Bonus livestream of "Jill Goes Underground" by Tim Sweeney (1992). Originally streamed on May 6th, 2023
Our 2nd foray into Jill of the Jungle with Anna Anthropy as special guest. This was only my 2nd time playing the game's second episode, so I didn't really recall what to expect!
For the most part, it's very good! There's a lot of ZZT-vibes to be had. You've got adapting existing parts to recycle for other things like using frogs as a timer to press buttons. There's a lot of just having fun with the editor spelling out "TIM". Some really unexpected doubling-back on routes in the final level where all those lava pits become accessible once Jill is in phoenix form, and it's all presented as one continuous journey with levels acting more as checkpoints. Oh, and another fantastic ending sequence told in a really impressive manner.
The only issue is the difficulty! A few levels can be somewhat challenging, though not impossibly so, but as Jill ventures through Heck you can't help but wonder what the deal is with these flying demons that take something like a dozen hits to take down. To help mitigate some of this, the game is nice enough to let you keep your keys upon death and even does a good job closing off paths to areas you don't need to explore again should you die.
The music remains impressive.
Part 3... hopefully not too far off.
