Using a ’power meter’ to gauge your character’s actions is nothing new, and it has most commonly been used in artillery games like Scorched Earth or Worms. The idea is pretty simple, requiring players to hold the button until they think the gauge is at the right spot for the shot power/velocity they want, then let go and see if they turned out to be correct. QQ#2 The Flea (That’s not an inexplicable string of typos, it’s really called that) takes that same idea and applies it to jumping, which could have been the basis of an amazing game. You guide a cartoon-style flea through a series of platforming stages, gathering items and avoiding enemies in order to reach the next level.
QQ#2 The Flea has some great ideas on display, with a cute and colorful world joined by a game premise that is very easy to understand. All you need to do is jump around from platform to platform while making sure you don’t run into enemies since a single touch usually results in you being sent back to the start of the stage. Your character can’t fight back directly, but he is aided by two things: A series of items that can temporarily grant new powers or destroy enemies, and an ability to bounce off walls. Much of the challenge lies in figuring out which angle to launch The Flea at, and how hard to do so. He can clear impressive distances in a single jump, and he comes incredibly close to being a fun character to play as.
So what went wrong? The controls. Figuring out how far The Flea will go on any given jump is pretty hard to figure out, and using a ’power gauge’ for this means that a single mistake in timing can send you leaping much further or faster than you intended. Unfortunately, this game’s level design is very rough and that same mistake could cause you to fall all the way back to the beginning of the stage or hit an enemy (which will also restart the level). This isn’t a case of it happening occasionally... it comes up very often, and after the first few stages things get much harder. Many of these stages also require you to gather several keys before you can move on, so you’ll be making multiple hard jumps in a row.
This leaves QQ#2 The Flea standing beside games such as I Want To Be The Guy or Super Meat Boy, standing out as a rather difficult platformer where success is gained only by a lot of trial and error. However, QQ#2 The Flea does the opposite of what its peers do. Where they mitigate intentionally brutal stage design with great controls, this game ruins what would be reasonable stages by giving them terrible controls. You’ll probably be more frustrated than satisfied by the time you finish a stage, and that’s not the effect that a very hard platforming game should have on the player.
Ultimately, it’s hard to recommend this game for purchase. It only costs €7.77, which current conversion rates place at roughly $10.50 USD, but there is a lot of competition in this genre at that price or less. QQ#2 The Flea has lots of great ideas and could have been a top-notch game, but when your entire premise is built around jumping and said jumps are unreasonably difficult to do... it ends up being an unfortunate waste of so much potential.
Game Website (offers a free demo): Mandanga Games - QQ#2 The Flea
67 days ago
Hi. I have played the game and do not think controls are so bad. At the begining is not easy to understand the controls but there is a learning curve. It is not trial and error but a matter of practice and skill.
I see this game is a competition of mastering the jumping skills.
I do think the character (The Flea) is good fun to play as. My favorite stage is the underwater one.
cheers