Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Unfortgettable Elephant: This Is The Only Level

By Kieron Gillen on August 25th, 2009 at 3:45 pm.

Yay!

Michael Nørskov points me in the direction of this. It stars the elephant from Achievement Unlocked and is a metagame tinged piece of platform puzzling. It’s called This Is The Only Level. And it is. But it’s an awesome level and some of the puzzle solutions worked into it are plain brilliant. Others are funny. The best are both. Saying any more would spoil ‘em. You really should play it.

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52 Comments »

  1. 25/08/2009 at 15:50 AndrewC says:

    You know, I could have sworn there’s been articles with both this and Fig 8 here before. Only because i have seen both these before and I only ever seem to learn about these games from this blog. Am I being mental?

    The game is really fun though. Then I got stuck.

  2. 25/08/2009 at 15:54 Schadenfreude says:

    Actually it appears to be called “This Is The Only Level”. Not havin’ much luck with the Flash game posts this week eh? :D

  3. 25/08/2009 at 15:59 Rinox says:

    I would have played it just for the elephant. The fact that game is fun is just bonus for me (I haven’t yet, at work).

  4. 25/08/2009 at 16:02 Dead Fish says:

    Brilliant! And I really like the music. :)

  5. 25/08/2009 at 16:10 Persus-9 says:

    I don’t think it’s quite as good as the brilliant Achievement Unlocked but still very good. I think that elephant might just be my favourite platforming character of all time. Commander Stryker (the star of Stryker’s Run and Codename: Droid) will always hold a special place in my heart but he was just a generic space marine with a really bad name. Where as this elephant, well simply an inexplicable blue jumping elephant isn’t it, nothing can compete with that, it’s just pure genius.

  6. 25/08/2009 at 16:10 Kieron Gillen says:

    Andrew: There’s a walkthrough link at the bottom of the page.

    Schadenfreude: Fixed. And never.

    KG

  7. 25/08/2009 at 16:23 4026 says:

    “This Is The Only Level. And there is.”

    Well, almost fixed. =D

  8. 25/08/2009 at 16:25 Senethro says:

    11:10 and 134 deaths, mostly on the fiddly mouse control level where a flick left meant a stream of elephants flying from entrance into spikes.

  9. 25/08/2009 at 16:26 HidesHisEyes says:

    you mean i played something BEFORE it was on RPS? Boy is my finger on the pulse.

    Some of them were annoying (just waiting around is not a puzzle ‘solution’, some were clever or funny, and the zoomed one was great.

  10. 25/08/2009 at 16:29 dingo says:

    14:12:75
    Deaths: 89

    Nice :)

  11. 25/08/2009 at 16:37 Baka says:

    I thought the “Credit Page” is the last screen.
    Because, well, This Is The Only Level…

  12. 25/08/2009 at 16:44 MacBeth says:

    10:57.90 and 69…

    Very good. More like this please.

    And @Persus-9, re. Codename Droid – did you ever get an end sequence when you finished the game or did it just hang for you too?

  13. 25/08/2009 at 16:52 CMaster says:

    For more similar (and plenty different too) check out the author’s website, http://jmtb02.com/games/

  14. 25/08/2009 at 16:53 Theory says:

    I got to 30 and couldn’t be bothered trying to find the inevitable hidden levels after it.

    There are hidden levels after it, right?

  15. 25/08/2009 at 17:06 Sucram says:

    11:19:92.5 Deaths:37

    Easier than Achivement Unlocked at least.

  16. 25/08/2009 at 17:17 Pani says:

    I found the refresh one frustrating, partly because I use firefox and its actually reload – very confusing!

  17. 25/08/2009 at 17:21 Schaulustiger says:

    12:01:92.5
    Deaths: 73

    Most of the ideas were okay, but Achievement Unlocked was way better. I still love all those little meta games. Give me more!

  18. 25/08/2009 at 17:23 Ecko says:

    11:15 and deaths:100

    Funnnnnn :)

  19. 25/08/2009 at 17:31 DK says:

    I think this is the last Armor Games game I’ll play. The level of condescension they present is just revolting.

  20. 25/08/2009 at 17:36 Persus-9 says:

    @MacBeth: Codename: Droid never hung for me but that might well be because I was very young and very rubbish the last time I played it in anger so I never got anywhere near the end.

  21. 25/08/2009 at 17:36 Mr Pink says:

    9:28
    Deaths 59
    It’s certainly imaginative, and the music is ace!

  23. 25/08/2009 at 17:55 Riotpoll says:

    9:07
    63 deaths

    Quite fun.

  24. 25/08/2009 at 17:58 mbp says:

    Love it.

    A concept game that is actually fun.

    Now there is a new concept.

  25. 25/08/2009 at 18:06 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:

    Every stage name gives you a hint that’s usually big enough to help you figure out how to beat it no matter how arcane the level appears.

  26. 25/08/2009 at 18:10 Abhishek says:

    12:25:82.5
    Deaths: 80

    Fun!

  27. 25/08/2009 at 18:21 Lambchops says:

    Took me just shy of 15 minutes, a nicely diverting wee game that.

  28. 25/08/2009 at 18:23 Nero says:

    Very fun game and great music.

    10:13
    58 deaths

  29. 25/08/2009 at 18:23 jalf says:

    I thought the “Credit Page” is the last screen.

    Yeah, that’s the one I got to as well

  30. 25/08/2009 at 18:29 medwards says:

    Elephant is sufficiently popular to spawn: Run Elephan Run

    @DK: You should give them a chance. Most of their other games are not meta-gamey at all. They also can end up being as derivative as anyone else. Worth looking at are Llama Adventure (because Llama’s are awesome. And from Peru.) and Silent Conversation (which I find interesting if quickly boring)

  31. 25/08/2009 at 18:33 Ginger Yellow says:

    Gah. Had to cheat on the Credit Page level. I knew what to do, but couldn’t figure out where the credits were.

  32. 25/08/2009 at 18:45 Bret says:

    Click on the credits button on the main menu.

    It unlocks the next level

  33. 25/08/2009 at 18:55 LionsPhil says:

    I love this, and Achievement Unlocked, to little bits.

    11:43:02.5 / 107. AU I only got to 92% (missing “Get Off Your Seats”, 72–75 [the colours, although since found how], or 77/78 [programmer credits, contra]; 99 is presumably automatic on 100% completion), before trying reloading on that (which I played first) to see if that was one. It reset them all instead. Boo.

  34. 25/08/2009 at 19:14 Mil says:

    If you want more metagames you could play Turn Based Battle: http://armorgames.com/play/4305/turn-based-battle

    It’s a JRPG parody (a pretty good one, I thought).

  35. 25/08/2009 at 20:03 Mike says:

    Very, very good. Better than all the meta-games so far, because it offers quite inventive stuff each time around.

  36. 25/08/2009 at 20:06 Gap Gen says:

    I loved the story in the Achievements game where someone refused to look at the walkthrough, even though there was an achievement for doing so.

  37. 25/08/2009 at 20:07 RLacey says:

    Got to the first bouncing level, and got fed up with my ham-fisted ineptness.

    Fun idea, though.

  38. 25/08/2009 at 20:23 ZeeKat says:

    8:52, 38 deaths. Music was ace.

  39. 25/08/2009 at 20:25 Kotti says:

    About 9 minutes with about 40 deaths, but I had to use the walkthrough once. Sadly I noticed the stage names in the stage after the one I had cheated in.

  40. 25/08/2009 at 23:10 An Innocuous Coin says:

    08:51:82.5
    Deaths: 40

    This was fun. ^_^

  41. 25/08/2009 at 23:13 Demon Beaver says:

    I think the deaths it shows you at the final screen are only counted from the Time to Refresh stage

  42. 25/08/2009 at 23:30 Markoff Chaney says:

    9:03:50 WITH (ahem, caps still on) 34 deaths. That was great fun! I love these commentary within gameplay games. Well done.

  43. 25/08/2009 at 23:41 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:

    @medwards

    Oh wow that first bit of Run Elephant Run is hard. But once you get the hang of it everything clicks.

  44. 26/08/2009 at 01:06 Scarves says:

    11:04, 56 deaths
    Just as enjoyable as the last. Love that little elephant.

  45. 26/08/2009 at 11:30 Hmm-Hmm. says:

    Achievement Unlocked was not fun at all. Interesting from a game as a comment on aspects of gaming, but that’s it. So I’m going to give this one a pass. And even if it’s a good try-not-to-die platformer, I’d rather play knytt stories.

  46. 26/08/2009 at 11:50 Jetsetlemming says:

    A pretty decent way to spend seven minutes. Some of the puzzles, like the Credits one, were clever.

  47. 26/08/2009 at 13:20 StenL says:

    Run Elephant Run was actually the first game starring the elephant. The Turn-Based Battle game that someone posted here is really good though, and made by the same guy who made Upgrade Complete.

  48. 26/08/2009 at 20:54 aoanla says:

    The odd thing about this game is that there were definitely three or four levels where I just… played normally, without noticing the special mechanic for that stage. Did anyone else find this a little odd?

  49. 29/08/2009 at 08:07 pimorte says:

    @aoanla – me too. I couldn’t tell what the special mechanics were for a few levels.

  50. 30/09/2009 at 14:27 Web Cole says:

    I say, how turribly inventive.

  51. 19/10/2009 at 13:23 lane says:

    5:37:.5
    40 faults
    get raped

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