Review: Comic Jumper

Do you want to be frustrated and bored? Lulled into a mindless stare by monotony, or brought to overwhelming frustration due to bad game design? Well you’re in luck because Comic Jumper is there to fulfill those needs. Have an idea where this is going? Then keep reading on for our review of Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley.

Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley( XBLA)
Developer:Twisted Pixel
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Released: October 6, 2010

Comic Jumper is the latest game by developer Twisted Pixel, the same team that brought us The Maw and Splosion man.  The story involves a moronic comic character, Captain Smiley, who has failed one too many times in his quest to vanquish evil and so has gotten his subscription deal cancelled. And so in order to come back with his own series he must make guest appearances in other comic books.  When he does this, the look of the game takes on the look of the particular comic series.  Those included are a Conan the Barbarian knock-off, a 1960’s style super-hero comic, and a Manga.

It’s an interesting premise, and the presentation of the story in both the cutscenes and the level transitions are well done. But any amount ingenuity ends here, and the game quickly becomes a boring, monotonous, and vapid mess.

The gameplay is basically comprised of both twin-stick shooter and turret-sequences, during which Smiley is expected to shoot, dodge and jump from all sorts of dangers being hurled at him.  This wouldn’t be such a problem if the controls were anything but stiff and non-responsive.  There are many times that Smiley just won’t do what you’re telling him to do, especially during the short melee sections of the game.  The melee is so bad that it makes fighting in GTAIV feel like Tekken in comparison. This is compounded by the fact that the art style of the game, particularly the color palette is horrifically mis-directed.

The problem arises in the second and third portions of the game where you will have brown tinted enemies on a brown background followed by grey enemies on a grey background later.  Platforms and rods that Smiley must grab onto are also practically invisible much of the time.  You’ll be trucking a long hanging from the ceiling and find yourself falling to your death with seemingly no reason.  This aches of simply not being playtested enough, or at all, by anyone who didn’t know they were already there.

Camera positioning is a major problem during turret sequences as well. During these you’re basically controlling Smiley’s left to right movements, jumping, firing, and aim, while he’s running continually in a straight line. The camera is positioned almost directly behind him making jumping over objects and avoiding oncoming fire very difficult. And believe me, after running from left to right for what feels like forever I bet the first thing you want to do then is a turret-sequence!

You will basically find, maybe, 4-5 enemy types in Comic Jumper that have been reskinned 3 times. Each for the different levels.  These will be continually, and monotonously, thrown at you in almost unvaried waves providing some of the most uninteresting pattern attacks I’ve seen in years.  Two enemies appear, 4 enemies appear, 6 enemies appear, rinse and repeat. It becomes so tedious that you’ll find yourself almost zoning out by the second section of the game. But don't worry. If you don’t want to fight them, often times you don’t even have to! In almost every level I was able to go back and just run in a straight line, blowing through checkpoints without having to fight as mindless patterned enemies continued to arrive.

The gameplay is so stale that Twisted Pixel even reused, whole cloth, a major boss fight from Splosion man as one of the final bosses of the game.  The final level of the game, right before this boss-fight, is basically the first level all over again.

The story of Comic Jumper is tolerable at best, but the writing is downright terrible, and the sophomoric attempts at wit bring only eye-rolling and yawns most of the time.  The game, on the other hand, seems to be endlessly amused at itself. Indeed, points where it attempts a sarcastic look at 1960’s racism and misogyny come off as flat, unamusing, and almost racist and misogynistic itself simply because of the lack of wit and subtlety

In conclusion, Comic Jumper is one of the most monotonous, banal, and frustrating experiences I’ve ever had in a video game.  The gameplay is, by all intensive purposes, lifeless, bland and uninspired.  An awful slog from beginning to drawn out end.

Score: 10

(0-19%: Don’t Bother - It’s not worth your money or your time)