Kevin & Friends - Video Game 2
Developer: Ages Team
Publisher: @Papichi05 (@Papichi058 on Scratch)
Director: @Papichi05
Series: Kevin & Friends - Video Game Series
Platform(s): Scratch, Gamejolt
Release: January 10th, 2021
Genre(s): Platform
Kevin & Friends - Video Game 2 (“K&F VG 2” for short) is a basic platforming game developed by the Ages Team and published by Papichi05. It is a sequel to the first game and features more zones/acts and a couple of powerups, and it is the second installment to the Kevin & Friends - Video Game fandom. The game follows Kevin, Mariela, and Sonic, as they set off to defeat Trixie once again, alongside with Marvin, who is a half-fish and half-human alien. Like the first game, the player controls either Kevin, Mariela, or Sonic using simple physic controls of platformer and find ring portals that transitions to the next stage, and fight bosses at the end of each zone.
As the team is confident enough to build a sequel, development began shortly after the first Kevin & Friends - Video Game. As Kevin published a voting, many people prefer the Genesis format than the SEGA CD, alongside with official approvals and confirmations of the sequel from TheAwsomeBoii, marioisawesome21, and AnotherSensei.
The game received very little reviews, but they were generally positive. Like the first game, the sequel only received less than 200 views, so it is also considered as an underrated game.
Plot
Kevin & Friends - Video Game 2 takes place 2 weeks after the first game; the 3 heroes returned to the Amous Base for relaxation. After Trixie was defeated, she got kicked out of Heaven, preventing her from achieving the magic star. Afterwards, Trixie returns to her home base, where she partners up with a more aggressive alien, Marvin, a half-fish and half-human organism. They both planned to enter the internet and achieve the humanform database, which has the ability to control every human in the world at their will. Meanwhile, Kevin gets a notification from his Apple smartwatch, which notifies him the dangers detected from an automatic universe scan from his computer. The 3 heroes set off to find Trixie and Marvin as they dodge obstacles in each of the 4 zones. During battles, the 3 heroes and the villains argues silly shenanigans, which always ended up triggering raggedness of the villains.
Once everyone is in cyber space, Trixie and Marvin merges together and transforms into one of the 3 heroes as an evil version of them. The heroes successfully fought them off, and then Trixie and Marvin merges together into a dark floating alien with red eyes and tentacles, with a magician's hat on. Everyone left the internet and flew straight to outer space for the final battle.
Marvin & Trixie are finally defeated, and Kevin flies down back to Ice Cap zone to send them to Sin City zone. Afterwards, Kevin, Mariela, and Sonic reunite together and continues to fly around outer space just for fun as a celebration for their victory.
Gameplay
Just like the first game, the player uses arrow keys to move around, and space bar to jump. The game also uses "video sensing", which allows the player to move around their webcam to perform an attack, otherwise, if the video sensing feature is turned off, the player must press Z to perform an attack. Unlike the first game, the game contains new HP bar, and the players were granted infinite lives. The game still uses red lines to prevent the player from running though levels, but instead of crashing the game, it teleports the player back to the starting point of the level.
The game features 2 sections on each act, and the end of Act 2 of each zone will trigger a boss battle between the player and Marvin or Trixie. During boss battle, the player must use their attacks to defeat Marvin or Trixie using camera sensing, or the Z key, and dodge deadly obstacles. If the player dies, they will return to the nearest section of an Act and must find the blue ring again.
If the player manages to complete the game, they will be provided with a "Super Code" that grants them the ability to transform into their super form once the energy bar reaches up to 40%. While in their super form, the players are now invincible, which lets them have the ability to run through walls and ceilings that contains red lines without taking any damage, plus, their attacks are larger and stronger, which are large wind cuts instead of a simple magic ball. Being in a super form also changes some boss battle music.
Development
Development began shortly after the first video game. Kevin posted a voting poll on Scratch, whether they wanted the sequel to happen or not and whether the audio format should be as Genesis or SEGA CD. After voting was finished, Kevin's 2nd account, Papichi058, got banned from Scratch, and the voting poll project was the account's last project.
Shortly afterwards, the team started to redevelop and revamp the engine to make it better than the first video game. They included a variable named "motion" as an additional motion feature for the engine. Kevin directed the team to add a health form, which is the HP system, so that the game doesn't have to not end like the first game, and wanted the game to feel like a short Genesis game.
Kevin and a few others also worked on the new character designs, but then Kevin revamped the designs later because he claimed they were too "tick and clunky".
The team worked on different set of tasks based on 2 genders. The girls worked on background art and graphical effects programming, while the boys develop the general programming and audio.
On December 2020, as the team is finishing up the game, Kevin and Daisy run several BETA tests to be sure it is stable, and Kevin uploaded a trailer to his YouTube channel announcing the release date of January 10th, 2021.
Reception
Kevin & Friends - Video Game 2 is still underrated today, which the game received very little reviews. However, it received generally positive comments but criticism was aimed at some bugs and its hard difficulty.
DenzelGame said it "like a real sega genesis game". isai_games and DMB223 called the game "awesome" and "liked it".
TheAwsomeBoii also streamed a gameplay twice in his YouTube channel, praising the music and the plot, but criticized its hard difficulty, flashing lights, and the white background glitch in Cyber Space Zone.