Wow I am the worst blogger on here. Every post I write is short, probably because I don't like writing all that much. And when I do get around to writing, I like to keep it pithy.
So Comic Jumper is the most recent XBLA game to be put out by the much celebrated developer Twisted Pixel. They are the ones who made The Maw, a game where you control a strange alien who eats everything, and 'Splosion Man, a brilliant yet difficult 2d platformer where your only real ability is to make yourself "splode."
The premise of Comic Jumper is that you are Captain Smiley, a comic book hero who, until very recently, is the star of his own comic series. However, when the plot lines start to slide, the comic gets cancelled, leaving you out of work off to fend for yourself. You then (with the help of the game devs at Twisted Pixel) learn that you can possibly jump to guest star in other comics and earn some scratch for doing it, thereby being able to restart your own comic series.
There's good, bad, and so-so in this game, to be sure. The Bad is that the game seems just so damn hard! Like you die all the freaking time. Theres a lot of dual stick type shooting in this game, which is frustratingly difficult. They even added an aim assist to the game to make it easier which resulted in me dying like 2 less times on the FIRST LEVEL. Maybe it's just me, but I found myself playing some of the challenge type rounds that are more "kill all the bad guys as fast as possible" just to get some practice! I mean, shit.
Okay now the good thing in the game is the dialogue. Oh man, it's like playing one of those old 2d Sam and Max games all over again. Lots of inappropriate innuendo, and bickering to boot! Captain Smiley has an anthropomorphic star on his chest named "Star" which i feel like they added in just to make that kind of dialogue happen! At one point in the early game, Smiley comments about how great his boots are, to which Star goes into a frenzy until he realizes that Smiley said "boots" not "boobs". Sounds lame when I type it, but trust me.
The gameplay is rough around the edges. Like I said, a lot of awkward shooting around, I feel like Smiley runs really slowly for how fast his legs move, and now that I'm moving forward in the game, I'm getting worried that it's not going to get any easier. I actually went ahead and bought the game in the hopes that it was a stylistic choice to make the gameplay clunky and hard in the beginning and then have it get easier as the game goes. I thought that'd be a bold and brilliant choice to make you feel the same as the disappointed Captain Smiley readers in your dislike of the character. This may still turn out to be the case, but I have yet to finish the game. Perhaps in the next day or two I'll finish and give an update.
Check out the demo for the art style and the amazing banter, but the jury is still out on whether the game lives up to being a fun time.
P.S. I just went out to see Paranormal Activity 2 and I laughed a whole lot. The people yelling out stuff in the theater was about the best thing ever. Not scary BTW.
UPDATE: I finished Comic Jumper, and a bit to my dismay, the game got a little easier. The reason this is to my dismay is because I think it got easier because I got BETTER at it, and not by design. Still, the game was very fun, though the ending was underwhelming. However, what makes up for the ending being lame is the Manga level Cutie Cutie Kid Cupids is really super amazingly great. Now that I've reflected a bit on the game, I'd say buy it!
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