Me and the Key (game)

*"Can you get the key in each level? Just point, click, drag, drop, and think…."*
— The Bart Bonte Collection description

***Me and the Key*** is the 1st entry of the series under the same name. It released on April 9, 2009 as a browser-exclusive game.

Click here to play Me and the Key online for free!

## Blog Announcement

Me and the key is live! Well the moment is finally here, my brand new bonte game is launched. I hope you enjoy it! If you like it, please spread the link, share it, digg it, but above all play it! Cheers!

## Gameplay

### Overview

The game consists of mechanics revolving around penguins, bricks, trees, oranges and balls, and TVs. The background has green, blue, or purple stripes. The music is rather bright and uplifting.

### Objective

Each level, you will to find a key through point-and-click (with the exception of the last level). The challenge increases as you get further into the game, but also the fun!

### Levels

There are 25 levels:
**NOTE: the ones with stars (★) represent the milestones for the BB Collection.**

**Level 1**: Click the penguin in the middle of the screen. Click the key on the red necklace.

**Level 2**: Twenty-four orange balls will fall from the top of the screen. Click them to pop them. The last ball you click will always contain the key. Once you pop it, click the key to continue.

**Level 3**: Click the seven penguins in any order. The last one you click will have a red necklace with the key. Click the key to move on.

**Level 4**: Press and hold the level window to grow the tree. Once it has grown, it will produce four oranges. Click the oranges to drop them. Once all four oranges have fallen, click each to pop them. Just like before, the last one you click will contain the key.

**Level 5**: The box has 2 sets of 3 sliding doors. You can only move a door if no other doors block you from seeing it. The key hides behind both layers on the rights side.

**Level 6**: Use your mouse to control the paddle at the bottom of the level. Click anywhere on the game window to activate the ball. To reach the key, you need to destroy at least 1 column of bricks, since the 6 × 4 wall covers the length of the level window. If you lose the ball, the level resets! *(NOTE: When you start the game, the ball always bounces right.)*

**Level 7**: The 5 penguins on the left side of the level hide the key. Drag the penguins until you see the key. Click the key to advance. (NOTE: you need to move at least 3 penguins to see the key).

**Level 8**: A dark off-purple ball with light-up polka dots will bounce—higher each time if you take too long. Click the dots to light them up. Be careful: clicking a white dot will turn it off. Once all the dots are lit, the ball will light up and fade away. The key will drop from the ball.

**Level 9**: This is a reaction game. You will see three TVs on another four. Each time, a random TV will pick up a signal and broadcast a penguin. If you do not click the penguin in time, the TV will lose its signal and hide the penguin. Repeat for the other six TVs. The penguin on the last screen you click will have the red key necklace when you click it.

**Level 10** (★): Pull the right end of the rope downwards. Keep pulling until you see the key on the other end of the rope. Quickly click on it to advance to the next level. If you're not fast enough, the side with the key will drop down and you will have to pull the rope again.

**Level 11**: You can't click anything but the menu buttons here. Instead, type "key" on your keyboard.

**Level 12**: A small penguin, along with a huge orange ball will appear on the screen. Drag the penguin (left or right) to rotate the ball. You will see another penguin while rotating the ball. Drag that penguin to reveal the penguin with the key necklace on the other side.

**Level 13**: This time, an 11 × 4 orange brick wall (with a bit of margin from the level screen on the sides) blocks your access to the key. This wall is also lower than the one on level 6. To destroy an orange brick, the ball must hit it twice. Losing the ball causes all bricks to turn back to orange bricks. *(NOTE: The ball gets progressively faster by each hit.)*

**Level 14**: "Shake" the tree by moving your pointer left and right. After some time, the key will drop, and you may continue.

**Level 15**: Two penguins on opposite sides have a flat orange sinusoidal wave connecting them. Hover your pointer over one penguin and follow the orange wave until you reach the other penguin. If at any point your pointer leaves the orange and is not touching the other penguin, the puzzle resets. Once you reach the other penguin, it will show the key necklace.

**Level 16**: Drag the ball to the top of the screen and let it drop down to the ground to lower everything into view. The key rests high up in the tree. Click it when you can see it to move on.

**Level 17**: Four inactive balls bounce around the screen. Click them to activate them. If an inactive ball touches an active ball, the active ball will deactivate. Once all the balls have activated, the player can not mess up, and the key will drop from the top of the screen.

**Level 18**: A big, orange ball with a hole will appear at the top of the screen. The arrow below it indicate where the hole should go so the key can drop. Move your cursor to rotate the ball so the hole is pointing towards the arrow.

**Level 19**: Right-click anywhere on the screen. You will see an option labeled "key!". Click it to move on. ***(NOTE: On some websites, you can not right-click the game window, making this level impossible for that website.)***

**Level 20** (★★): A glass ball encases the key. Pull the rope until you can't pull anymore, then let the glass ball drop. You will hear a glass shattering sound, indicating you can grab the key now. Pull the rope and grab the key.

**Level 21**: You need to destroy 2 thin white brick walls, each with 6 bricks, with 2 balls. Drag one ball to bump the other one. Only the other ball can destroy the bricks. Once you break down both walls, the key will drop from the top of the screen.

**Level 22**: One TV tops 2 stacks of 3 TVs. It's the same reaction game as level 9, except if you're not fast enough, the ones you've clicked will disappear.

**Level 23**: This time, the shelf has 3 sets of 3 sliding doors, with the key resting on the left.

**Level 24** A harder version of Level 15, this time with four penguins instead of two and the orange line was duplicated and flipped to make another path. If you mess up here the puzzle resets!

**Level 25** (★★★): Your pointer disappears. Two paddles on the sides line up with your pointer horizontally, and two paddles on the top and bottom line up vertically. The bottom paddle has a ball. If the ball hits another paddle, the counter decrements by one. Keep repeating this until it reaches zero. If you mess up here, the counter reverts back to 99!

## Trivia

### References

* It used to be a very searched game, but it has lost popularity likely due to the end of Flash and that it is no longer free to play on favourite websites.[1]
* *Me* might refer to one of the penguins in the game or Bart trying to find the same thing in a different way, as shown in the color games series.
* On April 17, 2009, Bart Bonte did a giveaway of the game's music. People who donated at least 1 euro to Bontegames via PayPal would receive an e-mail containing a 256-bit mp3 of the soundtrack while the the giveaway was active.[2]
* On June 14, 2009, the Kongregate version received an achievement called *Me and the Badge*. This badge is awarded for completing all 25 levels.[3]
* This is the first Bonte game since *Loose the Moose* to not have an end scroll.
* The sequel uses the same soundtrack but in stereo.[4]
	+ *furiosity* and *Me and the Key 3* also use the same soundtrack but also with a touch of the electronic genre.
* A variation of the ending theme appears in *Full Moon*.
* The key used in this game is the same key from *The Bonte Room*.

### Levels

* On levels 6 and 13, if the ball hits bricks correctly, it will glitch into the bricks and destroy several before bouncing back.
* The ball on level 8 can change the direction it spins by itself, even without ever making contact with the wall, which makes no sense.
	+ Additionally, when the ball lights up, before dropping the key, you can see the ball as if it had not turned as white.
* On some websites, you can completely skip the paths on levels 15 and 24 by right-clicking, moving your pointer to the next penguin, and clicking the penguin.
* The level 18 key is not actually inside the ball—it is behind it.
* In level 22, the TVs do not all reset as a whole. Instead the penguin that showed up but was not clicked disappears, then a delay, then all other TVs reset.
* The slider levels reappear in *What's Inside the Box?*.
* The pong levels reappear in the sequel as well as *Black* level 24, which is the only leisurely one out of the three.
* The rope levels reappears in *Yellow* level 11 with less necessary reaction time.
* Level 12 reappears in *Yellow* level 32 as night and day.
* Level 16 reappears in *Yellow* on the same level.
* The bumping balls mechanic in level 21 reappears in *Yellow* level 38 (albeit the balls not responding to gravity) and *Orange* level 39.
* This is the only Bonte game where you right-click to complete a level.
* On Steam, 51.0% of BB Collection players have all 3 stars on this game.