Fireboy and Watergirl in The Forest Temple: the co-op puzzler that started the series
The Forest Temple came out in 2009 as a Flash game by Oslo Albet and it set the pattern every sequel follows: one screen, one room of the temple, two characters who can only leave together. Fireboy is a walking flame who strolls across lava but evaporates the moment he touches water. Watergirl is a drop of water who swims through pools but dies in lava. Green goo kills both of them. Every room has a red-symbol door for Fireboy, a blue-symbol door for Watergirl, red and blue diamonds scattered along the way, and some mix of levers, pressure buttons, pushable boxes and moving platforms that only make sense once you use both characters.
The version on fireboyandwatergirl.me is the official HTML5 conversion of the Forest Temple, served from this domain rather than framed from somewhere else, so it loads with the page and runs on a school Chromebook without Flash or a plugin. All 32 levels are here, including the ones near the end that need one character parked on a button while the other runs the long way round. Two of the sequels, The Light Temple and The Crystal Temple, have their own pages on this site, so when the Forest Temple's last door closes you can keep going. (Ice Temple, Elements and Fairy Tales are not here yet: the only copies we could find were missing levels, and we would rather list nothing than a game that goes black on level two.)
Controls & mechanics
| Action | Control | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Fireboy | Left / Right arrows, Up arrow to jump | Moves the flame; he can cross lava and takes the red diamonds and the red door |
| Watergirl | A / D to move, W to jump | Moves the drop; she can cross water and takes the blue diamonds and the blue door |
| Levers and buttons | Walk into a lever, stand on a button | Levers flip when a character passes; buttons only hold while someone stands on them |
| Boxes | Walk into a box to push it | A box can weigh down a button, block a beam or give you a step up |
| Pause / restart | Pause button, top right corner | Restarts the room from the pause menu without losing earlier levels |
How to clear the Forest Temple faster
- Move one character at a time when you play alone: The temptation is to press both sets of keys at once. Do not. Walk Fireboy to a safe ledge, stop, then move Watergirl. Only the timed sections — a platform that drops when a button is released — need both hands going.
- Read the room before you touch anything: Each level is one screen. Find both doors first, then trace the path each character needs, then look for what blocks it: a raised platform, a locked wall, a pool the wrong character has to cross. The lever or button that fixes it is always visible.
- Diamonds are optional, the door is not: You finish a level by getting both characters into their doors at the same time. Diamonds only count towards the grade. On the first run through, ignore the risky ones; come back for an A once you know the room.
- Buttons only work while something holds them: A button moves its matching platform only while it is held down. If the platform has to stay up while the second character crosses, leave someone on the button, or push a box onto it and free both characters.
- Green goo is the only thing that kills both: Lava is fine for Fireboy, water is fine for Watergirl, and the green pool kills either. When a level looks impossible, check whether the character you assumed was blocked can actually walk straight through the hazard.
Key features
- Real two-player on one keyboard: Arrow keys on the right for Fireboy, WAD on the left for Watergirl. Two people can sit at one laptop and each take a character, which is how the game was designed to be played.
- 32 rooms, all here: The full Forest Temple, from the tutorial room with the on-screen key prompts to the late levels that chain elevators, boxes and buttons across the whole screen.
- Self-hosted HTML5 build: The game files are served from this domain, not an iframe of a third-party page, so there is no ad wall before the menu and it works on a Chromebook.
- A, B or C on every level: Each room is graded on time, and the door screen shows how many diamonds you took, so there is a reason to replay a room you already beat.
Game info
- Title: Fireboy and Watergirl
- Developer: Oslo Albet
- Category: 2 Player
- Platform: Web browser (HTML5)
- Series: Forest Temple (2009) · Light Temple · Ice Temple · Crystal Temple · Elements · Fairy Tales
Pro tip: On levels where both characters need to ride the same elevator, jump on it with one character, then walk the other on from the side while it is still low — the platform waits at the bottom until the button under it is released, so there is no rush. The rush comes at the top, where you have to walk both off before it drops.
