Welcome back to Let's Play The Joogle Bros.
One thing I forgot completely with the last update is to include the midis that play in-game so you can listen to them while you read this for the full Joogle experience. But they're here this time.
Right after the first level I ever designed for Joogle comes one of the last levels I ever designed for Joogle. This level was added late in development because the first chapter was really short.
: They act like this is some video game.
: They always call me "NPC_Still_o". What kind of weird name is that?
The weird floating black thing is a "Gunner", which shoots bullets at you that are pretty hard to dodge. However, the bullets do so little damage that if you're playing as Joogle, you need to get hit by two of them before there is a visible decrease in your health bar, so you can pretty much pretend they don't exist for the whole game.
There's also a blue door with a picture of Joogle on it and a crossed out picture of Pilid, and character switching machines below it. I couldn't get through this door with Pilid for some reason, so I reluctantly switched to Joogle.
But before going through the door I decided to commit suicide by jumping off to the right. Unfortunately there was a platform below, with this lonely green guy.
Sounds like a challenge!
I'm not stuck in a wall. This is the secret passage. There are a ton of gold coins in here but you can't tell unless you listen really closely for the coin collection sound.
The lion boss turns out to just be a red Joogle. I could have made this funny, but instead I referenced a 4chan meme. Awesome.
I don't really know what I was doing with this teleporter. It just takes you back to the top of the cliff.
And then it quotes Starfox 64 for some reason. Okay. Anyways, time to go in that Joogle door.
Up here we see a crate, which means there's going to be a crate puzzle. This puzzle is somewhat of a trouble spot for new Joogle players because crates have a habit of glitching up occasionally when they go outside the view, which causes the game to freeze and then you have to end the process in Task Manager. That's Joogle Quality.
Down at the bottom this guy tells us to watch out for Gunners:
But we have no time to worry. We've got a puzzle to solve.
To get out of here, you have to push this crate down...
Then push it over here, jump up, and change to Pilid...
Which allows you to exit from this Pilid door and get down here.
It's true!
Unfortunately I forgot that I have to push the crate I left near the switch machines back out here. So I go up and ride this platform back to that Joogle door.
This looks like an ordinary screenshot, but...
Now I'll have you know we put a lot of effort into trying to fix this freezing bug, as shown by these unedited excerpts from our chatlogs:
(7:40 PM) Chuchino: oh frick it freezes in joogout didn't we fix that bug years ago
(7:45 PM) Chuchino: man the crates randomly get stuck in walls in joogout
(7:46 PM) Chuchino: moving platforms vanish too didn't we fix all the deactivating bugs
(7:49 PM) vgperson: geez.
(7:49 PM) vgperson: are you telling me we have to FIX BUGS IN JOOGLE
---
(8:00 PM) Chuchino: can you beat the level
(8:00 PM) vgperson: yes
(8:00 PM) Chuchino: good enough
Anyways I reload and do the puzzle again and then I can jump high enough to reach the next platform.
After that there's another puzzle where you stack these crates to jump to here. This guy recommends that you save your game before jumping up those platforms.
Oh, you.
At the top of these platforms, we find...
Donkey Kong Country - Fear Factory
The Air Chamber! With more pointless disappearing walls.
KING SURN got here before us and makes a helpful observation. We have to go down and find a switch.
The first half of this level was designed by me, but I was too lazy to finish it so Mitch made the second half. First we have a forced Joogle section with some Gunners, which is impossible to die in unless you're trying to.
Then you switch to Pilid for a section that's slightly more possible to die in. It's still extremely easy if you're actually paying attention, but if you just run through everything taking hits you'll take a lot of damage.
Like this.
To get back to the top we ride a giant updraft with lots of Gunners.
I'm one hit away from death here, thanks to my policy of not dodging anything. Fortunately when you switch characters you get fully healed.
Now we have Mitch's half of the level. There's an underwater health pickup, but there's absolutely no reason to return here once you get the Water Key. And even if there was, there are no dangers on the path to the health pickup once you've hit the switch, so it's entirely useless and I cannot fathom why it exists. After that, there are some Blagons that are really easy to dodge.
Here we have some floating division and multiplication signs. If you jump down you can go to the right to reach the end of the Air Chamber, or fall further and go left to find a path to the Star Egg, which you need the Air Key to get anyways. So we'll go right.
You may have noticed that I change to Joogle every time I enter a new room. This is supposed to happen for some reason. I am pretty sure that reason is "we were lazy".
Up next is a cutscene with KING SURN and BELVICE then a boss fight against GALFIO. Here is a video of that: link
Galfio was originally supposed to be a phoenix, but vgperson couldn't draw one. So she drew this thing, which is apparently supposed to be a bird??? He was extremely easy when he was first created, so I went back and made him harder by making it so the bullets split into two when they hit the ground. Except half the time the bullets spawn inside the ground and are immediately destroyed by it. I don't know why this was never fixed. Also, there is no explanation for why the electricity switch does not do anything unless Galfio stops in midair on top of it.
After you beat him and get the Air Key there's a stupid tutorial for it. It's really boring so there's no point screenshotting most of it.
At some point in development we realized that it was never explained anywhere how to bring up the pause screen/inventory, so we stuck it in here!
These blue arrows refill your Air Key meter when you touch them. They're like Golden Arrows in Jumper but for Air Key power instead of double jumps.
We reach the end and...
Now we're back in Lab 1! Let's see what Hint Joogle has to say about that.
Oh hey, a hint that's actually useful. Thanks, Hint Joogle!
We go up there and find a red test tube baby, which doesn't do anything. But if we go further up we reach our destination, the TELEPORT ROOM, where we are treated to this thrilling cutscene:
Lufia and the Fortress of Doom - Kingdom of Alekia
Before moving on to Chapter 2, we have to get the Air Key back. Now, since he ran out the way we entered, the logical solution is to go back to Lab 1, right? There's even a convenient teleport to Lab 1 right near the entrance! Wrong. If you weren't so stupid you would have realized that the Air Key is in some random other area, and if you go back to Lab 1 and save there you're stuck permanently since you can't fly back up to the Teleport Room. Joogle Quality.
So we go past the Lab 1 teleport and enter the next teleport, to Joogle City.
But Joogle City is useless too, aside from a few Star Eggs and I think you need to do something here before the fourth chapter or something. If you had an ounce of intelligence in your tiny pea-brain you would have realized you're supposed to go to the next teleporter and the Air Key is on some pedestal halfway through the area it leads to.
I honestly have no idea how anyone was supposed to figure this out.
See you next update!