Video Game / That Level Again

That Level Again is a series of four Puzzle Platformers created by Nurkhametov Tagir for iOS and Android, inspired by the 2009 flash game This Is the Only Level. A shortened version of That Level Again 2 is available to play online.

The series consists of:

• That Level Again
• That Level Again 2
• That Level Again 3
• That Level Again 4

The series stars two unnamed characters, nicknamed Afonya and Isolda by the fandom.

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This series includes examples of:

• 100% Completion: TLA 4's requires you to have gotten all three endings and all six stars.
• Ambiguous Ending: What is happening in END_01 MAIN of TLA 4? Is Afonya alive? Did Isolda travel back in time? Why is she crying?
• Ambiguous Situation: Isolda's existence in TLA 3. Is she dead or alive?
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: The text commentary in the Story of TLA 3 abruptly changes from the narrator speaking to Afonya's thoughts once you go into the house.
• Art Evolution: Each game in this series is more detailed than the last.
• Ascended Extra: Isolda, the girl who briefly appears on the last level of TLA 2, ends up driving the Story of TLA 3 and becomes the main playable character of TLA 4.
• Breaking Old Trends: Most of TLA 3 and TLA 4 eschew the premise set up by the two previous games.
• Company Cross References: To Tagir's other games. The loopers from Loop and run/The Looper appear in TLA and TLA 3 and the app icon and one of the puzzles from Some Ball Level appear in TLA 4.
• Collection Sidequest: The stars in TLA 4.
• Dead All Along: The Sad End of TLA 3 reveals that Afonya is the one who died, not Isolda.
• Death Is the Only Option: Some puzzles require you to die, usually in specific fashions or places, in order to progress.
• Easter Egg: A few in each game.
  • That Level Again:
    • Swiping right in the levels menu reveals a doodle of Afonya and Isolda having a date in the rain.
    • Pressing on where the door to the second room would be in TLA 2 in Level 87 and walking to the right gets you the secret rainy ending.
    • Hitting the Skip Level button in Level 96 leads you to a super secret place where you can find a looper and a cat and to the room shown in the home menu, where sitting down will cause Isolda to break the door, fly in, and take Afonya away with her.
  • That Level Again 2:
    • Going out of bounds by getting Afonya on top of one of the sliding panels and then moving it all the way up in Level 79 pushes you into the cloudy city that officially first appears at the end of TLA 4. Going to the right, as the left door won't open, gets you the secret rainy ending similar to that of TLA, except more zoomed out.
    • You can break the window (and a good chunk of the wall) in the home menu by repeatedly tapping the window, which gives you a hint for one of the levels. Pressing and holding on Afonya's head after this causes even more of the wall to break.
  • That Level Again 3: Moving the Super Key out of bounds past the second button, where it's supposed to be placed, leads it into space and to a restaurant with a bunch of Looper diners, complete with a setup that looks oddly similar to the one Afonya and Isolda had their date in.
  • That Level Again 4:
    • Completing the last minigame in Stage 2, which is deliberately made difficult as it's not meant to be solved, gets you lines that lampshade your feat and allow you to float through the rest of the stage with motion tilt controls.
    • Going right instead of left after you've gone down the Flappy Bird pipes leads you to a deliberately cheesy subplot and cliché "ending".
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: In TLA and TLA 2, at least. TLA 3 and TLA 4 break from the formula.
• Everything Breaks: In Level 48 of TLA 2, blocks making up the level break off and start falling once Afonya jumps or walks on them.
• Fading Away: Every time Afonya reaches Isolda in Levels 1-8 of TLA 3, she fades to nothing.
• Fake-Out Fade-Out: Level 25 of TLA 2 is a blank screen with THE END on it in large black text, but your controls are still present and working. There are 80 levels in the game, so you're not done yet.
• Fake Trap: Most of the spikes in the second room in Level 14 of TLA 2 aren't real.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Afonya's last time of text in the Sad End of TLA 3 is "I won't touch you again," initially coming across as a plea that he'll do anything to have Isolda back. Three screens later, Afonya fades away just as he reaches her, and it's revealed that he's dead; therefore, he indeed will not be able to touch her again.
• Gray Rain of Depression: In the Sad End of TLA 3 and the secret rainy endings of TLA and TLA 2.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: The Story of TLA 3 endlessly repeats until you figure out how to break the cycle.
• Heroic Mime: Afonya and Isolda never speak in any of the games. Isolda especially, as we don't even get to see her thoughts.
• Hollywood Satanism: The door to the second room is surrounded by candles and painted with a red pentagram in Level 28 of TLA 2, looking very much like the setup for some kind of ritual. See Human Sacrifice below for more details.
• How We Got Here: END_01 MAIN of TLA 4 shows how Isolda ended up at Level 80 of TLA 2 and why it was wrecked.
• Human Sacrifice: Afonya's dead body needs to land in the sacrifice ritual in front of the door in Level 28 of TLA 2 in order to finish and dispel the ritual and retrieve the key from the second room.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The titles of each level in TLA, TLA 2, and TLA 3 usually provide hints on how to solve them. In a similar vein, the text in the Story of TLA 3 and TLA 4 also do this, though those are Afonya's thoughts and the developer directly speaking to Isolda respectively.
• Indy Escape: Level 47 of TLA 2 releases a rolling boulder set on mowing Afonya down after you take the key.
• Interface Screw: Many of the levels mess with the controls or camera view.
• Invisibility: Level 41 of TLA 2 turns Afonya invisible.
• Invisible Block: In Level 80 of TLA 2 and in the Story and Level 3 of TLA 3.
• Jump Physics: Afonya and Isolda can jump very high. Emphasized with the "double jump" ability, which allows them to nearly hit the ceiling.
• Lemony Narrator: The level titles in TLA and TLA 2 are occasionally replaced with text that mocks the player. On full display in TLA 4 once Isolda breaks through Stage 1.
• Locked Door: Naturally comes up a lot, considering the nature of the series.
• Multiple Endings:
  • TLA 3 has two endings, the "I won't let her vanish" end gotten through normal gameplay, and the "Sad End" unlocked with a microtransaction.
  • TLA 4 has three endings, aptly named END_01, END_02, and END_03. Collecting all six stars is required to unlock END_01 and END_02.
    • END_01 MAIN: Isolda uses the accelerometer from Stage 1 to reach the red button in the cloudy city and knocks over a set of pillars that destroys the city, most of the TLA 2 rooms below her, and the platform she's standing on. She falls into the remnants of the one remaining TLA 2 room, stands up, and starts to cry.
    • END_02 STRANGE: The Gainax Ending of the three, lampshaded by its ending screen. Isolda drops through the Empty room and onto the ledge leading back to Level 1 of Stage 1 and runs through the four rooms of Stage 1 as the lights go out behind her, before she jumps off the final ledge and is caught by a mysterious pixelated hand that carries her off as an even more pixelated disembodied head peers down at her.
    • END_03 SIMPLE: Isolda exits the final room through the door to the right, walks under the view of a cloudy city revealing that she is above the setting for TLA 2, and the curtain closes.
• Ninja Prop: Many levels require creative use and abuse of the games' controls, icons, and menus.
• No Name Given: The two characters are never named in any of the games.
• Ominous Visual Glitch: Used in TLA 3 and TLA 4 to show that the characters are going off-script.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Isolda's death before the start of TLA 3, inadvertently caused by Afonya, sets up the events of the game as he tries to save her.
• Pressure Plate: The red buttons in TLA and TLA 4 that are usually needed to progress to the next level.
• Read the Fine Print: Level 30 of TLA 2 requires you to read and accept a list of terms and conditions before picking up the key. It's a trap, accepting the agreement will prevent the door from opening, and you'll have to restart the level.
• Resurrection Teleportation: Used to great effect in TLA 3 and TLA 4, see Resurrective Immortality below.
• Resurrective Immortality: Killing Afonya or Isolda just results in them respawning at the beginning of the level.
• Reveal Shot: The Sad End of TLA 3 shows Afonya running to Isolda, who is crying on the edge of the screen. He fades away as he reaches Isolda and the camera pans to reveal why she's crying—she's at Afonya's grave.
• Schmuck Bait: The door starts out already open in Level 6 of TLA and Level 20 of TLA 2. Pressing the button/picking up the key closes it.
• Romantic Rain: Afonya and Isolda have a tea party date in the rain, as shown in an Easter Egg in TLA.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Afonya goes back in time at the start of TLA 3 to save Isolda.
• Shout-Out:
  • Douglas Adams' works get referenced in TLA 2, TLA 3, and TLA 4.
  • Level 36 of TLA 2 is titled "Have you ever played Mario?''
  • Flappy Bird, Breakout, and Pong make appearances in TLA 4.
• Sliding Scale of Collectible Tracking: TLA 4 slides between "Here's a Hint" and "It's Here" regarding the stars—the security cameras in the final room show the locations of every star you haven't found, but doesn't help in figuring out how to reach them.
• Spikes of Doom: The primary obstacle and cause of death among all four games.
• Stable Time Loop: One interpretation of END_01 MAIN of TLA 4 is that Isolda goes back in time to meet Afonya at the end of TLA 2 to save him from his death in the Sad End of TLA 3.
• Static Screw: Happens when you collect a star in TLA 4.
• Stealth Prequel: TLA 4 is more of a Stealth Interquel, maybe.
• Story to Gameplay Ratio: Incredibly low in TLA and most of TLA 2, but story eclipses gameplay in TLA 3.
• Super Window Jump: How to pass Level 7 of TLA 2. Or as the level calls it, "Emergency exit."
• Take a Third Option: Isolda has to choose between Life and Freedom at the end of TLA 4. Nothing is preventing the player from pressing both options at the same time. Enforced, as the game will not let you progress unless you do so.
• Time Travel: Done in TLA 3 and possibly TLA 4.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: You are put through a Flappy Bird clone and Breakout in TLA 4.
• Unnaturally Looping Location: In TLA and TLA 2, it's implied that the levels take place in a long sequence of near-identical rooms. Confirmed in TLA 4.
• Where It All Began: TLA 4 brings Isolda here in regards to the developer.
• Your Eyes Can Deceive You:
  • Done in Level 14 TLA and Level 21 of TLA 2, both titled "Don't trust your eyes," where the door appears closed, but Afonya can walk through it fine.
  • Level 87 of TLA looks like it's the same level you've been playing on for the past 86 levels, but Afonya moves and reacts like he's on the map of TLA 2.