Instructions
Contents
  1. The basics
  2. Scoring
  3. Difficulty and extras
  4. Accessibility
  5. Appendix

The celebration did not go quite as planned. First it was the storm, then the car broke down, then his date was kidnapped by demons. Now Johnny finds himself hurtling towards the depths of Hell in pursuit, the world crumbling above him and creatures of the night homing in from all sides. No, it hasn't been a good day at all, but the horror yet to come is bound to make it worse...

The basics

How to play


Control Johnny with the arrow keys or a joystick (or see the alternate control methods).

To Hell with Johnny is a platform game. Your task is to keep Johnny (or his girlfriend Brianne) safe through seven increasingly difficult stages of falling through the Earth. The only way for Johnny to survive his epic fall is to jump from platform to platform as they appear from below. To this end he can move left or right, even in the air.

Unfortunately most of these platforms are far from safe. Some are fragile, some are trapped and some are occupied by hostile creatures. Johnny is a sturdy boy and will take a lot of beating before succumbing, but like most of us he has but a single life - if he's hurt too much, the game is over. The same goes if he misses a platform and plummets uncontrollably to his doom, or hesitates long enough to let the falling rocks catch up.

Lucky for you, though you take the role of Johnny you don't have to share his faith. Once you have successfully reached a new stage you can forever start a new game from there allowing you to reach the end without having to do it all in one go.

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The screen

In-game screen details (see accessibility section for very high contrast screen)
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Platforms and traps

Your fall is broken by a multitude of ledges and platforms to rest on. Every time you land on a platform you regain a small amount of health. Platforms come in many flavors; big or small, moving or stationary. Some are inhabited, others are trapped. Each stage comes with its own set of dangers and surprises. To get you started, here are some of the more common traps you'll encounter:

 
bouncer platform
bouncers
These all have in common that they throw you high in the air. While potentially dangerous they also serve as your only means to reach platforms above you. Use them wisely.
 
roller platform
rollers
These platforms push you either left or right as you stand on them.
 
breaking platform
breaking
Some seemingly solid platforms will start to crumble as you land on them, eventually disintegrating under your feet.
 
hidden trap
hidden
Other seemingly innocuous platforms hide hideous secrets that you'd do best to avoid.
 
nasty spikes
spikes
Yet other platforms won't even try to hide the dangers they present.
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Items

During the fall you'll find several items that may either harm or help (for some reason including a disturbing amount of burgers and beer). Some items are only found in specific stages while others are exceedingly rare. Those you are sure to come across are listed below:

 
health
Food and drink restore about a third of your health while a first aid kit heals you in full.
 
toxins
Run into these and you'll become poisoned, gradually losing health while the poison runs its course. If you manage to keep your health up, the poison will eventually burn out and leave you with nothing worse than a bad experience and a few extra points (see the advanced scoring section).
 
Star
score
Green stars give a small amount of bonus points. Red stars do the opposite. More importantly, at least if you aim for the highest scores, they add to or take from the score speed multiplier (again see the advanced scoring section).
 
speed
The arrows alter the speed of your fall. Either arrow can be good or bad depending on whether your goal is a high score or simply survival.
 
death
You will generally want to avoid these...
 
bubble
...unless you're protected by one of these. This handy force field lets you float like a (very heavy) feather and renders you all but immortal until the batteries run out.
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Scoring >>