Dot Action 2

I love this game, it's has great level design and a smooth, plesant difficulty curve.
I'm currently stuck on level 55 and I think I'll take a break ;)

It's great to play games that make such good use of limited 'resources'

Nice retro concept, but it never loads.
I think their server is dying....

Hoorj! It won't load for me. It's stuck at 700kish. so... slow...

If you can't get the game to load, try this link instead. I'm temporarily mirroring the game until the OffGao servers can catch up.

Certainly a funny game, there's some good level-design trickery going on there. Really inventive with the few items available in the game. :)

However, I keep dying at random times - my time resets to 0, while I obviously have time left... does that have to do with the mirror or is just a bug in the game? Whatever it is, it's annoying... ;)

omg-- i love the music! I like it cause it reminds me of the good old days, plus i like how you can see the entire level before hand

Meh, I have to disagree. It's a good platformer, but the learning curve is way too shallow. The first 30 or so levels are way too easy, and while some of the levels are "interesting", it doesn't necessarily make them "fun". I didn't really bother going beyond 30 because going through levels you don't have to really think about isn't that challenging or interesting after a while.

It would've been nice to have a "skip to level 50 so that I don't have to wade through ridiculously easy levels" button.

Jay, could you change the background color of the website where you have the mirror? It's somewhat difficult to tell where some levels end and the background begins.

Pieter - not all levels give you the same amount of time to finish. I doubt the files running from a different domain have any affect on that.

Simone - too shallow for you, perhaps. For me, the difficulty is just perfect, even the easy ones were quite enjoyable. Here's a code that will get you to level 55: 567-174.

Takkun - the html page that is on the mirror is identical to the one on the original site, background and all.

I am also getting killed at seemingly random intervals for some reason. I'll start a level and several seconds in I'll be killed.

Takkun - did you perhaps touch an orange pixel either before you got the red pixel or after the time ran out?

I haven't noticed any random dying at all. What stage is it happening to you in?

I also had the same problem as Pieter and Takkun. I would randomly die a few seconds into the first level, where there were no orange pixels to kill me. But after switching from Firefox to Internet Explorer it worked fine.

That is very weird. Especially since I am playing the game in Camino, which is the same Gecko engine as Firefox.

Whenever it happens I can see some sort of message in Japanese right under the level number right before the Game Over screen appears.

I believe it's more likely to be the Flash Player version you're using rather than either the domain the SWF is being served from or the browser you're using.

Ive already had the newest version of Flash Player when i experienced the problem. My brother, who has an older version than me tried it in Firefox and it worked fine for him.

Thanks, Jay. Level 55 is a perfect place for me to start. :)

OMG! Crystal Castles!!! That's what the music reminds me of!

Gosh, I need to find myself that game to play again sometime. I <3 Crystal Castles. ^_^

*de-lurks*
I can't read most of the in-game instructions because of the pixelation (and my Japanese is very poor, besides) but here's the one thing I could read that wasn't caught in the review.
Page up/down = volume control

The instructions also mention 100 stages, a 10-count wait after pausing (or something of the sort), and something about "slow motion".

And if you press [insert] on the title screen, you're taken to a Test-mode, where you can see if your keys are responding correctly. Press [insert] again to cycle through the tests or [space] to return to the game.

I think I also managed to 'break' the game, as I die after 4 seconds, any level. ^^;
*returns to lurking*

how do you beat level 45.. the zero second one..

nm, got it -- you have to jump and move right the instant the level starts

i like 46...

Does this remind anybody of Block Action and Block Quest?

Yeah, I can't beat the first level because the level disappears about ten seconds after I start it, and then I fall off the bottom of the screen and die. Whee.

I apologize if you're experiencing trouble getting this game to play. I have not experienced the issues that others have and I've played it on both Mac and PC. Both of them are running Flash Player 9.0 r28, which appears to be the latest version.

To check the version that your browser is using, try typing about:plugins in the address bar and see what comes up for "Shockwave Flash". If it's not the latest version, try installing the latest using the "Get Flash" button in the sidebar.

If it's not the plug-in version, then perhaps something else is interfering.

Ive got Flash Player 9.0 r28 and still have the problem. Like i said earlier, when i switched from Firefox to IE it worked.

Level passwords:

Cheers to Harukio, Art, Kero, atomic, Zephren, Setia, theprogram00, OfficiallyHaphazard, Kuehlbaum, WooHooll, Albert, and ZinVertigo for helping to gather the list together. =)

i'm stuck on stage 75... :( :( :(

59-75

59. 966-207
60. 188-268
61. 977-566
62. 897-199
63. 076-249
64. 349-512
65. 066-594
66. 806-866
67. 949-792
68. 114-226
69. 763-716
70. 197-168 (omg really really hard.)
71. 639-753
72. 131-167
73. 714-337
74. 279-275
75. 835-354

Instead of hitting the arrow keys on password input, you can just type the numbers in using the number keys (not the ones on the NumPad).

Lovely game, reminds me a lot of the olden day games, with no graphics, just pure fun gameplay. *sigh*

65-67

65-67

Stages 76-79;

76-80

For this retro-look it does require a LOT of download.

5MB, that are 5 floppy-disks! Only Sierra had that much disks for a single game....

81-83

omg, i am starting to hate this game... not really :P

level 81:

82 and 83:

84:

I got 84!

Ok, I really cannot do 45 for some reason. Even if I'm holding right and smashing the space bar from the second the level name appears, he just doesn't reach the dot in time -_-

Level 85 and 86:

88-90

Level 92:

91:

Feh, got 45, but now 57 is beating me up -_- 8 seconds, one dot right next to a ledge, and a vertical row of dots in jumping distance with no other supports. I just can't seem to fall, grab the one dot, and make the jump to get the others ; ;

93:

94:

Ugh, looks like I'm gonna be stuck here a while...can't track moving things with my eyes well.

96:

97:

97:

95:

97:

98:

enjoyable game, a bit simplistic but that adds to the charm. anyone else HATE level 24?

Finally...

100!

101-108:

I gave up at level 91. This game goes from easy to challenging to ridiculously annoying. I don't like that the difficulty of the gameplay at higher levels stems from luck in one's timing. Up to a point, it's tolerable, but combined with having to go back and forth between the level screen and the menu only adds to the annoyance. Sorry, but I just got tired of the absurdity of the levels.

Fun little game!!

And Jay ..... Crystal Castles, man I used to spend hours playing that game, and would love to find it again! I have looked online, and never been sucessful in some sort of redition, but it would need the ball control offset like the original was. Darned witch!!!

Hee hee. I like it! 82!

ow... The electrocution graphics scare me... :(

Excellent game. It really reminds me of N, for some reason... only with a better escalation of difficulty.

I'm with Starscream... lvl 57 is insane.

Maybe it was mentioned in the review, but what is the second column of numbers on the stage select screen?

I know the first is the time limit for the level and the last one is how long the red dots protect you, but what is the middle one that is on some of the stages?

I think it has to do with how sticky the gray gell is...

I gave up on this shortly after level 50, mainly because I got highly annoyed at all the water-swim levels where you have to basically pound on the keyboard... I don't really enjoy games that could potentially result in damage to my hardware. The first 50 levels were great, but as soon as it got out of a figure-it-out game and turned into a wail-on-the-keys game it lost all interest for me.

I come bearing information. Some of it may even be useful!

First, the most likely reason for people randomly dying very quickly is the "speed regulation". If the game senses that it's running too slowly for any reason (too many other applications running causing a general slowdown for example), it will kill you. This is to prevent cheating by making the game run more slowly than it should.

Similarly, there is a pause regulation that stipulates that you must wait at least 10 seconds between pauses. This is again to prevent cheating by pausing multiple times in rapid succession to create a false "slow motion" mode.

As OfficiallyHaphazard said, the second speed is indeed the speed at which you fall through the gray blocks on a given level.

That's about all the useful information I have.

Fun game!

somethings wrong... i cant even get past the first stage. i jump halfway up the stairs and it says game over. It cant be time related, because i can wait on the bottom for ages with nothing happening, but as soon as i start climbing the stairs, i get game over. am i missing something?

If the reason that people keep dying is the speed regulation, then it's way too sensitive. I can't detect the slightest bit of slowdown, and then WHAM! Game Over. I don't have anything running, and I'm playing this on a 450 Mhz processor, and it still kills me!

how do you start the game

yeah...what's with level 57?

I'm skipping it for now, but seriously!!! Kudos to anybody who figured that one out without cheating...seems literally impossible to me.

What manner of trickery is stage 80? I can grab two dots maximum before time runs out. It seems like the only way to go is to run right, grab the first dot, jump and use the momentum from hitting the cieling to launch me down, then grab the last two dots, but it seems like I just don't have enough time to do that and get both bottom dots...

I think this game is useless after level 69. The 70s are truly insane, and after that I just took a quick poke at each level and chuckled before moving on. 101-108 are good, though.

Anybody playing the original? Level 36 is driving me crazy. To make all those jumps with the time constraints is horrible. Any tips (or passwords) would be much appreciated.

This game is cool and all, but with increasingly more 'impossible' levels depending on button mashing and luck for EXACT timing and position on certain jumps and things, it's beginning to go sour for me. They love those orange blocks, don't they?

and I too want to know who actually got past level 57. I have tried and tried a couple of levels in this game and eventually beaten them, but this is the first level I'm skipping.

lvl 57:

Can someone please tell me the trick to level 34? I don't see any way to pass it since there isn't a red pixel. The orange kills me and there's no way around it!

I think there should be an epilepsy warning on this game, as there's flashing color when you finish a level that could set somebody off. (IANAD-just cautious.)

how do you get past the stairs on 34 without cheating??

Level 34:

How do you pass level 3..... I dont understand how to get to the other side as the yellow polls zap you and you die or if you fall of the white things you die also... HELP !!!

^ Grab the red dot, it makes you invulnerable to the yellow blocks for 60 sec.

How to get past lvl 55? Which green block do you pick up first?

OK, This is a *great* game, but here are my suggestions:

1. When you die, let the default action (spacebar) be to reTRY the level. I don't want to go back to the menu and I certainly don't care about rewatching my failed attempt. In the later levels that take 50 to 100 tries to get through, this added pause while I mash on my spacebar only makes me more frustrated with the game.

2. When you beat a level, and the game goes back to the level menu, it would be nice if the cursor would automatically advance to the next level. I often found myself just hitting space to play on, only to realize I didn't key down once and am back in the level I just conquered.

3. Too bloody impossible! Give a few of these nasty levels, but intersperse them with a few levels to breath. That way I don't feel like a miserable failure only five seconds after spending hours gutting through the LAST impossible level. Give more levels that require *thought* rather than plain luck/impossible timing/button mashing speed to get through.

I hope a Dot Action 3 is in the works!

stage 64

ciao!

A Hint for Level 34:

I need a Hint for Level 80, please!

Hint for level 80 would be REALLY great

i'm on 92... that must make me the greatest dot action 2 player in history, right?

I'm having... issues with level 50. I can't manage to make the jumps in those one-pixel alcoves correctly, so I can't even make it up the third wall before time runs out. Any tips?

Games like this bring up a feature I'd love to see avaialable on this site, though I don't know how feasible it is.

I haven't played this game since right after it was suggested, but I got pretty far through the levels. I don't know how far, though, and I don't remember the code to get back to that level. It would be nice to have a blank to fill in my personal level/password on the page for this game. Then whenever I come back to the page, I can see that and use it. Then, when I'm done, I can update it to my new level/password, and it will be available for the next time I come back.

Again, I'm not sure that could work or even if it makes that much sense, but it would be kinda nice.

Linz - that is an excellent idea! ^_^

We have some community features in the works that will allow us to do something like this, so thanks for the suggestion and feedback. We'll definitely keep it in mind.

level 64?????

OMG! this game is fantastic...
If you think some levels are somehow hard, or you feel like the time is not much and all.... OH GOD, wait until you get to friggen 70!!!

the screen is all filled up with blue dots and high poles... 999 of those miliseconds are not enough to complete that!!!

i wanna break my computer, and slap my step dad on the face with the keyboard! GOod God Soooooooooo frustrating!

beware of that evil 70!

Okay. I finished every single level of the game. But how did you get the code for level 101-108, ZinVertigo?

I had the dying for no reason problem, only after i hit level 39. I was using firefox, and the latest flash. I then tried running the game in Opera, and presto! It works fine.

Hmm. I cant seem to get through Stage 17... sad I know. I think I've got the sequence right but keep falling to my death a mere pixel away from my destination. Frustrating!

Ah... got it.

lvl 24 is the hardest level

As nooby as this is going to sound...

I need help with level 3.

Its impossible to beat stage 8 and it SUCKS!

I hate the level 50 !!!!!!!!!
it's realy hard

Links broken.

[Looks like only a temporary situation. Try again later. -Jay]

Ah, the sweet taste of nostalgia. I remember this game absolutely infuriating me years ago.