Fireboy and Watergirl 4: Crystal Temple — Play Free Online

Fireboy and Watergirl 4: Crystal Temple is a two-character puzzle platformer built around cooperation. You steer a fire elemental and a water elemental through a series of chamber-sized levels, and neither of them can finish alone. Each level ends with two exit doors, and both characters have to be standing in front of their own door before the level counts as cleared.

The rules of the series carry over here. Fireboy can wade through lava and fire but dies in water; Watergirl is the reverse. Green goo is deadly to both. Scattered around each room are red gems that only Fireboy can pick up and blue gems that only Watergirl can, so the route that suits one character is often hazardous to the other. Switches, levers, buttons and moving platforms mean one of you regularly has to hold something open while the other crosses.

If you came to Doodle Jump for quick, reflex-driven vertical jumping, this is the slower cousin: less about speed, more about stopping to look at the whole room and working out who goes first. Sessions are short, a level usually takes a few minutes, and it runs in the browser with nothing to install.

How to play

Fireboy uses the arrow keys; Watergirl uses W, A and D (W to jump). With two people on one keyboard, one takes each side. Playing alone means handling both characters yourself, switching between the two key groups, which works but is fiddlier on the puzzles that need both moving at once. On a phone or tablet the game offers touch controls, though a keyboard is noticeably more precise for tight jumps.

A typical level starts with both characters low in the room. Collect the gems in your colour as you go, trigger whatever opens the next section, and work toward the doors. Gems are optional for finishing but are how you earn a better result on each level.

Tips

• Look over the whole room before moving. Most levels have a clear order: one character opens a path, the other uses it.
• Do not rush through a pool of your own element if the other character is about to need the same platform; a mistimed lever can strand someone.
• If you are playing both characters, finish one character's route as far as it will go first, then bring the second up to match.
• When a jump keeps failing, check the edge of the platform: both characters can usually make a longer jump with a run-up than from a standstill.

Similar games on Doodle Jump

The original Fireboy and Watergirl on this site is the best comparison, with the same two characters and a simpler puzzle set. Ovo 2 and OvO game are single-character precision platformers where speed matters more than co-operation, while Vex 3 is a stickman obstacle runner with a more arcade pace.

It suits anyone who likes puzzle platformers, and it is one of the better choices on the site for two people sharing a keyboard.