I’m going to start this one with some honesty. I really had no desire to play Comic Jumper. I saw the screenshots and I saw the game play; I just thought I would pass on it. I knew these were the same people that made The Maw and Splosion Man, but since I didn’t play those games I had no expectations; good or bad. So how exactly did I get to play the game? Well, to be honest once again, boredom struck. I saw the game, had some left over points, and decided to go for it. I have to say, I’m glad I did.
The plot of the game is about you, a comic book character whose production has been stopped because your comic sucks. The people over at Twisted Pixel decide to help you out by giving you a machine that allows you to jump into other comics and help out those comic stars for a fee so that you can get enough cash to start your own series again. Every time you finish a comic you will come back to your base where Gerda, your sidekick (who doesn’t really like you) will be waiting to discuss and give you your next assignment. Also in the base you will find your previous foes that also lost their job after you lost your comic. You will be able to talk with them between comics. In my opinion this is a big part of why I enjoyed the game; the comedy.
Your interactions with the other characters are great. You come across different personalities including egomaniacs, mad scientists, overweight warriors, and even feminists. The character you will interact with the most though is Star; reason being that Star is embedded in your chest. Star will provide most of the comedy in the game. He is crude, dislikes the Captain, and is in love with Brad. The constant bickering between Star and the Captain will keep you entertained for the majority of most levels. I don’t think I have laughed so hard at a game until I played the “Improbable Paper Pals” comic and all those jokes were pretty much Star.
The voice work was well done and it also helped with the delivery of the jokes. When characters sound bad, or annoying it can take a joke from funny to lame in a heartbeat. I’m glad Twisted Pixel put some thought into their voice acting. I think the best thing about the comedy is that the game doesn’t take itself too seriously. All of the characters know that they are in a game or comic book and make many funny pop culture references. In one comic you have to battle raptor/tiger looking beasts. At that point Star says “This is all John Hammond’s fault.” If you don’t know who John Hammond is… well I just don’t know what to say.
Besides your own comic you will take part in three others. One is a Conan-esk (the barbarian not O’Brien) world filled with prehistoric birds and beasts as well as golf cart riding, spear throwing enemies. Another is a politically incorrect 60’s comic where you will fight against a female enemy who is trying to free women from the oppression of men. The last is actually a manga comic filled with hearts, teenage girls with angel wings, and demons. Each world has its own look and the Captain’s look will adjust for each one. Captain Smiley’s comic and the Nanoc (Conan) comic don’t really look like comics at all if you ask me. It just felt like you were playing through another 3D game stuck in a 2D camera angle. I thought the developer could have done a better job of selling the scene. Improbable Paper Pals (60’s) and Cutie Cutie Kid Cupids (Manga) had a nice feel to them and looked like you were actually in a comic book from the visual effects to the sound effects and music.
The game is broken into missions which take you into a different issue of a comic. You will play through three issues of each series. Plus, you will have two issues from the Captain’s comic so you are looking at 11 total missions. Each mission will give you a cash prize for completing it. During the missions you will make cash by completing certain challenges like not getting hit while going through a specific segment as well as bonuses for accuracy, kills, and not dying. You can do two things with the cash; buy upgrades or bonuses. Upgrades will improve your health, melee damage, slide duration, weapons damage, and how quickly you can escape from a hold. Upgrades aren’t cheap either so don’t expect to max out midway through the game. Upgrades are not an option; if you do not upgrade, don’t expect to get far as the game gets harder with each level. Bonuses for the most part give you extra stuff like concept art, audio tracks, comic covers, and achievements. The one bonus that is very useful is concept art. For every piece you unlock, you will gain more cash at the end of a mission.
The game play is a mash up of multiple types of games. You have melee sequences, QTE’s (Quick Time Events…think Shenmue), gun play, and on rail segments. Usually I dislike when developers try to mash too much into a game, but in this case it kept the game interesting. Also, the fact that most of the time you will transition into these other play modes seamlessly really helped smooth out the game play. The majority of the time you will be running around with your double guns killing enemies while dodging attacks. I have to tell you, this game is not for chumps. You will die… a lot. A lot of games these days have you focus on doing one thing at a time; not this game.
Most of the time you will find yourself fighting hordes of enemies; dodging one enemy’s attacks while simultaneously shooting at another. Naturally, you will face different types of enemies. Some enemies melee, some shoot projectiles, and some just grab you and hold you down. You will need to determine who you need to kill first and do it fast because these guys don’t move slowly. One of the most difficult parts is that you cannot refill your health during a level. Whatever health you lose, it will stay that way until you die or complete the level. Unless you don’t mind dying a lot and restarting at checkpoints, you will not be mindlessly blowing through enemies. You will need to stay aware of where you are, where they are, and what they are doing.
I found the boss fights to be entertaining. The boss fights however are usually the easiest part of the level. Some bosses you will fight more than once and there is little to no change in the boss’ tactics. While this seems a bit lazy on the developers part, the boss fights are still fun. How could you not have fun in a boss fight were you are jumping rope while an embedded star in your chest makes jokes about the female boss going “double dutch”. There are also challenges for you to complete if you choose so. Pretty much all you need to do in these is meet the specified criteria and you will get cash for you endeavors. Don’t expect it to be easy though.
I had a great time playing Comic Jumper. While the game play can get a bit repetitive at times, the overall package is still worth the 1200 points ($15). Where else are you going to fly through space, fight prehistoric birds while on golf carts, ride a unicorn, fight a guy who has his own “brad”-copter, and a legion of female robots all while hearing jokes all the way through? NOWHERE! For anyone who isn’t afraid of a challenge and wants some good entertainment, I highly recommend Comic Jumper.
*Images from Gamergeddon
