The real reason this has only 1 life.

[AndyUK]

According to an interview in the December issue of retro gamer.

The real reason Dizzy 2 has one life is actually because of a problem that could occur.
Say if you dropped the snorkel underwater, you would instantly drown again if you restarted in the water.
But even if you started on the beach. You wouldn't be able to get back in the water again. The game would be impossible to finish.

So... the Olivers were running out of time and had no ideas how to fix it the lives were reduced to 1. Right at the last minute. Up until then the game had 3 lives just like dizzy 1!

[delta]

simple, make it so you only drown after being in the water a few seconds!

[AndyC]

I always suspected that that was the reason why.

[AndyUK]

simple, make it so you only drown after being in the water a few seconds!

if you've dropped the snorkel out of reach you're still buggered.

[STEVE 09]

Maybe the Oliver Twins didn't have enough time to think of these ideas at the time. Having a life energy bar which would be like a timer underwater would have also been a good solution as well.
Treasure Island Dizzy is really hard with just 1 life though. The slightest mistake or mis judgement can be fatal in this game. I remember playing it years ago and getting right to the very end having found all the gold coins and crossing the river on the boat to get out of the island and the stupid Dizzy rolls went a bit too far and Dizzy fell off the boat and into the water and drowned, right at the final hurdle. As you could imagine I wasn't impressed

[Crw]

The Oliver Twins confirmed this again yesterday. Time restraints made it so they could not go back and change the way the game worked.

[Invisibabe]

I actually quite like the fact that Dizzy only has 1 life in Treasure Island. Let's face it, the game is much smaller than the original Dizzy, and other than the 1 life issue it's hardly a complicated, tricky, or taxing game.

Yes, you need quite a few goes to complete it but if there was more than 1 life it'd be a walk in the park

[AndyUK]

yeah this game is actually really short. If it wasn't for the coins it would only take about 15 minutes to do all the puzzles. The inventory bug (moving two places at once at random) makes journeys into the water take even longer.

[AndyC]

If it wasn't for the coins it would only take about 15 minutes to do all the puzzles.

I've completed the game (DizzyAGE version) in about 19 minutes before now, including the coins.

[universospectrum]

I must agree that i, too, liked the One-Life idea!

Yes, it's frustrating if you make a wrong turn, but otherwise, the game would be too easy, and the intention is to keep you busy hehehe