Fireboy and Watergirl-style Games

The classic rooms: lava, pools, levers and a red and a blue door.

Fireboy & Watergirl in The Light Temple

Fireboy and Watergirl: Ice Temple

Fireboy and Watergirl: Forest Temple Game

Fireboy and Watergirl 4 Crystal Temple Game

Fireboy and Watergirl 4 Crystal Temple

Fireboy and Watergirl: Forest Temple

Two elements, one keyboard

The games here are fan-made and inspired titles from licensed third-party providers; none is an official release of the original series, and nothing on this hub is affiliated with or endorsed by its creators. What they copy is one of the best two-player ideas the browser ever had. Two characters share a temple: one is made of fire and walks through lava but dies in water, the other is made of water and swims but dies in lava, and both are killed by the green goo. Each level is a room of platforms, pools, levers, pushable boxes, mirrors and moving lifts that can only be crossed by using both characters, because the fire one must hold a switch while the water one crosses the pool it opens. Every level ends with two doors, red and blue, and the exit opens only when each character stands at its own.

The label collects every game whose title uses the pair's names, the fire-and-water phrase or the one-word variant. The fan games are honest about what they are: the same rules in a new temple, a forest, an island, an ice cave or a world full of zombies and dinosaurs, sometimes with the pair redrawn as stick figures or blocky avatars, and they do not retell anything because the original never had a story to retell. What they keep is the thing that matters, the fact that neither character can finish a room alone, and a level that can be solved by one of them without the other is a level the fan studio got wrong. The two player games hub is the wider shelf for one-keyboard co-op across every genre, and platformer games the home for the jump-and-climb underneath, with a single hero and no partner to wait for.

Categories:2 PlayerPlatformer

Solo, co-op and what the levels ask

The games are built for two people at one keyboard, with the arrow keys for one character and WASD for the other, and that is how they are best. Played alone, you switch between the pair and the puzzle becomes a sequencing problem: park the fire character on the switch, walk the water character across, then find a way to bring the fire one over too. Both ways are legitimate, and the solo version is a proper puzzle game while the co-op version is a conversation. Levels start as simple walks and grow into rooms where a box must be pushed onto a plate, a beam of light redirected through mirrors and a lift timed so both characters ride it together, and the gems scattered across the room are the optional score.

Fan variants change the theme more than the rules. A forest temple adds vines and rope bridges that sway, an island adds tides that rise and fall on a timer and a survival flavor of collecting supplies, an ice cave adds slippery floors that carry a jump farther than intended, and the crystal or light temples add mirror puzzles where a beam has to be bent through several angles to reach a sensor before a door opens. A few titles swap the pair for stickmen or blocky avatars, one or two turn it into a ball-rolling course, and a handful add a third element or a monster that patrols a corridor. The puzzle side of the genre, with its switches, plates and order-of-operations thinking, sits close to escape games and puzzle games, and the physical side, with its timed jumps over lava and goo and its lifts that must be caught, belongs beside obstacle games.

Categories:EscapePuzzle

Keys, phones and who it suits

A keyboard is the natural home. On a desktop the two sets of keys give each player a side, the space bar is rarely needed, and a level takes a couple of minutes once the idea is clear, though the later rooms can take a good while of talking before the first move. On a phone the games offer on-screen arrows for the active character and a button to switch, which works for the solo way of playing but makes the co-op version awkward, since two thumbs on one small screen collide and block the view; a tablet flat on a table with a player on each side is the mobile compromise, and it works better than it sounds. Nothing installs, no account is needed, and level progress saves in the browser, so a temple can be finished across several sittings and a level that stumped you can be returned to after a night's sleep.

The shelf suits children and grown-ups equally, and it is one of the few genres where a parent and a child play as real partners rather than one watching the other, because the puzzle needs two minds as much as two sets of keys. Nothing fights back, a death is a restart from the door and the goo is the only real hazard, so young players are safe with it; the later mirror levels ask for genuine planning that older players enjoy, and the gem count gives a completionist something to chase. The adventure games hub has the story-led platformers with one hero and a longer arc, water games the pools-and-currents puzzles without the fire half, and stickman games the variants where the pair has been swapped for a couple of stick figures with the same two doors.

Categories:Adventure