By Nathan Grayson on May 12th, 2012 at 11:00 am.
Long ago – probably before my people had even colonized this strange, star-spangled landmass I call home – Kieron posted about a clever little puzzle platformer called This Is The Only Level. Achievement Unlocked creator John Cooney, however, has since gone on to become a dirty rotten liar, because there are now two more “only” levels. So, here’s how it works: you’re a tiny blue elephant. You have to traverse a spike-and-platform-laden room to reach a Mario-style pipe. But then the level starts again – only with some zany permutation that completely alters the rules of the world or even the whole game. This Is The Only Level 3 also boasts a slightly more versatile Flash-based look over its predecessors and the ability to excrete pastries for some reason. Even so, solutions are brilliantly meta, frequently laugh-out-loud funny, and may well be this series’ (or is it a single, incredibly long game?) best yet. Also, if the tiny, pipe-blocking door that is life prevented you previously, here’s This Is The Only Level Too as well. Thanks, Free Indie Games.
12/05/2012 at 11:56 mr.ioes says:
“Merely Elephantine Run”… well sorry, I’m a cow, not an elephant.
12/05/2012 at 12:08 unununun says:
http://71r.k.af
12/05/2012 at 13:53 Scythe says:
Brilliance! I got stuck on L27 for a while, but the rest were awesome.
14/05/2012 at 03:22 kalirion says:
I’m stuck on level 27 as well! What is the solution??? The walkthrough requires a facebook account….
14/05/2012 at 03:23 kalirion says:
Nevermind, googled an unofficial walkthrough.
12/05/2012 at 14:35 marcusfell says:
These games are great. Everyone should play all of them at least once. The only one that got me stuck was the part where you have to refresh the page to progress.
12/05/2012 at 18:30 niull says:
http://1su.net/aF5
12/05/2012 at 20:16 Lambchops says:
I’ve always rather enjoyed the elephant based games for a quick blast of charming fun.
12/05/2012 at 22:01 PoLLeNSKi says:
That was a mammoth challenge
12/05/2012 at 23:00 Fincher says:
I tried to click away when I saw this article because I thought I’d highlighted the image. What is this tomfoolery, RPS.
12/05/2012 at 23:01 Sexy.KOT69 says:
Same here… Tried to deselect the screenshot… -_-
13/05/2012 at 00:53 Initialised says:
Elephink I’ll give that a miss
13/05/2012 at 04:56 Jupiah says:
A warning, stage 16 seems to be unwinnable if you are using google chrome. At least that is my best guess for why I can’t win, 4 different walkthrough all told me to simply open a new tab or window in my browser but it doesn’t work for me.
13/05/2012 at 06:18 tomeoftom says:
Copypaste the game’s url.
13/05/2012 at 09:48 jrodman says:
flash ‘metagaming’ has always been a bit unreliable depending upon browser setup.
13/05/2012 at 06:53 Noumenon says:
I’m obviously not up for this kind of non-handholding, lateral thinking game. I got stuck on level 4 because I couldn’t figure out to click the button to shoot (there’s no crosshairs! they said the controls were keyboards!) also I thought shooting those pastries with Space bar was shooting. So anyway, I thought it was stupid and annoying.
13/05/2012 at 17:44 TillEulenspiegel says:
I’ve decided I don’t like games that hide the rules, and worse, make up random rules as they go. I’ve seen a few like this, and it’s never interesting.
Lateral thinking is grand, but there’s plenty of room for it within defined rules (see: good non-electronic games).
13/05/2012 at 21:21 wengart says:
If you read the instructions it tells you that you may need to click witht he mouse
14/05/2012 at 03:43 jrodman says:
Well, this is indeed a game all about making up random rules. If you don’t like that sort of thing, steer clear.
(I’m kind of on the fence about these myself.. I enjoyed “This is the only level” but I couldn’t be bothered with the second visit.)
13/05/2012 at 14:48 ScottHarrigan says:
This game reminds me greatly of a flash game called Elephant quest, which was tons of fun. Smaller developers keep bringing surprises to the table more and more. The retro look of the game is exceptionally awesome. The game is free and already looks more fun than some high budget games coming out.
http://www.videodetective.com/games/halo-4/90801
This is a great alternative to paying sixty dollars for a game in a franchise that is essentially a limping horse.
14/05/2012 at 03:43 jrodman says:
Elephant quest is indeed by the same developer.