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Oodlegobs Test Subject Arena 2 Cheese Dreams: New Moon

Test Subject Arena 2 is an arena shooter game that was released on October 16th 2013. It was first announced by Nitrome on August 14th 2013. The game is a sequel to Test Subject Arena, and is the second spin off in the Test Subject series. This game, on release, was Nitrome Touchy compatible for up to four people and features a new single player mode.

A HTML5 port of the game was released on Nitrome.com on November 11th, 2022[1].

Controls[]

Player 1/2
W key / Up - Jump, crouch (as Rex209 Professor or Rex209 Blue on a ceiling), move up (menus)
A key / Left - Move left (gameplay/menus)
D key / Right - Move right (gameplay/menus)
S key / Down - Crouch, drop down (as Rex209 Professor or Rex209 Blue on a ceiling), move down (menus)
Q key / Question key - Use weapon, use melee attack (when near another player), select character (on character selection screen)
Space - Select (menus)

Player 3/4 (Nitrome Touchy only)
D-pad - Move
Button one - Jump
Button two - Shoot

Gameplay[]

Single-player mode[]

Upon selecting one character from the character selection screen and continuing (pressing the Right button), the player is taken to a custom made stage for that player, with the objective of destroying forty targets in fifteen seconds. Two types of targets are encountered in these levels: a regular target and a key card. Regular targets (referred to here as just targets) are destroyed with a single bullet from the player, or a melee attack, and add two seconds to the player's time.

The second type of targets are key cards, which appear uncommonly and cannot be destroyed, but still have to be eliminated. In order to be eliminated, the player has to go up to them and physically touch them. Although they take up more time to destroy (they are unable to be destroyed from a distance, unlike regular targets), they add five seconds to the player's timer. As soon as the level starts, a target is placed at a certain point of the level, which the player has to eliminate. As soon as it is eliminated, another target will pop up in other part of the level.

Nitrome has stated that they made single player levels "fairly hard".[2]

If the player manages to destroy all the targets, an avatar with a picture corresponding to the character played with will be awarded.

General strategies[]

  • Fired projectiles (bullets) move faster than the player, and also will go into and out of teleporters. With this in mind, the player should shoot projectiles at far away targets that they can hit, instead of walking close to the target and shooting it.
  • If the player is a projectile shooting character, they should shoot at far away targets instead of going close up to them. If they do this, while the bullet is heading towards the destructible target, the player should head to where the next target will be.
  • The player should only focus on destroying the targets and not pay attention to the remaining time they have left or how many targets hey have left to destroy.

Multi-player mode[]

Two players[]

In two player multiplayer mode, the objective of each level is to deplete the opposing player of all their points. Each level has multiple spawn points, chosen at random for the player to spawn. Levels are made up of an infinite amount of rounds. At the start of each round, the two combatants are spawned with the objective to kill the other. Players take one hit to kill, and upon one player dying, that player loses two points while the opposing player gains two points, and the round ends.

Once a round ends, another round commences, and the two players are assigned to different spawn points. This continues on until one player has lost all of their points. In order for a round to end, only one player has to die, and this death does not have to have been done by the opposing player; the player can kill him/herself by shooting him/herself with their own projectile, or by being killed by the The Machine (in the levels where it appears).

Two player multiplayer mode can either be played with both players using a computer's keyboard, both using Nitrome Touchy, or one using a keyboard while one uses Nitrome Touchy.

Three/four players[]

The only difference three/four player multiplayer has from two player multiplayer is the controls players can use and the combinations.

Three player multiplayer can either be played with two players using a computer's keyboard while one uses Nitrome Touchy, or two use Nitrome Touchy while one uses a computer's keyboard, or all three use Nitrome Touchy. Four player multiplayer can either be played with two players using a single keyboard while the remaining two use Nitrome Touchy, three use Touchy while one uses a keyboard, or all use Touchy.

Characters and statistics[]

Test Subject Arena 2 has eight playable characters, each with their own single player stages. All characters are not the same, with some characters having specific mechanics, though how good they perform certain universal actions is measured by their statistics. All characters have four stats that are listed on the character selection menu and measured by zero to seven bars. These stats are:

  • Ability: How fast a character moves. The higher a character's Ability is, the higher their horizontal speed will be. This does not affect vertical speed from falling and jumping, as vertical movement is constant across all eight characters.
  • Weapon Power: Weapon Power determines the strength of a character's bullet. If two opposing bullets were to collide, the one with the higher Weapon Power will destroy the other and continue traveling forwards. If both projectiles have the same Weapon Power, both will be destroyed at the same time. Each time a bullet collides with another one, it will loose two points of weapon power, which limits its ability to travel through multiple bullets at once. For instance, a bullet fired by Blue (Weapon Power of 5) can destroy up to two bullets fired by Doctor Nastidious (Weapon Power of 3) before it is eventually destroyed by a third one.
  • Weapon Speed: The character's rate of fire. A high Weapon Speed indicates a low delay between each shot, and therefore a higher shooting frequency. Unlike other stats listed on the character selection menu, Weapon Speed is highly inaccurate to the actual in-game firing frequency of each character.
  • Melee: Melee both indicates how fast a character performs their melee attack and how far they can reach other players with it. A higher Melee usually indicates a faster response time to attacking the opposing character, as well as a bigger hitbox on the attack. Green and the Professor (when airborne) are even able to hit players that are behind them using their melee attack.

The characters in Test Subject Arena 2 are:

Below are each character's stats.

Mechanical Suit
Ability:TSA2b4
Weapon Power: TSA2b5
Weapon Speed:TSA2b3
Melee:TSA2b4

TSA2BlueRex
Ability:TSA2b3
Weapon Power: TSA2b4
Weapon Speed:TSA2b6
Melee:TSA2b2

TSA2Professor
Ability:TSA2b7
Weapon Power: TSA2b0
Weapon Speed:TSA2b0
Melee:TSA2b6

TSA2ProfessorRex
Ability:TSA2b3
Weapon Power: TSA2b4
Weapon Speed:TSA2b5
Melee:TSA2b4

TSA2Nastidious
Ability:TSA2b5
Weapon Power: TSA2b3
Weapon Speed:TSA2b4
Melee:TSA2b4

GreenJump
Ability:TSA2b4
Weapon Power: TSA2b5
Weapon Speed:TSA2b2
Melee:TSA2b7

Walking Orange Enzyme2
Ability:TSA2b6
Weapon Power: TSA2b7
Weapon Speed:TSA2b1
Melee:TSA2b3

Test Mercenary
Ability:TSA2b2
Weapon Power: TSA2b3
Weapon Speed:TSA2b7
Melee:TSA2b4

However, some more accurate statistics can be determined about the characters, as listed in the table bellow:

  • Speed: Horizontal speed in tiles per second.
  • Fire rate: Shooting frequency in shots per second. Some characters have a different fire rate when crouching (as displayed in brackets in the table).
  • Bullet speed: Bullet velocity in tiles per second.
  • Melee delay: Delay at which the character is able to perform a melee attack on an opponent in seconds. A lower delay indicates a faster response time.
Char. Speed Weapon
Power
Fire rate Bullet speed Melee Melee delay
Mechanical Suit 12.6 5 2.8 27.3 4 0.17
TSA2BlueRex 10.0 4 5.4 30.3 2 0.15
TSA2Professor 14.1 x 5.6
(4.1)
x 6 0.10
TSA2ProfessorRex 10.0 4 4.9 30.3 4 0.15
TSA2Nastidious 12.9 3 4.9 27.3 4 0.10
GreenJump 12.6 5 2.5 27.3 7 0.07
Walking Orange Enzyme2 13.8 7 2.6
(3.0)
27.3 3 0.18
Test Mercenary 09.3 3 8.9 27.3 4 0.08

Levels[]

Single player mode[]

Blue[]

Click [show] to see this video
Test_Subject_Arena_2_-_Blue_avatar

Rex209 Blue[]

Click [show] to see this video
Test_Subject_Arena_2_-_Rex209_Blue_avatar

Professor[]

Click [show] to see this video
Test_Subject_Arena_2_-_Professor_level_avatar

Rex209 Professor[]

Click [show] to see this video
Test_Subject_Arena_2_-_Rex_Professor_avatar

Dr. Nastidious[]

Click [show] to see this video

Green[]

Click [show] to see this video
Test_Subject_Arena_2_-_Green_Green_Avatar

Orange enzyme[]

Click [show] to see this video
Test_Subject_Arena_2_-_Orange_enzyme_avatar

Mercenary[]

Click [show] to see this video
Test_Subject_Arena_2_-_Mercenary_avatar

Ending[]

Penguin 1

This navigational box contains a spoiler. Click [show] to open the box.

Upon completing the eighth and final unbeaten level, and the player has come to that character's level completion screen, clicking the left-most button with the ← pointing into a square, the player will be brought to a screen that states that they have completed all challenges. A present is on this image, and clicking it grans the player the avatar of the The Machine.

Multiplayer mode[]

Previews[]

August 14 2013[]

On August 14 2013, Nitrome released a preview image of the game on their blog. They also announced that the player would be able to choose from eight different characters to play as.

September 25 2013[]

On September 25 2013, Nitrome announced more information about the game in a blog post. They announced that the game will be Nitrome Touchy compatible for up to four players, and that certain characters will have special abilities. For example, Rex209 will be able to hang on ceilings. They also stated that they would be looking into a single player mode for this game, something they didn't have in the original game, Test Subject Arena. They also released a preview image for the game.

Gallery[]

Nitrome Touchy[]

Test Subject Arena 2 was made Nitrome Touchy compatible on October 16 2013.

Glitches[]

Development[]

The game was first announced on August 14 2013[3]. On September 25 2013 Nitrome released another preview, elaborating on the game and also how they were testing out a single player mode but were not sure if it would make it into the game[4]. The game was released on October 16 2013[5].

Although Test Subject Arena 2 incorporated all small sprites from Test Subject Complete, the only character that had a small sprite who was not included in the game was The Machine, due to it being deemed too overpowered and the size of its walking sprite causing it to not fit in some levels. It was also due to its size that using it in the game would restrict the creation of arenas[6].

When asked about what was used for the voice of the announcer, Nitrome replied that it is "probably" the text-to-speech program that comes with every Macintosh computer[7].

Trivia[]

  • On the release of the game, several high scores were already placed on the high scores tables by Nitrome. These scores read out messages, supposedly written by each of the corresponding characters. These messages can be distinguished by looking at the scores that are at the end of the high scores table and are descending from n centiseconds to 0.00.
  • Although the mercenary's message seemingly contains random words, it spells out "WINNER" in the NATO phonetic alphabet, which associates ever letter of the alphabet to a word.
  • Green's challenge is a modified version of level 10 from Test Subject Blue, with all interactive objects and hazards removed and some changes to the teleporter and wall layouts.
  • Unusually, the image for the game's page displayed on search engine results such as Google's has exclusive art not used anywhere else in the game.

Notes[]

  1. Nitrome on Twitter: [1], 11 Nov 22, retrieved 19 Jan 23.
  2. Nitrome blog: - Play Test Subject Arena 2! → Comment by Nitrome:
    Some characters are easier than others but yeah they are fairly hard. For this we wanted to use the avatar as a challenge for this one. Our intent with the avatars is to try and offer a range of difficulties.

    NitromeComment10

    The comment

  3. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Test Subject Arena 2 Preview!, 14 Aug 13, retrieved 30 May 15.
  4. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Test Subject Arena 2 Progress, 25 Sep 13, retrieved 3 Jun 15.
  5. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Play Test Subject Arena 2!, 16 Oct 13, retrieved 3 Jun 15.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Nitrome blog - Play Test Subject Arena 2! → Comment:
    J K
    It's a nice idea but we didn't want to include it for a couple of reasons. Mainly because it would be too powerful, which we would have to tone down to keep the game balanced. The other is the size of the sprite, it's much bigger than the other characters, and therefore it would mean that it wouldn't fit in some levels. So it would limit the options for us when designing the arenas. Hope this makes sense. :0)

    NitromeComment13

    Image of the comment

  7. Frost Trapp: @Nitrome Where does the voice of Rex209, the announcers from Test Subject Arena, and Rainbogeddon come from? [Test Subject Arena 2 uses some voice clips from Test Subject Arena]

    Nitrome on Twitter: [2]: I can't remember of the top of my head but I think it's probably something where it says what you type., 2 May 2015, retrieved 23 May 2015.

    Nitrome on Twitter: [3]: probably just the one that comes on every Mac, 2 May 2015, retrieved 23 May 2015.


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