Fireboy and Watergirl

Last updated
Fireboy and Watergirl
Fireboy and Watergirl.jpeg
Cover art for the first game
Genre(s) Puzzle-platform
Developer(s) Oslo Albet
Platform(s) Browser
First releaseFireboy and Watergirl in the Forest Temple
November 2009
Latest releaseFireboy and Watergirl: Fairy Tales
November 1, 2021

Fireboy and Watergirl (stylized as Fireboy & Watergirl) is a puzzle-platform video game series created by indie game developer Oslo Albet and released in 2009. The first four games in the series were released on the now defunct software platform Adobe Flash and later converted to HTML5.

Contents

Gameplay

Fireboy and Watergirl is a cooperative puzzle-platform game. [1] Fireboy can be moved by using the arrow keys and Watergirl can be moved using the WAD keys. [1] Fireboy can only go through fire whereas only Watergirl can go through water. If either Fireboy or Watergirl touch the opposite element, they will die and the level will have to be restarted. Green acid can kill both characters, and should also be avoided. Red and blue diamonds can be collected by players, and mechanisms like levers and buttons will have to be operated carefully in order for both characters to complete the level. Once a level is completed, a chart depicting how many diamonds were collected throughout the level will be revealed to the player(s), as well as their rank. [1]

Development

Oslo Albet said that he developed Fireboy and Watergirl because he had "always found puzzle games to be fascinating". [2] He finalized the game mechanics before creating the characters as he was more interested in the gameplay. [2] Albet said it was "pretty obvious" that he required two characters with opposing elements for the game to feel natural to players and designed Fireboy first before spending "quite a bit of time" finding the right design for Watergirl. [2] After several changes, he designed Watergirl's "waterfall" ponytail to counter Fireboy's fiery hair. [2] He added that when developing the story and characters he knew that they had to appeal to "boys, girls and families as a whole". [2]

Release

The first game in the series, Fireboy and Watergirl in the Forest Temple, was released in November 2009 on the software platform Adobe Flash and hosted on the online web portal Cool Math Games as the games' target demographic were people aged 10-15 years old. [1] [2] In June 2019, it was rumoured that Cool Math Games would be shutting down as Adobe Flash was set to be discontinued in 2020 but the company confirmed that they would continue to operate and Flash games such as Fireboy and Watergirl were later converted into HTML5. [3] [1]

The fifth game in the series, Fireboy and Watergirl: Elements, was released on Microsoft Store on December 9, 2018, [4] later on Google Play on December 20, 2018, [5] Apple App Store sometime in 2018 [6] and Steam on January 24, 2019. [7]

The sixth game in the series, Fireboy and Watergirl: Fairy Tales, was released on Steam on November 1, 2021. [8]

Reception

GamerBolt praised the pacing of the game by stating that the "too-easy" introductory levels did not take too long to complete before the game became more challenging. [9] They stated that the game was "extremely well-executed" and there was a "decent number of levels" which meant the game potentially had several hours of gameplay. [9] However, they stated that it did not necessarily have the complexity or the longevity to compete with other 2D platforming games such as Spelunky or Super Meat Boy . [9]

Daria Paterek of Impact cited Fireboy and Watergirl as a game that made her "fall in love with gaming" and praised the games' replay value as each new instalment has levels of varying difficulty and takes place in a distinct setting such as a forest, a desert and during winter. [10] Nicole Clark of Polygon described the game as a "classic" and said that playing it "feels like traveling back in time". [1] Clark stated that fans of Fireboy and Watergirl had found characters in Pixar's Elemental to be similar in design, though she said that elemental characters were not a novel idea citing Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl as examples. [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Clark, Nicole (May 17, 2022). "Pixar's Elemental characters remind fans of classic platformer Fireboy and Watergirl". Polygon. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Playing with friends equals gaming success". MCV. July 2, 2013. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  3. ↑ Harbison, Cammy (June 3, 2019). "No, Cool Math Games Isn't Shutting Down: Company Confirms Adobe Flash 2020 Shutdown Won't Kill The Site". Newsweek. Archived from the original on January 4, 2021. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  4. ↑ "Fireboy & Watergirl: Elements on Microsoft Store". Microsoft. Retrieved October 11, 2024.
  5. ↑ "Fireboy & Watergirl: Elements on Google Play". Google Play. Retrieved October 11, 2024.
  6. ↑ "Fireboy & Watergirl: Elements on App Store". App Store. Retrieved October 11, 2024.
  7. ↑ "Fireboy & Watergirl: Elements on Steam". Steam. Retrieved October 11, 2024.
  8. ↑ "Fireboy & Watergirl: Fairy Tales on Steam". Steam. Archived from the original on January 21, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  9. 1 2 3 "Fireboy and Watergirl Review". GamerBolt. September 22, 2017. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  10. ↑ "Reflecting On Video Games That Made Me A 'Gamer'". Impact. March 30, 2022. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
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