Delicious Fruit
Download Game 
Speedrun Leaderboards Screenshots
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by Raganoxer
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by DerpyHoovesIWBTG
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by Raganoxer
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by P2shka
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by 13007
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by Taprus
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by Taprus
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by P2shka
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by DerpyHoovesIWBTG
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by ZeroG
Creator's Comments:
ActualKale [Creator]
Heya, we updated the game. The purpose of this update was initially to make the game a little smoother to speedrun but none of the changes me and Zero have done alters the game in a way we think is detrimental to the experience for anyone, thus we decided this should be the official version and public for everyone.
I won't go over all the changes, noteworthy ones include: new character, slight boss changes, new sprites (in a few places), an option to turn off the respawn fade effect, skipable credits, less dishwashing, platforming improvements throughout (primarily in the second half) and bug fixes.
[9] Likes
I won't go over all the changes, noteworthy ones include: new character, slight boss changes, new sprites (in a few places), an option to turn off the respawn fade effect, skipable credits, less dishwashing, platforming improvements throughout (primarily in the second half) and bug fixes.
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: 90 90
Feb 26, 2018
87 Reviews:
xva
amazing crimson needle game, massively improving on CN1. needle may be less memorable than usual, but the game sure as hell delivers on pretty much everything else. for every bad needle idea CN1 has, this game has 10 infinitely better ones. this game is so far removed from CN1 that it's somewhat difficult to tell that they're from the same series. I didn't use jtool through this entire game, as I felt it wasn't really necessary - in the spirit of a truly blind playthrough. admittedly, I hadn't seen much of this game before playing it, which I feel made it much more fun. I recommend that you don't use jtool either, unless you get stuck on something for a while.
the only issue with this game is that the needle is somewhat forgettable, as I don't even remember a lot of the tilesets I apparently spent time playing. this doesn't mean the needle is bad, but I can only remember a handful of notable screens. the needle is fantastic though, don't get me wrong. just the type of stuff I enjoy. F100 is quite rough, as the last screen is very easy to choke despite being somewhat easy on its own. in my opinion, the sum of floors F1-F99 don't equal F100's difficulty.
the final boss is a very well-designed masterpiece, and a faithful remake of The Four Gods at that. it's the best crimson fight I've ever played or likely ever will - it'll be very hard to top this one. it can be a bit tilting if you make dumb mistakes or shoot them in the wrong order. you can also get walled sometimes if you don't pay attention and that is quite infuriating when it happens. this unfortunately seems to happen somewhat often, which is my main complaint with the fight. the concept of the bosses merging after being individually killed is very unique and interesting. the whole second phase [sic] is really interesting and well thought out; having to balance out damaging both of the bosses was quite the challenge, but it was all worth it in the end. a truly timeless masterpiece that will forever stand the test of time
absolutely recommended
[0] Likes
the only issue with this game is that the needle is somewhat forgettable, as I don't even remember a lot of the tilesets I apparently spent time playing. this doesn't mean the needle is bad, but I can only remember a handful of notable screens. the needle is fantastic though, don't get me wrong. just the type of stuff I enjoy. F100 is quite rough, as the last screen is very easy to choke despite being somewhat easy on its own. in my opinion, the sum of floors F1-F99 don't equal F100's difficulty.
the final boss is a very well-designed masterpiece, and a faithful remake of The Four Gods at that. it's the best crimson fight I've ever played or likely ever will - it'll be very hard to top this one. it can be a bit tilting if you make dumb mistakes or shoot them in the wrong order. you can also get walled sometimes if you don't pay attention and that is quite infuriating when it happens. this unfortunately seems to happen somewhat often, which is my main complaint with the fight. the concept of the bosses merging after being individually killed is very unique and interesting. the whole second phase [sic] is really interesting and well thought out; having to balance out damaging both of the bosses was quite the challenge, but it was all worth it in the end. a truly timeless masterpiece that will forever stand the test of time
absolutely recommended
Rating: 9.8 98
Difficulty: 85 85
Sep 25, 2024
glitchy
the needle is mostly pretty basic, and i don't mean it as an insult. it works for what it is. granted, it does have some of its moments. though, i still enjoyed most of the screens!! the boss, especially was a highlight. i've seen some people not like the boss (i dunno how popular that opinion is, but i know it's an opinion some people have) but i honestly enjoyed my time with it, even if there were many frustrating moments of dying to the fire/ice phases.
the biggest detriment this game suffers with is the nikaple engine input lag (it's still there even after patching).. i dunno if this just wasn't noticed at the time, but i really thought it was annoying. it kind of carried floor 100's difficulty for me. if it was completely fixed this game would notably improved.
having a little bit of post game is a nice touch, too.
[0] Likes
the biggest detriment this game suffers with is the nikaple engine input lag (it's still there even after patching).. i dunno if this just wasn't noticed at the time, but i really thought it was annoying. it kind of carried floor 100's difficulty for me. if it was completely fixed this game would notably improved.
having a little bit of post game is a nice touch, too.
Rating: 7.3 73
Difficulty: 85 85
Jun 9, 2024
KingSlendy
The game is very fun, there's some stages here and there that I hated, but the one thing I wish wasn't in this game was the boss, I didn't like it at all. Otherwise if you enjoy vanilla needle definitely play it
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 8.0 80
Difficulty: 80 80
Oct 31, 2023
starspangledbanner9
I only got up to floor 61 but there were very few actual fun screens. There is very little variety, so much so I thought ever floor was made by the same person. The jumps aren't THAT fun and most of the jumps just end up being falling jumps and are super annoyingly tight. I love a good needle game and I love this idea so keep that up, just I think more creativity with the needle and difficulty balancing is due. Creativity + have wacky pathfinding design for each jump to make it more satisfying.
[0] Likes
Rating: 6.0 60
Difficulty: 86 86
Aug 26, 2023
Kilgour22
Rating based on needle clear.
A beefy, pure needle game that, at its peak, presents a challenge for every player. There's a ton of variety visually, and the platforming, despite consisting of the standard water-vine-platform schema, manages to remain fairly fresh throughout.
I've heard it said that Crimson Needle 2 has one of the smoothest difficulty curves around. I actually push back against this a bit; I found the 80s to be harder than the 90s. However, I can't deny that the vast majority of the game does offer a gradual difficulty increase as you progress—even if certain saves are significantly easier than others, even in the later floors. I personally didn't mind, since this can feel like a breather, but it also runs the risk of angering the player when they get stuck on the next, much harder, save. This happened a few times for me, but I was never stuck so long that it became a serious problem.
Particularly in the later screens, there are some design decisions that are questionable at best. The clearest example of this is a plane jump in the middle of floor 98 that lacks a consistent setup. Such an inclusion serves only to raise the difficulty in an unpleasant way, since there's little opportunity for the player to improve at this jump. While this makes the speed at which one clears the screen a raw skill test, it's also frustrating for the abovementioned reason.
All in all, experienced players should consider playing Crimson Needle 2. Don't be afraid of the outdated difficulty rating, artificially inflated by reviews in the low-to-mid 90s from players who played many years ago on a harder version, or, worse, didn't reach the hardest parts, yet left a rating regardless.
[0] Likes
A beefy, pure needle game that, at its peak, presents a challenge for every player. There's a ton of variety visually, and the platforming, despite consisting of the standard water-vine-platform schema, manages to remain fairly fresh throughout.
I've heard it said that Crimson Needle 2 has one of the smoothest difficulty curves around. I actually push back against this a bit; I found the 80s to be harder than the 90s. However, I can't deny that the vast majority of the game does offer a gradual difficulty increase as you progress—even if certain saves are significantly easier than others, even in the later floors. I personally didn't mind, since this can feel like a breather, but it also runs the risk of angering the player when they get stuck on the next, much harder, save. This happened a few times for me, but I was never stuck so long that it became a serious problem.
Particularly in the later screens, there are some design decisions that are questionable at best. The clearest example of this is a plane jump in the middle of floor 98 that lacks a consistent setup. Such an inclusion serves only to raise the difficulty in an unpleasant way, since there's little opportunity for the player to improve at this jump. While this makes the speed at which one clears the screen a raw skill test, it's also frustrating for the abovementioned reason.
All in all, experienced players should consider playing Crimson Needle 2. Don't be afraid of the outdated difficulty rating, artificially inflated by reviews in the low-to-mid 90s from players who played many years ago on a harder version, or, worse, didn't reach the hardest parts, yet left a rating regardless.
Rating: 5.0 50
Difficulty: 80 80
Sep 9, 2022