towards random screeches even when the room was completely empty.
The first game had problems with wall-jumps and jumping in general. WoA2 has taken those glitches...and made them worse.
Do not want.
Rage quit.
Update