• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

APPLE JACK 2 |OT| core gamers herald the return of Xbox 360’s best platformer

CLICK HERE TO BUY THE GAME FOR 80 MICROSOFT POINTS

uvhzg.jpg


GAF made: Yes, by our very own "Trumpets"!
Release Date: June 14th 2012 (THAT IS RIGHT NOW)
Platforms: Xbox 360*
Giant Pandas: Yes
Price: 80 Microsoft Points ($1, 50p, Z$1,000,000,000,000,000,000)
Wait, seriously?: Yep, just 80 Microsoft Points, for the platform game of the year.

To be honest, there’s not a great deal of competition and as awesome as things like Super Meat Boy are, there’s
something much more pure about Apple Jack. Apple Jack is the platform games you played when you were
a kid. Only it’s even better.

YOU CAN BUY XBOX LIVE INDIE GAMES IN EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY WITH LIVE. All you need to do is set
up a gamertag for the UK or the US or similar. It’s free, and there’s no IP locks so you can download XBLIGs to
your heart’s content.

*Maybe the game will come to Steam in future. Maybe it won’t. If you’re going to wait until it’s available on PC,
that’s absolutely wonderful and we’re all very happy for you, but keep it to yourself, yeah?

Not much has happened to Apple Jack since his first Xbox 360 platforming adventure. He’s
mostly been working a dreary 9-to-5 in the offices of a plastics company – but it’s just not what
apple-headed men were made for. So he’s ditching his job, he’s ditching his clothes and he’s heading
to the beach.



pMGFo.gif






M5MvD.gif


In APPLE JACK 2, players take the role of Apple Jack in order to:

- Run, jump and puzzle through three worlds and 61 varied levels.
- Take on pandas, washing machines, floating eyeballs and other peculiar enemies. Ride them, pick them up and
hurl them at each other!
- Beat colossal bosses. Really, they’re quite large.
- Listen to some nice folky music.
- Rewind time when things go wrong. Three difficulty settings separate ‘core’ gamers from beginners.
- Push big blocks around, flip switches, roll, wall jump, build huge score multipliers, collect vast explosions of fruit
and enjoy lots more new gameplay additions.


It’s the score multipliers that make it, though. In Apple Jack it was stupidly satisfying explosions of coins, and in
the sequel it’s fruit. You kill enemies by throwing two of them together, and they turn into fruit. Do it again quickly and
you get twice as much. Then twice as much again, and again, until there’s insane amounts of fruit on the screen to
collect. You know how Popcap cottoned on to how assaulting the player’s senses and rewarding them really
well was something players liked? That’s exactly the effect here, too. Try it. Feels good, man.



tJJBy.gif


tUcbj.jpg


SfL1j.jpg


J5HcP.png


iz1fu.png


OErDN.png




gcvL5.gif


The original Apple Jack came from absolutely nowhere and won my heart. The game was gorgeous, it controlled
perfectly, and there was such a variety in its enemies and its levels that it was impossible to put down.

Impossible to the point where, even though I’d just started playing the newly released Super Mario Galaxy 2
(having loved SMG), I spent literally no time with Mario at all until Apple Jack was completed. Am I saying
it’s better than Super Mario Galaxy 2? Not necessarily. I know which one I would rather have been playing, though.

Oh, and the coin thing. Going for high-scores in a game that didn’t even really track them was kind of absurd, but
I couldn’t help myself. It was just so satisfying.

I wasn’t the only one who was won over, too. Robert Florence adored it so much that he wrote a song about it
for Inside Xbox (RIP).





UgKYs.gif


Apple Jack merchandise is available in all good supermarkets, and is not only reasonably priced, but tasty too.
My favourite is the Golden Delicious Jack Head.

NevTb.jpg


Fun for both children and adults!

This game alone would justify four years of Xbox LIVE Indie Games. It’s exactly the kind of thing the service was
made for and exactly the kind of quality that so many games offer. I’m going to give you one more subtle clue
to the game that should already be queued for download by now:

wzGAk.png


CLICK HERE TO BUY THE GAME FOR 80 MICROSOFT POINTS
 

Rekubot

Member
Nice OT! I really should play the original at some point, pretty sure I bought it after enjoying the free trial.
 

Adam Prime

hates soccer, is Mexican
Damn you have to be presisently connected to xbox live to play indie games, right?

I just moved my Xbox and it's a real hassle to hardwire it, but I guess I will for an afternoon to give this game a try!
 

gar3

Member
Just bought it. Loved the first one and at 80 points the price of the second is really nothing.
 
I just bought 4 new games today and pre-ordered my lolipop chainsaw for tomorrow but I swear as soon as I am outta work and home, I will be playing THIS all night.
 
Damn you have to be presisently connected to xbox live to play indie games, right?

It still amazes me that some people don't have their Xboxes constantly online. I appreciate why it's not always possible, but when my Xbox can't connect to live I can't even bring myself to turn it on. It feels like half a console!
 

Galdelico

Member
It still amazes me that some people don't have their Xboxes constantly online. I appreciate why it's not always possible, but when my Xbox can't connect to live I can't even bring myself to turn it on. It feels like half a console!
Haha, yeah... When 'online' is not available for some reason, I feel like the whole thing is just not working properly (doesn't matter if it's 360, PS3, 3DS...). :D

Thanks for the OT, I'm gonna get the game tonight.
 

Trumpets

Member
Hello!

I can only echo toy's OP! Download the trial and see what you think. If you get stuck (it can be quite puzzley) leave a message and I'll help you out.

Also if you find any bugs please let me know and I can address them in a patch later on.

Enjoy!
 

saunderez

Member
If Indie Games were available in my country I'd so be in. Buying from the US store under a US gamertag works but then I can't play it under my own gamertag (comes up with BS parental restrictions nonsense)
 

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
Nice to see this is finally out, I've been a big fan of the first one ever since I saw a review in EDGE magazine (in a top 10 best XBLIG games special they had), downloaded it and the rest was history... Looking forward to throwing some pandas at each other while traveling the British countryside again.
 

Pookmunki

Member
Trumpets - I'm getting a serious Sufjan Stevens vibe from the music, you a fan?

Any plans to make the OST available to buy?
 

qupe1975

Neo Member
The game is Apple Jack mixed with Super Meatboy. It's a damn sight harder than the first.

Trumpets I feel bad commenting on any flaws, I am still enjoying the game and it's cracking value. Played the first 15 chapters so far.

I have noticed a few collision detection issues. I have also been floating in air by some of the grey blocks, the stairway chapter level it happened a few times. On the early level with all those buzzsaws; the ones moving across the top, bottom and sides, I thought I gave myself a few pixels space but get hit.

As the coin collecting is important to getting a star on a level I would have liked a guide to how many coins I still needed.

Not sure if intential or not, on chapter 8, that bleeding chainsaw level, space is tight and I was bouncing back off platforms where space was tight. It might have been due to the limited space and when the jump button was pressed it was going into wall jump mode...which is something I am still trying to get used to.

If I restart the whole level, from the pause menu, I thought my lost lifes counter would reset to zero but it didn't on chapter 12.


Sorry, for the nitpicking.
 

galvatron

Member
Oh, and the coin thing. Going for high-scores in a game that didn’t even really track them was kind of absurd, but
I couldn’t help myself. It was just so satisfying.

Ha, I was that way with Bubsy back in the day.

*watches trailer up until pandas collide and explode*

SOLD
 

VanWinkle

Member
It still amazes me that some people don't have their Xboxes constantly online. I appreciate why it's not always possible, but when my Xbox can't connect to live I can't even bring myself to turn it on. It feels like half a console!

I have the old console, and I don't wire anything from the house since the router is about 40 feet from my entertainment center and I hate wires. 360 didn't have WiFi so I just never turn the thing on. I loved the first game but I don't feel like buying one of those overpriced adapters to go online to play it.
 

Trumpets

Member
Pookmunki said:
Trumpets - I'm getting a serious Sufjan Stevens vibe from the music, you a fan?

I've heard of him (?) but never heard the music. I'll have a listen later.

This Eden did most of the music, and as qupe said you'll find a link in the credits (it's worth getting to the end of the game for a nice musical suprise)!

qupe1975 said:
The game is Apple Jack mixed with Super Meatboy. It's a damn sight harder than the first.

Trumpets I feel bad commenting on any flaws, I am still enjoying the game and it's cracking value. Played the first 15 chapters so far.

I have noticed a few collision detection issues. I have also been floating in air by some of the grey blocks, the stairway chapter level it happened a few times. On the early level with all those buzzsaws; the ones moving across the top, bottom and sides, I thought I gave myself a few pixels space but get hit.

As the coin collecting is important to getting a star on a level I would have liked a guide to how many coins I still needed.

Not sure if intential or not, on chapter 8, that bleeding chainsaw level, space is tight and I was bouncing back off platforms where space was tight. It might have been due to the limited space and when the jump button was pressed it was going into wall jump mode...which is something I am still trying to get used to.

If I restart the whole level, from the pause menu, I thought my lost lifes counter would reset to zero but it didn't on chapter 12.


Sorry, for the nitpicking.

No, don't worry, I really want to hear about any faults for patches and the PC version. The 'floating near grey blocks' thing is a known bug which I couldn't bloody get rid of without breaking all the block hit detection - I'll take another look at it. I hadn't noticed the saw-blade hit circle being too tight but I can dial it down no problem.

Chapter 8 was pointed out as being too hard in playtesting so I made it a bit easier - but not enough obviously! I can see that it's a bit too cramped still.

And yes, if you lose a life IT STAYS ON YOUR RECORD! MWA HA HA HA HA!
 

qupe1975

Neo Member
I've heard of him (?) but never heard the music. I'll have a listen later.

Chapter 8 was pointed out as being too hard in playtesting so I made it a bit easier - but not enough obviously! I can see that it's a bit too cramped still.

And yes, if you lose a life IT STAYS ON YOUR RECORD! MWA HA HA HA HA!

Could you look at adding a count for the coins you've got/need? It's one of the requirements for the stars so it would be useful.
 
And yes, if you lose a life IT STAYS ON YOUR RECORD! MWA HA HA HA HA!

I think the problem with that is that people will just exit to the main menu to restart a no-death run. And if they're able to do that, you may as well just reset the deaths if they go back to the start from the pause menu 'cause you're just making extra work for the player.

In level 24, one of the enemies got caught outside the box and I hit a checkpoint that made it impossible to finish without restarting. Might be worth having a switch at the end that makes the box disappear, just in case that happens.
 
Top Bottom