Video Game / A Game With a Kitty 2: Darkside Adventures

Pictured: The arch-chancellor and the Imp King.

Oh no! Princess Daphodil lost her crown and now you must find it!
Where could it be?! And why do you end up on a star really really
far away? I will not tell you. You must discover it by yourself!

Good luck!
— The Excuse Plot, found in the text file that comes with the game.

A Game With a Kitty 2: Darkside Adventures (or simply Darkside Adventures) tells the riveting tale of an arch-chancellor trying to retrieve Princess Daphodil's magical crown, gaining new powers along the way, and eventually escalating into a quest to save the universe.

Darkside Adventures is a Non-Linear Sequel to the first game of the A Game with a Kitty series by Bernie. While the gameplay remains relatively the same, Kittey is nowhere to be seen. This wouldn't be the last time the series would feature protagonists who aren't Kittey.

The game is very much worth checking out, especially if you enjoyed the first one. It's a bit longer than the original, even if you're not planning on achieving 100% Completion.

A Game with a Kitty 2: Darkside Adventures provides examples of the following tropes:

• Air-Aided Acrobatics: Wind currents return from the first game, relatively unchanged, so everything that applies there also applies here.
  • During the final level, there are enemies that can blow wind in the direction you're facing, potentially allowing for this trope to be in effect.
  • One room in the final level has horizontal wind currents so strong that, if you stay in the air for too long, you'll be flung offscreen, potentially all the way down to the beginning of the room. You can take advantage of this depending on which parts of the climb you're at.
• Alliterative Name: The Hidden Holy Hills secret level in world 1.
• All There in the Script: None of the Mooks and a few of the bosses have their names shown in-game as part of an Enemy Roll Call or anything. Digging into the files, it's possible to discover the internal names of not only them, but also the official titles of each music present in the game's soundtrack.
  • The tiny bird is called Pengu Guy, the rocks with sunglasses are called Mr Stone, the Snifit Expy is called Mr Shoot, the fish are called Fish Guy. You seeing a pattern yet? A few enemies stand out, like the Spanky Plant and Jump/Puff Bear enemies from Faraway Star.
  • The big block boss from Aurora Secret is called Blocky Boss, and the giant wheel with an eye in the middle from Distortion X is called Rotata, with its weakspot eye being called Sappsy.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: The arch-chancellor has dark blue skin, Princess Daphodil has red skin, and Calypsu, the wizard Horatio has as his dragon, has pure white skin.
• Always Check Behind the Chair: Look out for miscolored, cracked, or vertically flipped blocks. Chances are that they contain valuable items like keys, checkered blocks, or big gems inside of them.
• Astral Finale: The final world takes place entirely in space.
• Badass Bookworm: The arch-chancelor would rather read his book in peace than go on a quest to save the universe. Still doesn't stop him from fighting when necessary, though.
• Beneath the Earth: If the Story Time part of the intro is to be believed, the Darkside was the result of a meteor crashing through the world above, with the Darkside itself being the chunks of land that were left below the world.
• Big Bad: Captain Horatio. This is established right from the title screen intro, with him plotting to overthrow the Imp King by obtaining the power source located in a star far away.
• Book Ends: The title screen cutscene has a flurry of bottle rockets being fired at one point. Guess what happens again during the ending cutscene? Even the characters' reactions to the rockets are the same (said characters being Horatio and the arch-chancellor, respectively).
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: Most boss arenas feature at least one chest with infinitely respawning stars, which can be shot at them.
• Boss-Only Level: Dimension Twist, the second to last mandatory stage in the game, barely qualifies as a proper level because it's only 3 short screens with only the second one having platforming, with the third one having a save point because it leads to Calypsu's boss fight.
• Bragging Rights Reward: Achieving 100% Completion only nets you an infinite supply of stars.
• Broken Bridge: A literal example. Thanks to the boss of the fourth world 1 level, the bridge that leads directly to the Imp King's castle is broken, forcing you to make a big detour through an earlier level, plus going through an entire other world, just to reach the castle.
• Brutal Bonus Level: Distortion X, a secret level only accessible by reaching a secret entrance in the final level, which requires achieving at least 85% completion to unlock. Not only does the level feature no save points, it also features two bosses, more than any other level in the game. The level also has an additonal Double Jump Power-Up to collect, and it'll sure as hell push your double jumping skills to their maximum.
• But Thou Must!: Parodied after the boss fight with Calypsu in Dimension Twist. After being left behind by Horatio, Calypsu suddenly turns into a good guy who will open the gate to Faraway Star once at least one powerful magic artifact is brought to him. The Arch-Chancellor says he doesn't want to save the universe, saying a Big "NO!" several times, only for Calypsu to ignore his pleads each time.
• Calling Your Attacks: The first boss, Hackman the Axe, who's a giant talking axe, and Glasses, the second one, both do this for all of their attacks. Notably, they're the only ones to do this.
• Cash Gate:
  • In world 4, in order to start it proper, you need to get at least 800 gems, or 15 big gems. You can't get past the start of the first stage if you don't, because a literal cash gate is blocking access to an elevator that takes you to the real start of the level.
  • To get the other Heart Container in the game, you must obtain 1800 gems and find the cash gate in the second half of Faraway Star so you can open it.
• Casting a Shadow: Horatio plans on using the wormhole located in Faraway Star to create an army of shadow teddy bears to take over the universe. As a last ditch effort, he ends up creating a giant shadow clone of himself, who serves as the Final Boss.
• Chest Monster: A Moon is hidden inside of a chest suspended in the middle of the air at the end of Cheesemoon Terrace, the second level in world 1.
• Double Jump: A Power-Up that's obtained in the final level and is only available in said level, alongside a triple jump Power-Up. Said level also gives you a sentient star companion that allows you to jump on top of them to reach higher places, at the cost of a star, potentially allowing you to perform a quadruple or quintuple jump. This is also only available for that level.
• Dramatic Disappearing Display: Inverted for the Final Boss, where after the battle begins, a new element is added to the HUD: A percentage based Life Meter held by a little cherub, indicating the boss' HP. Notably, it's the only boss in the game to have it. It's because there's ways to deal extra damage to it, which involve throwing the Heart of the Universe's teddy bear into its mouth, with setting it on fire and then throwing it dealing the most damage to the boss.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: The main motivation for Horatio becoming evil.
• Elite Mook: The Moons, which are big crecent moons with arms and legs, a menacing stare, and a night cap. These guys take a ton of hits to defeat, and usually will blindside you by blazing towards you at high speeds with little warning. Good luck trying to beat them if you run out of stars, as they also only become vulnerable to jumping when you successfully coax them into hitting a wall while charging, which stuns them for a few seconds. They also double as a Mini-Boss because defeating them usually nets you a Big Gem as a reward in some form or another.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Combined with Spell My Name with a "The", everyone only refers to the player character as "the arch-chancellor".
• Evil Chancellor: Captain Horatio is the obvious one as seen in the intro, but interestingly enough, this exchange that occurs at the beginning of the first visit to Loka Castle suggests that the Arch-Chancellor himself may be one as well by saying that he's better at it in his snark. Possibly Played for Laughs.
  Arch-Chancellor: I always knew that someone with round ears like that has to be an evil, scheming individual. But so am I. And I believe I'm better at it!
  Captain Horatio: Yes, they say you're good at dealing with logical things. I wonder how well you'll do when you're up to real MAGIC.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There:
  • The final boss has an attack where it shoots several eyeballs that bounce on the floor. Where do the eyes come from? Why, from a big eye located right on top of his head, hidden below his helmet, of course!
  • The first Distortion X boss is a giant wheel with an eye located at the center of it. Fitting with the theming of the level it's fought in, it has a Piranha Plant-like weakpoint that rotates around its edges that turns out to have a smaller eyeball inside of it.
• Final Boss, New Dimension: Faraway Star, the final level, is considered to be its own dimension. The final battle itself takes place at the Centre of All, where the heart of the universe is located.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Captain Horatio doesn't have much going on for him in terms of personality.
• Genki Girl: Princess Daphodil is described as hyperactive and cheerful in a couple of dialogue sequences, and whenever she talks, she has a tendency to be Suddenly Shouting. She's also a Perpetual Smiler with something of a Valley Girl accent, and sometimes displays a Verbal Tic of "Huh? HUH?".
• God's Hands Are Tied: The literal physical manifestation of the heart of the universe is Caught in a Snare during the final battle, unable to do anything.
• Golden Ending: Obtained by collecting the Golden Egg in Distortion X, which requires at least 85% completion to access. Defeating the final boss again after this will result in a slightly altered ending, where the arch-chancellor ditches the Imp King to buy a new castle all for himself, while Princess Daphodil and the Imp King loudly proclaim that they'll make lots of babies as a result, all while the arch-chancellor's still within earshot, resulting in him cringing at the thought.
• Heart Container: There are a total of two of them in the entire game. One can be obtained in the last world 1 level, while the other one can only be obtained in the final level, and only if you reach 1800 gems.
• Heroic Neutral: The arch-chancellor really doesn't want to keep risking his life to save the universe, but he has to do it anyway. He just wants to take a nice vacation on the countryside.
• Jackass Genie: One of the secret levels has a genie living inside of a green magic lamp, who's constantly referred to as a demon by signs located throughout. You throw the lamp into lava, thus making him very mad in the process. Cue boss battle.
• Manchild: The Imp King, if the Story Time portion of the intro is any indication.
• Mythology Gag: Glasses returns from the first game as a boss. Plus, statues of Glasses that shoot fireballs can be seen in quite a few levels.
• Mook Maker:
  • Most of the bosses have the ability to summon mooks. Special mention goes to Shadow Horatio, who can summon two strong Mook at once.
  • In levels he appears in, Horatio's wizard companion Calypsu can sometimes spawn Pengu Guys instead of spiked balls of varying sizes. He also does this in his boss fight, except there he creates three Mr Shoots at once.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Nothing, one of the secret levels. Lampshaded several times throughout the level, courtesy of wooden signs.
• Nerf:
  • Zigzagged with the running ability. On one hand, running jumps aren't nearly as potent as the ones in the original game, while on the other, it takes considerably less time to reach full speed.
  • Played straight with the Wall Run ability. Compared to the ability to climb walls in the first one, it's severely more limited, since you need to be running at full speed for it to be performed, and need to jump into another nearby wall in order to keep wall running.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero/Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: A bizarre example occurs during the final battle. After an awkward back and forth between the arch-chancellor and Horatio, the latter asks the former to push a button in the machine he's standing on in order to create a shadow clone of himself, and make the situation less awkward. He complies with his request, for no real reason, resulting in a hulked shadow clone of Horatio coming to existence. Despite this, Horatio himself is nowhere to be seen after its creation. The post-credits scene shows that he was banished to another dimension, meaning that the arch-chancellor accidentally made the right choice by fulfilling his request.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Horatio prefers to use his minions to do his bidding rather than doing things himself.
• Not So Above It All: While the arch-chancellor spends most of his time lampshading and snarking about game mechanics and Power Ups obtained, the moment he gains the ability to Wall Run, he's genuinely excited at the thought of being able to do it.
• One-Winged Angel: A hulked out shadow clone of Horatio serves as the final boss.
• Platform Hell: Takes much longer than the first game to appear due to the overall increased length of the adventure, but is still present. Gloomsilver Steps and Redrock Caves in world 2 give you a taste of what's to come later, but are still manageable if you're just playing through normally. Starting with Aurora Road in world 4 is when the platforming becomes truly hellish, as by then the levels start having mandatory Wall Run chaining and will test you on your ability to do precise running jumps.
• Plot Coupon: In order to be able to enter the final level of the game, you need to collect one of the following: The Holy Book of Beeble, located in the Hidden Holy Hills (in world 1), or the Magic Lamp, located in The Nothing (in world 3), both of which are technically secret levels.
• Reflective Teleportation: Calypsu teleports around his boss arena using the mirrors present in it.
• Retraux: The graphics and the music are done in that style, just like the first game.
• Shout-Out: Distortion X is themed after Super Mario Bros.. Not only is the music in that level a remix of the Underground theme, all of the health pickups are turned into Super Mushrooms, almost all sound effects are changed into Mario equivalents, and the level's last boss is a deformed, blue skinned Mario that grows in size with every star shot into its head and whose body explodes violently after growing to max size, being reduced into a Waddling Head who never stops jumping.
• Static Screw: Distortion X has this occuring every few seconds, always accompanied by a somewhat violent shake in the level geometry, which is thankfully only visual.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: Every boss has at least one move that leaves them wide open for attacks, as they'd be unbeatable otherwise.
  • Hackman the Axe would be unbeatable if he just didn't attack, as each of his attacks ends with him landing on the ground with tremendous force, causing shootable stars to drop down from the top of the screen, which are the only way to damage him.
  • Special mention goes to Glasses' mech, which can only be damaged during exactly one of its attacks, namely one where it shoots fireballs from the horizontal cannons sandwiched between its two halves.
• The Comically Serious: The arch-chancellor. He's a Perpetual Frowner, a Deadpan Snarker, and believes to be surrounded by nutcases. He also runs around only in pyjamas.
• The Unfought:
  • Despite being built up to be the level's boss, the mysterious man in a hovercraft in the Hidden Holy Hills stage isn't actually fought, unlike the Jackass Genie in The Nothing, making obtaining the Holy Book of Beeble rather anticlimatic.
  • Horatio himself isn't fought. You do fight his shadow clone at the end, though.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Faraway Star. If the Red and Black and Evil All Over color scheme of the darkside portions aren't enough indication, then the sheer length and copious amounts of Platform Hell present throughout will certainly make you realize that it's definitely the final level.
• Toilet Humor: Glasses is revealed to be 2 years old in this game, and as such is wearing a diaper during their boss fight. The pre-boss dialogue starts with them asking if they're smelling an arch-chancellor, who then retorts that the only thing they must be smelling is their own body odor because of the diaper they're wearing.
• Turns Red:
  • The boss of Aurora Secret grows in size the more damage it takes. It also starts out spitting huge spike balls instead of regular ones.
  • Both bosses in Distortion X get faster the closer they are to dying.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: In the post-credits scene, after Horatio is revealed to have been banished to a different dimension after having a shadow clone of himself made, he demands for this big spindly red creature, whom he assumes is the king of this dimension, to give him its crown. The creature promptly responds by vomiting on top of him, covering him in green puke in the process.
• Waddling Head: Most of the enemies in the game (and the Imp King) are this trope, whether they be flightless birds, or rocks with sunglasses.
• Wall Run/Wall Jump: A Power-Up obtained halfway through the game allows you to run up walls for a short period of time. Later levels will test your ability to chain wall runs between walls.
• Warm-Up Boss: Both Hackman the Axe in world 1 and Glasses in world 3 serve as this, as they both have heavily telegraphed attacks via Calling Your Attacks, unlike all bosses after.
• Wave-Motion Gun: The final boss can fire one from his mouth.
• You Have Researched Breathing: You need to collect a powerup in the fourth world 1 level in order to be able to run.

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Game Over
Jump Button: Last Save
ESC: Main Menu

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