Horrible controls. I don't like it, sorry.

Excellent Game! The hint to the secret area provides enough detail to reveal the area while not giving away the secret area completely. More games should learn from this instead of putting in secret area without hints! Beated it in about 2 hours.

It's as though this game was built to encourage ragequits. The hitbox is maddeningly square and the jumps are the kind of arc where if you don't land something pixel perfect, you die. And start all over.

Level 10 really killed it for me. Make one tiny screwup? Well, you're boned. May as well start over.

game keeps freezing up at the ads. ugh.

The more I play, the more I wonder if the developer is just a jerk.

Including elements to your levels which make them difficult to beat by virtue of your own crummy control design does not a puzzle platformer make.

It does, however, co-opt game design elements from the eighties and lead to a game that feels more like frustration and work than fun. On that front, well done!

[Maybe instead of thinking someone is a jerk, consider that this is the developer's first effort. Puts it into a completely different context. -Jay]

finally got it to load by going directly to stencyl's site in IE9. never could get it to load in a jig popup on either IE9 or Firefox. Hope it's just me.

So hard! Finished using 1 secret ending, stuck at another....so !@#$%& hard!!!

Though I'm not quite as angry as stevedave, I gotta say that lvl 10 was a killer. I'll probably try again later and get it on the first try, but it can be pretty maddening when you have exactly zero wiggle room. Usually on a side scroller, you can make one mistake on these types of 'escape' levels, but not on this one.

Up until lvl 10, though, thought it was pretty good.

I raged at level 30. On paper it doesn't seem as hard as the other bosses, but all the waiting for the lava to go away kept throwing off my rhythm and I would always screw up the next part. I've also decided that I hate every platformer that has variable jump height based on the length you press the jump key, at least with more than two levels (light tap and full press).

Very nicely done, but I had to concede to a ragequit at the 2nd boss.

While I'm with you on the comment that it's possible that the developer is not so much a jerk as inexperienced (although it's equally possible), it's fairly obvious that this game didn't get a lot of trial play by ordinary folks.

Twitchy controls, punitively tight jump arcs and a lack of testing are, however, an indicator that this game, and possibly this developer, aren't ready for prime time yet.

Looks great, but it just isn't any fun to play.

This game is so CHALLENGING, yet so rewarding.
I always felt it was my fault I got killed, not his. And though the jump button was rather... too responsive. Beating it felt great!

I love games with Retro Difficulty, i just LOVE 'em!

Great game. Really. 5.

I really liked the game, even though the controls aren't perfect. (They're much better now than what they used to be, belive me.) It does require quite a lot of trial and error to pass the boss levels. I found the 1st boss to be the hardest actually, but maybe I got better at the game. Jumping is the biggest problem I see, precise jumping is pretty much required to beat the game. Oh well, maybe in the next part.

It's certainly hard, but I've always thought that if I can progress through even the hardest levels it can't be THAT bad. I'm not a great gamer, is what I am saying. I haven't beaten it yet, and yeah I've ragequit a few times, but it was never so bad that I didn't come back to try again. Once you get a feel for it, the controls aren't THAT bad. I'm interested in the secret endings, though. Don't know how to access them.

I didn't like it. Sorry, but if difficulty is created by bad controls, you are doing it wrong. Worst jump controls I've ever seen.

This could be a classic if the developer would build more tolerance into the controls and make it an optional difficulty level. I'd like to play it without all the unnecessary replay frustration.

C'mon, guys. The game isn't THAT hard ; level 10 was punishing, but not impossible. And if you're having trouble, don't forget that you can activate checkpoints on the main menu ; that way, if you lose, you've only got the second half on the level to do again. ;)

Not sure why they are so many negative comments, I loved it! Boss level difficulty was spot on, whereas normal levels were if anything a bit tame, particularly the second secret level as compared to both the first and the aforementioned boss levels. I think this is a really good effort for a first game, enough to break my normal habit of only commenting to point out bugs and so on. Must be one of the better games I've played on here, and I've played a lot - certainly the vast majority of both the highdifficulty and platform groups. Also loved the references to both pop culture and earlier points within the game, and finally the secret hints - just enough to point in the right direction if you were paying attention the first time through.

OH MY GOD THE RAGEQUIT. I just played the lava boss level at least 100 times and just couldn't take it anymore.

The game looks fantastic, and I like pretty much everything but those touchy, touchy controls.

I'm gonna go ice my cramped hands now.

Okay, I do agree that the jump is more than little oversensitive. It's very hard to judge how long you need to hold it to get just the right amount of jump you need. I've probably attempted level 30 about 50 times now (no exaggeration) and I am sure if the jump key was a little more finely tuned (or maybe less finely tuned?) I would have beaten by it by now. There are a LOT of tricky jumps in that level and if you miss just ONE then it's back to the beginning to try again. I did not have nearly as much trouble with the other boss levels. I'm not saying this makes it a bad game, just frustrating. I still really like the game, but I'm afraid I won't be able to finish it. My platforming skills just aren't THAT advanced.

WELL I think it was a decent game... extremely addicting but it can shove it's "FINAL TRIAL" up it's golden and pixelated @R$3#013!