Test Subject Blue

Wow, Nitrome has really been getting their act together. I mean, I didn't think the last year's games were THAT bad (save for Ribbit, that was awful), but Canary was fantastic and this continues the trend. It's a bit like Portal, but as you get further in the game, some real clever level design ideas sprout up. On top of that this game is incredibly polished. I'm only up to level 13, but I'm enjoying it thoroughly.

All in all, this is a brilliant game in my opinion. I hope Nitrome keeps up this level of quality, because they're on a roll.

Wow. This is really an amazing game. It's innovative, yet very tough in its own way. Come out with another one, Nitrome!

What, no review? I didn't expect to see a "write our review" on this site. Busy day?

Good game, and fun puzzles.

Seriously getting annoyed by the number of places that require you to walk to the very last pixel of a platform and then jump, though. That's not challenging; it's frustrating.

I want to write a "news article" about this game. I really do. But I'm drained of inspiration right now.

It seems really similar to Spewer in terms of the art and the "theme" of the game (i.e. a scientist watching some blobby/creation complete levels through a window). Not really a bad thing, but I'm a little disappointed because of that.

5 stars. I just couldn't stop playing until there were no more levels!

It looked like it was going to be fun, but for me, it got too hard too soon. I can usually play several levels of Nitrome games, but with this one, I couldn't even get past the start of level 3.

Very challenging right from the start, and it gets you thinking. It's great to see Nitrome getting creative again.
Love the music and graphics, but as a platform player who's constantly stuck at novice level, this one was a bit tough for me.

Too difficult/fiddly and lost interest. I like to play Nitrome games with my children who are 7, 12 and 17 years old.

Neither of them really like this game as it was too fiddly - even for me a grown 41 year old woman.

We still enjoy the older cuter games from years ago. Thank goodness they are still available. Keep up the good work though...... I'm sure this game will be loved my many out there.

Mary Anne
Kansas City, USA

It got too difficult for me at level 13 when the orange big blob shows up. They dodge bullets and spikes out to kill you. No way of passing them at all!
(Tried shoot them to scare them down and jump over...but just can't make it!!!)

Nearly gave up and walk away at level 5. The fact that when you die you got to start the tiring, difficult, no mistake tolerable jumping madness all over again is just too much.(yes, there are save points introduced in later stages but to get there usually take many attempts...a bit too many I'd say)

The other thing is when the researcher tapped the glass, sending the whole thing to shake a bit. Really distracting!!! Died a few times due to the unexpected shake, not that it cause any difference to the blobs or bullets but just annoying.

That's it, I did the best I could, but I can't figure out level 18. I was able to figure out how to beat the new kind of orange enzyme, but navigating those teleporters to somehow get the key & get to the pill is just too mind-bending for me to do on my own.

Any suggestions?

Canary and this, one after another! Nitrome is definitely stepping up their game. I love how they never use old, re-used game-styles. It's always something new and different.

"Dodge is a little slow to get up after crouching."

LIES! Dodge gets up as fast as you can fire. On level 13, there's a Dodge sitting right in front of you, you have to jump over it, and when you're on the ground, your guy fires unbearably slowly. There's no time to shoot and jump over him before he gets up and spikes you.

Nitrome has done it again, giving us another fun little time waster in the form of... a bouncing blue slime in an exosuit? At its core, Test Subject Blue is a platform with puzzle elements. You control the aformentioned "blue enzyme", jumping your way to get the bit of food located somewhere in each level. The controls are simple and though the game does throw some tricks at you with the main gimmick being teleportation (, the overall gameplay remains relatively simple. Like all Nitrome games, the graphics and presentation is all very polished and smooth. It is a fairly short game at only 25 levels with each level needing only 1-2 minutes to complete. However, some of the levels can be quite challenging and require a number of attempts to even see how to get to the end, nevermind actually reaching there.

That said, there are a number of faults with Blue. I did not have any problem with the controls and such, but as my computer is not exactly up to date, without the quality controls, it felt sluggish esp. at the last level (though luckily no sudden lag spikes or such). However, it seemed really weird that firing from the ground gave a delay, but not in midair. There were a number of places where you had to time your jumps very precisely and with a running start. Lvl 21 was the only level that took me 3 mins (though I often reseted) and more than half of that was due to a place where I had to make 2 such jumps within a time limit. This is not fun, merely annoying with no time limits and little penalty for death. It won't take a person that's good at platforming long to finish, maybe an hour or two, but even then the graphics got a bit repetive at the end with literally no difference between levels and only 1 screen. I liked the taps at the window though. A nice touch of detail. Nitrome has never been exactly known for its outstanding stories, but here it is basically nonexistant. There's a few notes before each level, but those are mainly hints about the level to come. There's absolutely no hints as what you are besides a blue enzyme with intellegence, nor what are you being used for. There is a slight foreshadowing at the VERY end and no ending whatsoever.

Lastily, there were a couple bugs I encountered. Halfway through the game, the hotkey for pause (p, which isn't even stated in the help) stopped working. One level the savepoint was glitched, and restarting had me restart at the midpoint rather the beginning, but also did not allow me to respawn.

Hints: for the dodge oranges (the round stationary ones), duck and fire twice. You can only kill them when they "reset" to the original position. It might be possible to do so with shots that cause them to duck, but 2 low shots are so much easier.

For the floating orb oranges, have they fire in a way so that it teleports around and hits itself (or have them hit each other). Just fire and jump out of the way when it fires.

It's very fun and it makes you think (maybe a little too much), but I didn't like how after a few levels with the turrets, the doctor says something like "he's learned to destroy the turrets first". Excuse me? I don't remember anyone telling me I could do that! But, I thought that him saying it was like a joke (a mean one, but still a joke), so I laughed.
Also, level 21... anyone got some advise for it?

The scientist idea is similar Spewer (stop tapping I was alive until you tapped, idiot!?).
And the warping portals to Portal. I think Nitrome's games always go bad on another area of the game, like they always try to balance good with tottaly fustrating.

What the heck? I don't see how to pass level 13, with all of the Dodge enemies... D:

Nevermind, I just spammed the cannon... but it's pretty annoying when the plasma shots you fire get stuck in a (almost) infinite loop between two portals.

figured it out, anyone stuck on level 13 you have to crouch and then shot twice the Dodge. They will lift up to avoid the first shot and when they drop back down they will be hit by the second shot. Fairly easy once you use this method.

hmmm

I think I found a little glitch.

Bouncing back and forth between 2 portals, i somehow wound up on the otherside of the portal... so that i went through it, without actually teleporting.

was weird and seems finiky to pull off.

I know, 2 posts in a row
but the way I found to deal with dodges, is to 'duck', then fire 2 shots rapid style.
it 'stands up' over the first then sits down on the second

Has anyone figured out how to reach the keycard once you hit the switch? D:

Oh wait nevermind, I got it.

Any tips for level 20?

A very cute little game, but the jump is too picky. AS was already said, you have to walk to the very last pixel and jump, holding the jump key and left/right until you hit the ground.

I just reached level 13. I share the frustration with the Dodge enzyme. Evil little blob of dooooom!!!

I'm loving the concept of this game :) reminds me a bit of portal.

However, the controls seem a little bit sluggish for me.

Great game, I just completed it, 5/5 for me ^.^

Easier than most Nitrome games, I found the puzzling harder than the actual platforming itself C:

I still don't see why people think nitrome games are hard o.o, and how's the Dodge enzyme a challenge? They even explain how to kill it D:

stop knocking on the glass!! DX

The Dodge enzyme is just tricky, since jump/shoot/duck commands are very slow to react.

Once you figure out how much lag you have, they become merely a nuisance. Does anyone know how you go about beating level 18?

Power of posting. I haven't managed to kill the new flying "Gulper" (that's what I'll call it) enzyme, but level 18 is a little tricky.

Here's how I did it:

Great game... I loved Canary and I'm even more in love with Test Subject Blue. Nitrome seems to really be upping it's game, although I wasn't too sure about The Bucket. I found this game much easier than the other two mentioned though. I completed it in a rather short while, although not without enough failures to make it a fairly difficult game. As for killing the enemies which many seem to have trouble with, I found it was just a matter of patience and making use of your surroundings.

Over all, a pretty good game, and I especially loved the records in between.

Bug: I waited until the very end of the game to submit and it won't let me.

How do you beat level 20?

how on earth do you get past level 24?

Yes! Just beat it. At first it was hard... but then.. I was thinking portals! ("Now you're thinking portals! I can't believe only one person pointed this out so far. It's basically 'Portal', only in 2-D!)

Found it rather easy, apparently I'm the only one. I dislike how everyone is comparing it to Spewer because it's about a test subject. Tons of other games have that premise.

"Dodge is a little slow to get up after crouching."

It took me a while to understand what it means:

@ASB
i agree, this game isn't that hard
but anyways,

This was a really fun game to complete

Nitrome has really filled a niche. In my opinion, it's a niche that's been open since the Nestle-sponsored Willy Wonka promotional website stopped hosting clever shockwave games featuring their line of original candy products. I guess I think of Nitrome as the Willy Wonka of flash games, since they've got a similar strategy. Take a game that's been done before, add some peppy visuals and music, and toss in a few creative mechanics for flavor.

For example, take their newest title, Test Subject Blue. Start with a platformer, set it in a laboratory, and add some momentum-conserving portals. I bet that's never been done before! Actually, the portals are stationary in this one and you get a real blaster that shoots stuff. The core mechanic is clever, and you'll want to think back to games like Nitrome's own Fault Line for an idea of the sort of mental hoops you'll have to jump through.

Originality aside, the game has the same standard of quality as you'd expect from Nitrome. Great visuals, cool music, and the gameplay would be perfect if not for that one nagging detail. So what's the "one thing" with this Nitrome game? Accuracy. The jumps are unforgiving and sometimes require you stand on the edge of a portal, the blaster sometimes delays a second before shooting and it's hard to predict the timing in mid-air shots, and I still don't know how to tell how close I can safely get to those landmines before they explode.

If you're willing to try, try again to work out the trial-and-error of unforgiving jumps, you'll find 25 well-designed levels that gradually introduce all manner of additional puzzle mechanics, like enemies that must be shot through portals or switches that allow you to turn off the portals for a second and jump past them. Everything in this game is color-coded, too. Orange things kill you, green things don't. This color-coding is slightly misleading at times, as it's not obvious that you can shoot the turrets and monster spawners, but later the game acts as if you should have known from the beginning. Also, in one place the game tells you that a certain monster will delay after it ducks, but trying this advice out reveals that the delay actually comes after it jumps. So maybe take the hints with a grain of salt.

Nitrome's been nice enough not to take the "sadistic computer" route for a story in this one, and you'll notice that the title "Test Subject Blue" clearly implies the potential for a sequel. In fact, other than the "sequel hook" itself, the game has no real plot. You probably wouldn't play this game for the story, but if you're like me and can't get enough new ways to think with portals, you'll probably get a kick out of Test Subject Blue.

[Thanks for the great review! I've promoted it above. -Jay]

I, too, found the note about Dodge misleading. I don't know if it's different on faster computers, but I found Dodge didn't slow down long enough for me to navigate around. The working technique, crouching and firing twice, took some finagling to figure out. The way to fight the gulper (whatever its name is), though, was hinted well enough in the notes.

But I did find a couple problems not mentioned yet. First, if you deactivate transporters and walk off the screen, you don't die and can't come back. (Good thing restarting doesn't take away your score.) And at the end (besides the game not allowing you to submit your score), I couldn't read the notes before they were taken away (though of course that must vary from person to person). It would be better if you had to hit Space again before playing the rest of the cutscene.

On a largely unrelated note, does anyone know what games are pictured in the background image? I'm particularly intrigued by the second one on the left edge.

Finished the game...I liked it a lot! Agree with everyone who thinks that the jumps could have been made easier.

I don't know if anyone else had the same qualm as I did with level 20:

All the other levels were nice. I liked the gulper concept, easy to take out once you figure out how and not too hard, either.

The game's graphics are like Twin Shot's graphics. I've finished the game and I hope Nitrome will continue to make good games like this one!:)

Grrrrr annoying jumping and fiddling....

Can anyone help me with level 22, please? Got the key card but then cannot make any jump to the portal. There must be other ways but theres mines everywhere.
(Tried to avoid the second save point, so it can re spawn at the first save point... This way can nudge it through to the portal when re spawned. But then I cant get the key card without passing through the second portal.....)

i love this game but i cant get level 20

W, for level 22:

lvl 20:
Just jump and fire once on the bottom platform, and then immediately jump once you land. This way, you'll warp to the top right before the warp deactivates. To get to the food, you'll need to do the same thing but once you get inside the square, immediately go after the food rather than down.

lvl 22: To get the food, you'll need to be on the upper left most spot behind the warp. Then you'll need to jump to the right to get the food. Warning, it's one of those pixel jumps and you'll need to be halfway already warped to make it.

A tad annoyed. After the praise I've given the game, I noticed something else while playing it again today. After the second or third level, my total score was at 80825. It stayed at this number until the end of the game, the test score was not added on. Am I being blonde? Or is that a bug?

I've completed the game up to the final level; how do you get the first piece???

I will admit that in the past month, Nitrome has come out with two games that top every game from 2010 (Worm Food is an exception). This game, in my opinion, is a great start to the anticipated barrage of games that are to come this month. I believe that Nitrome has done the best job combining the puzzle aspect with the shooting and timing aspects in this game. Though the jumping was difficult at times to control, the game made up for that by constantly adding more enemies and challenges. Though the intimated sequel will likely not be released any time soon, it will still be worth it to replay this game from the start and enjoy the artwork and creativity in this game.

This is one of the best Nitrome games I've ever played, and also a good platformer, which I enjoyed even though I don't normally go for platformers (a sign of a good game). The comments here made it sound very difficult but it wasn't too bad once you know what you're doing. The longest I spent on any level was about 4 minutes.

* I didn't like the art style of the earlier Nitrome games but this one was quite nice.
* Controls were not as responsive as I would like. You have to factor in the delay in jumping and shooting, all the time.
* Pixel perfect jumps sometimes required, but also not as bad as I expected.

Maybe they'll call the sequel

Excellent. Normally I'd be getting frustrated with this kind of game and be looking for a walkthrough, but this one suited me very well. I completed it in a way which felt just right on the difficulty scale.

Sometimes I don't enjoy Nitrome games, but when they get it right they're amazing (and that's more often than not).

Test Subject Blue
Tips

Walkthrough

Thanks to James Francis for the walkthrough!

come on people!! i beat the whole game in fourty five minits. and the other guys are right, two rapid low shots take down a dodge

Full walkthrough now posted!

5/5 stars
amazing game
first canary then test subject blue
keep up the good job

I can't do level 1...

The last jump seems impossible, I just keep bouncing off the ceiling. Can someone help?

The only problem I have with this game is that toward the harder end levels, my blue test guy gets too touchy and won't stop running or even jump when I hit the up key. He ends up running on his own when you need to be precise so it becomes rediculous. He runs into the electric wires. Very annoying. It seldom does this on the easy levels, only when it gets more difficult. It's like he's on remote control and I'm not the controller anymore. Why?

I LOVE this game! The later levels really challenge you with some of the puzzles, and the flying orange enzymes are ANNOYING!

List of enemies:

Runner: These guys run in a straight line. Kill them by shooting them.

Defender: These guys use shields. Use teleporters to kill them.

Dodger: These guys are very skilled at dodging your shots. They also shoot spikes if you get to close. Two well placed shots in quick succession should kill them.

Flyborg: These guys fly up and down and will spit your shots back out at you. Turn them against each other or use teleporters to kill them.

It has a plot, a very mysterious plot, but Nitrome was clever of showing this plot in the sequel, Test Subject Green, and it's story is still mysterious. Nitrome have the best game creators ever, including gameplay, storyline, art, and (of course) the music.