How to play Trap Adventure 2, the cruel platformer blowing up on Twitter

Trap Adventure 2, a mobile platformer that released by developer Hiroyoshi Oshiba (aka “hiro!!”) in 2016, has recently been getting attention for its clever design and hilarious level of difficulty. The spike in popularity is largely thanks to a widely circulated Twitter video of the game, which throws vicious (and completely unfair) curveballs at the player.

If you haven’t already watched it, please do so. It’s brilliant, but cruel.

Trap Adventure 2 is available for free from the iTunes App Store for iOS devices. The full version costs 99 cents to unlock, and if you’re even remotely serious about playing Trap Adventure 2, you’re going to want to drop a buck on it. Otherwise, you’ll only be given one life (and be forced to see a pop-up ad every time you want to continue), which makes the challenge of Trap Adventure 2 nigh impossible.

That’s kind of the developer’s goal, though. Here’s how Oshiba describes his game:

Caution!! This may be the most hardest, irritating, frustrating game EVER. If you tend to exasperate often, I recommend you not play this game. It will literally drive you insane. I PROMISE. As written above, this game is VERY STRESSFUL. You may get so irritated and frustrated that you throw your phone out the window. I can’t take any responsibilities for the displeasure this game may cause. Even after reading this you are still eager to play the game, then go ahead.

Trap Adventure 2 is a “masocore” game in the vein of ultra hard platformers like Super Meat Boy, 1001 Spikes and I Wanna Be The Guy. Oshiba’s Trap Adventure games lean into subverting the player’s expectations, making presumably safe platforms into lethal traps. Here are a few more spoiler-filled examples of Oshiba’s creative cruelty:

If you find you don’t have the patience for Trap Adventure 2, there’s a full playthrough on YouTube that shows where things go. And the game absolutely goes places.