The long delayed update to A Koopa's Revenge 2 is finally here:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/646067

The update includes: improved player control, better balanced powerups with new abilities, new skins for the bosses, new medals, a bunch of bug fixes, lots of new graphics, and more.

It's been exactly three years since the game came out. I made a lot of compromises to get the game finished back then, and this update seeks to bring the game closer to my initial vision. I didn't get everything in that I wanted, but I think the game is mechanically where it needs to be (minus any new bugs) and I'm proud of it. There will be a 2.1 update to fix any bugs that need testing, make some more graphical changes, and add an in-game medals display. That probably won't be out for a while though. I'm all koopa'd out and I need a break, unless I need to do a hotfix.

I want to thank all the v2.0 beta testers, and even the people who just said one thing and then buggered off. Every bit helps. Special thanks to AmericaCaptitan, TelFy, and supersonic6411 for being such dedicated testers. Sorry if I got short with anybody these last few days, it's been kinda stressful.

And if you're not sold on the game, here's the teaser:

Thanks for playing.

A Koopa's Revenge 2 version 2.0 is coming out in less than a day, and I've uploaded another version of the beta. It should be mechanically identical to the release version I'll be ptting up tomorrow. I still have a few sound effects to make, and some more graphical changes, but it's otherwise the final product.

I'll be doing a 2.1 to fix any new bugs, add universal medal support with an ingame display, and make a few more cosmetic changes I didn't quite have time to do before the deadline.

That's all for now.

I've uploaded the next beta for 2.0.

Beta Link: http://www.newgrounds.com/projects/games/528371/preview

If you're not seeing the new version, you may need to force a refresh, or clear your cache, which can erase your save file. Sorry again.

New stuff includes:

• Changes to the pink switch and Koopa's pink form.
• Changes to the swimming physics and animation, especially witht the water flower. (Water flower continues to receive buffs)
• Morebug fixes.
• Burgerstein and FSM finally have their new skins, and both have some minor fight changes, especially Burgerstein.
• Ghostly waving fireball attacks.

At this point I'm initiating a feature freeze. For two reasons: 1 I don't want to get caught up and leave something unfinished, and 2 I don't want to introduce new bugs. Nothing new will be added to the game until after v2.0 releases unless already planned. Bugs will still be fixed.

Changes coming before release:

• New map sprites to match the new appearances.
• Tooltips for the new options. And correcting incorrect tooltips.
• New page in the credits for v2.0 beta testers.
• New Medals.
• Various small graphics changes.
• Changes to the mechanics for picking up and throwing mini marios (to match greg-eggs)
• Fix the key glitching on moving platforms (it's been on my to do list for ages)
• Sound effects for new pink switch.

The bad news is I'm going to have to postpone universal medal availability. I'm running low on time, and making an in-game medals display is proving to be more complicated than I anticipated.

That's all for now.

I've uploaded another beta. In the same place as the old one.

Beta Link

First thing to note is that old save backups won't import 100% right. This is because I eliminated the difficulty options, making the data 4 chracters shorter. Sorry about that. Bt the good news is I believe I've got it working right.

If you're not seeing the new version, you may need to force a refresh, or clear your cache, which can erase your save file. Sorry again. You can tell whether it's the newer version based on the location of the credits button on the main menu. The new version has the button above the "Prerelease v2.0" text.

Major changes include:

• New skin for Saladro boss. The old skin also has updated artwork.
• Changes to Saladro's behaviour. Carrots now come out of the floor, and have a longer lag between warning and attack. His radish-arm attacks are also changed.
• New art and animations for some of Goomba and Shy guy's powerup states.
• Greg-Egg behave more like koopa shells (in official Mario games) rather than vegetables.
• Fixed pretty much all the bugs reported.

Thanks to all the testers who are reporting bugs and opinions. I hope to see more.

Full (incomplete) v2.0 Changelog

Reported Bugs List

This is a post to put bug reports for the AKR2v2.0 beta. Just so I don't get the same reports repeatedly.

• Certain enemies[+ show the wrong enemy death when killed by invincible/screw attack. Status: Ongoing. I'll need to go around and kill every enemy to test them.
• Jumping to your death just before giant mario punches through the tower causes it to disappear. Status: Fixed for next update. 
• Rush stays suspended in the air after final Mario destroys the platform. Status: Fixed for next update.
• Spiny (Sonic) jump state overrides space jump and/or screw attack. Status: Fixed for next update.
• Pressing L+R to reenter a Switch Palace doesn't work using control scheme 6. Status: Fixed for next update.

Already fixed in current beta build:

• Piranha Shrooms become motionless without hitboxes instead of dieing. My bad, I forgot to include an animation for the "knocked" death state after I changed some reactions. If they get killed by invincibility, shellsliding, or wing attacks. 
• Imported saves not overwriting Enemies Killed or Coins Collected counts. Most of the options aren't importing properly. 
• Pink Bob-ombs stay in above your head when you try to throw them.
• Enemies knocked into the air when killed get stuck near untriggered invisible blocks.
• Running at P-speed overrides holding object animation.
• Shy Guy can't look up when standing on ice.
• You can get stuck in a gap in the semifinal room of 3-4 by jumping into it and holding down. 
• Getting damaged in a shiny egg shellslide/maskride/goomball form doesn't revert to the regular animation.
• Jumping to your death in the room before Final Mario caused the camera to glitch.

Hello, peoples.

I'm releasing a revised version of my game, A Koopa's Revenge 2. It's a big update that polishes the game and fixes lingering bugs. I would have liked to have it done ages ago, but I had some mental health problems (long, private story) that prevented me from getting this done in a timely fashion.

The update includes more balanced powerups, upgraded artwork, improved physics, new skins for the first five bosses, a system for importing and exporting saves, and more.

Full AKR2 Changelog Here

Anyway, I'm looking for volunteer testers. Everyone with an NG account is approved to view the beta. I mostly need dedicated testers who can beat the whole game and seek out bugs and inconsistencies, but I'd also love to hear from someone who's never played the game before.

List of Known Bugs

For those dedicated testers, these are the things I'm most concerned with:

• The importing and exporting of save files. If something isn't working properly, let me know so I can fix it before release.
• Any inconsistencies in enemy behaviour or reactions to weapons. I changed the way a lot of weapons work, and how enemies react to them, and I want to be sure everything is in line. Tell me if an enemy uses a depreciated death animation for instance.
• Testing the new physics. How does it feel? Is platforming easier, or harder? Is it possible to get stuck somewhere?
• Did I forget to put something in the changelog? I didn't start logging everything until a while after I started this project, and I'm sure I just forgot some things.
• Are there any graphics you feel aren't up to the standard set by the rest of the game.
• Any ideas for medals? I have a few of my own, but I'd like to have a ton.

The update is due September 16. Exactly three years since the game first released. I'll probably do some more smaller updates after that, in case something isn't ready on time, or more bugs pop up.

Beta Link for A Koopa's Revenge 2 v2.0

Thaks for reading and/or testing.

This is the changelog for A Koopa's Revenge version 2.0. I'm keeping it here so beta testers can tell me if I missed anything. Also any NG user can beta test.

SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!!

A Koopa's Revenge Version 2.0 Change Log
Performance:

• Removed filters from fireballs and firebars.
• Eliminated rendering of many offscreen objects.
• Removed filters from the whale graphic.

Difficulty and Balance Changes:

• You can no longer die in the spiked area of the tutorial room.
• Infinite Up adds 1% to completion percentage, making a total of 107%
• Umbreltar takes more hits from projectiles before being defeated.
• Water flowers now appear in ice levels. (Because they increase traction)
• Pipemo and Bricklets have a brief delay with animation before they attack.
• Falling beams slide down slowly before falling quickly and dropping the player.
• Bees don't require you to be as high to stomp them.
• Removed some pits from the start of 1-1.
• Slight alteration to the second half of 5-3 to make platforming easier.
• Changed terrain in 4-5 so you can't skip the Yoshi puzzle by walljumping.
• Saldadro's carrot attack now comes up from the ground and has increased startup lag.
• Slowed down Saladro's turnip arm swaying so they're easier to jump on.
• The exit to the Crashed Airship is now a hole in the ground with an exit sign.
• Several parts of 4-3 were changed to be slightly easier.
• Removed ceilings/walls from in between the rooms if the Fire Mario boss.
• Fire Mario's fireballs disappear when he panics and rockets away.
• Conveyor belts in the Burgerstein boss room speed reduced from 90px/s to 30px/s. To compensate sliders can harm the player again.
• Magic shapes/fireballs in 5-3 slowed down 20%.
• The objects Burgerstein rains from the ceiling now have a tell to show where they fall, and have twice as much time between objects falling.

Movement and Powerups:

• Added P-Speed. After running for a certain length the character will raise his arms and can jump slighty higher. In addition, the standard running jump height is now achieved at a slower speed.
• Holding up -- or down while airborne --- will change the trajectory of projectile attacks.
• Vegetables and other held objects can similarly be thrown at different angles.
• Fireballs turn into bubbles filled with smoke when submerged in water. These bubbles are boyant and will float up rather than falling. Reaching the water's surfaces turns bubbles back into fireballs.
• Jumping with the Spiny Flower performs a spinning attack that can defeat enemies from all sides, as well as letting you jump on armoured enemies. (This gives the powerup more utility)
• Bones [and their skinned alternatives] move like boomerangs instead of flying in a hammer's projectile arc. They also collect coins.
• Boo Flower allows ghostly characters to throw purple fireballs that defy gravity in a wave pattern.
• Turning around on ice without jumping is much more difficult. (To make the Water Flower more useful)
• You can't change direction after jumping, and it takes longer to reach maximum speed when jumping backwards.
• Picking up vegetables and whale teeth takes 1/6 of a second rather than being instant.
• Water power allows you to slide down walls slower than normal, as well as jump off them at a higher angle.
• Swimming with water power works more like the SMB3 frog suit. Steer with the arrow keys, press jump for fast acceleration.
• Upon reachng the surface of the water the player will cling to it until you press jump to get out, or sink back down. You will no longer bob in and out of the water.
• Holding up and then jumping from the ground while underwater results in a super powered jump toward the surface.

Enemy Mechanics:

• Coins created from defeated terrestrial enemies will hop into the air with a random horizontal speed and are affected by gravity instead of floating. (Like Super Mario World)
• Coins from defeated airborne enemies have wings, and will float away if not collected soon enough.
• Enemies defeated via invincibility get knocked into the air instead of poofing.
• Sharky the Whale receives damage from projectiles.
• Greg-Eggs no longer act like vegetables when thrown. Instead they can be carried kicked around to defeat other enemies.

Menus, Options and HUD:

• Gradient backgrounds can be deactivated for smoother video capture.
• Spare Item box moved to the top centre of the screen. (To match SMW)
• Reordered the main menu to let players get to the game sooner.
• Save games can now be backed up by exporting and importing them as plain text.
• Credits on the main menu has been shrunk down to a mouse only option in the corner.
• The key assigned to the Spare Item box is displayed when the player has no powerup but the box contains a powerup.
• Variable text fields representing lives and coins have been changed to stylized graphics. Italics removed.
• Baby Mario kill count changed from numerical text field and graphic to purely graphical display.
• Removed "Difficulty Options" as they were pretty useless.
• Customised medal get popup.
• Medal graphic backgrounds changed to blue. Many redrawn.

Player Character Cosmetic Changes:

• Improved baby kicking animation for Koopa.
• Pink Koopa is now a dragon-turtle instead of just having wings on his head. His statue form is a dragon statue.
• Yellow Koopa has black eyes to distinguish him more.
• Black Koopa has a Hammer Bros' head.
• Improved Koopa's animation for entering doors.
• Goomba now features shading to give him more depth and be more in line with the other skins' quality.
• Fire Goomba is now red like some goombas in SMB3. (The old colour scheme didn't make much sense)
• Lightnng Goomba is now a light bulb.
• Boo Goomba has been redesigned.
• Goomba's machetes have been replaced by spinning tomahawks. (Because they're boomerangs now) The machete is strapped to his back.
• Double hit Goomba is made of chocolate, with appropriate shield.
• Hammer Goomba is a Darth Vader helmet that throws lightmallets. Goomball form is the Death Star.
• Several of Shy Guy's forms have differently coloured shoes.
• Fire Shy Guy has been updated to better resemble a Flame Guy from Yoshi's Island.
• Meta Knight Shy Guy now flies using his wings rather than a cape to fly. Includes a new running animation.
• Shy Guy's Phanto mask has a red side and a beige side. (Like in SMB2)
• Shy Guy's chainsaws have been replaced by spinning buzzsaw blades. (Because they're boomerangs now)
• Water Shy Guy now wears a cuba mask (over his regular mask) and has a scuba tank on his back.
• New swimming animation for Water Shy Guy.
• Holding up will cause Koopa and Goomba to look upward in most animations.
• Increased size of Spiny Egg roll attack to match new abilities.
• Removed Boo Ball roll sprite because it served no purpose.
• When turning around at high speeds the player character kicks up dust clouds.
• Added animation for plucking vegetables and other whale teeth.
• Map sprites updated to match in game appearances.

Enemy Cosmetic Changes:

• Spiny Shrooms have a new walk cycle.
• New outlined poof cloud death.
• Unique cloud for enemies felled by lightning bolts.
• Most enemies explode on impact with fireballs instead of turning into piles of ash.
• Dirt Diggers have open their eyes to look aroundbefore the player gets too close.
• A flurry of dirt clods is released when Dirt Diggers jump out of the ground, and when they are defeated.
• Drill pillars from the pyramid have been altered to add depth and animate when moving.
• Firebars become spiked balls under water.

Boss Cosmetic Changes:

• Dan's gadokens have a new animation.
• Dan has been given a victory pose.
• If you fight Dan, Zangief will replace Monstario as the final boss's second form.
• Umbreltar doesn't turn completely red or white during his laser attack. Filters removed from laser itself.
• New mushroom themed skins for Popmo, Saladro, Umbreltar, and Burgerstein.
• Redrew most of Saladro. Turnip arms are anchored lower and further apart.
• Redrew Fire Mario so he loks more on-model.
• Fire Mario doesn't rocket away after 4th defeat.
• Redrew and or added detail to parts of Burgerstein.
• Doubled the number of inbetweens in most of FSM's tentacles.

Environmental Cosmetic Changes:

• The player and most enemies appear in front of quicksand.
• Barber pole stage exits are now yellow and green if previously cleared.
• Dirt Diggers' holes are rounded instead of blocky.
• ! Blocks and Switches were redrawn to appear shinier.
• Redrew palm trees in 2-2 and 2-A.
• Desert pillars resemble pipes instead of using a gradient texture. This puts them more in line with the rest of the game.
• Mario statues have added shading.
• Tufts of grass and bunches of flowers dry up when hit by fireballs instead of turning to ash. They can be shredded by boomerang attacks.
• Added more detail and animation to conveyor belts.
• Vegetables no longer rotate before they hit an enemy. Vegetables appearance slightly changed.

Miscellaneous:

• Pink Power Petal replaced by Dragon's Eye Scale. Effects are the same.
• Pink switch room replaced with themed outdoor dragon shrines.
• Added 30 new flower faces for a total of 41.
• Added 4 new medals.

Bug Fixes:

• Pausing will hault the movement (and noise) from spiral pillars.
• Bloodshed cheat now maintains status as unlocked when saving with it turned off.
• Fireballs now bounce off slopes instead of passing through them.
• Rolling logs can be stepped on as soon as they are visible.
• Sharky the Whale returns from death after ten seconds pass instead of when the point where he was killed leaves the screen.
• Collecting a powerup and using the reserve item at the same time no longer deletes and item.
• Hint Boos option now saves properly.
• Getting hurt while charging a spindash will now cancel the spindash
• Saladro's wind attack no longer pins the player to the wall. You can run to escape it instead of needing to walljump.
• Thwomp-stomping hurts the Flying Spaghetti Monster instead of bouncing on him.
• Holding sideways to fall off a ladder no longer works if you're climbing up or down.
• Dry Bones is immune to Umbreltar's acid rain, like all other acid.
• Player cannot turn around while in baby-kicking animation.
• The jump button must be pressed after ducking to initiate a spindash.
• Fire Mario no longer hamrs the player while rocketing away.

Welcome to the second in a series of blogs wherein I discuss ideas for A Koopa’s Revenge 3. Last time we discussed a system of combining powerups. Today I’m presenting an alternate idea for powerups.

Unlike AKR2 which used player-character skins, in AKR3 each playable character will have slightly different physics and abilities, making them distinct from one another. For instance, Shy Guy will have low traction and higher jumps, like Luigi. I’m going to extend these differences to how each powerup affects each character.

For the first example let’s use the fire flower. In AKR2 every character threw fireballs like Mario. But in AKR3 Koopa will use the fire flower to breathe out flames like in the original A Koopa’s Revenge. Piranha Plant’s fireballs ignore gravity and diagonally bounce off surfaces like in Super Mario Land. And so on.

Though each character utilises the powerup in different ways, the attacks will have the same effect on enemies. Fire will burn some enemies and glance of others no matter which character wields it. This is to keep some consistency between characters. I also hope to balance these different attack methods to be sure every character is useful with every powerup.

This applies to movement powerups in addition to offensive ones. The flight-based powerup will give Koopa wings, but Shy Guy gets a propeller on his head, making him a Fly Guy. This affects their jumping ability. Koopa can jump higher and float gently when he falls. Again, like in the original AKR. Fly Guy will behave like the propeller suit from New Super Mario Bros. with a double jump of sorts.

Another reason I’m making this change (other than it just being cool) is to make the attacks match the appearance of the character. Shy Guy’s hammer bro equivalent has the appearance of a Snifit, but in AKR2 he just throws hammers. In AKR3 Snifit Shy Guy will spit iron balls out of his nose-cannon.

After a lot of consideration I decided to use this idea instead of the one presented in the last AKR3 Idea Blog. This blog’s idea opens up a lot of gameplay possibilities and should add replayability to the game. While last week’s idea has some serious cool factor, it exhausts itself pretty quickly, requires a ton of unique assets (particularly if combined with this blog’s idea), and it actually limits how many powerups there can be by requiring them to be combinable. Sorry to all the fans of Kirby 64.

Welcome to a new series wherein I discuss and detail ideas for the upcoming A Koopa’s Revenge 3. First I’ll be talking about an idea I’m probably not going to use but I think is interesting anyway: combining of powerups.

The idea is pretty simple, at least as an idea. You take powerup A and combine it with powerup B to create powerup AB a la Kirby 64. powerup AB would combine the aspects of both powerups into on super powerup.

For instance, koopa combing the winged power with fire power would become a koopa that can flap it’s wings and shoot fireballs with a spin attack. It gets a little more complicated when you combine two projectile powers though. Combining fire and hammer to get flaming hammers sounds cool, but their behaviour needs to be determined. In this case the flaming hammers might throw in a normal hammer arc but bounce upon hitting the ground like a fireball. And the flaming hammer wouldn’t be destroyed on contact with an enemy like a fireball.

As cool as it sounds I ultimately decided not to use it for two reasons. First, it would require a huge amount of art assets to have a different appearance for each combination for every playable character, as I won’t be using simple palette swaps. Second is that it conflicts with a different idea I have for powerups which I’ll be talking about in the next AK3 Idea Blog.

Just thought I'd mention that I didn't die last year. I had some anxiety issues and I had to sort of quit the internet for a while. But I'm back now, and ready to work on games and cartoons again. Thanks to everybody who still cares what I'm doing.