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If there is one thing I don't like about the Cybernetic Revolution that we're in the middle of, it has to be the general lowering of standards. I don't mean that in a political way or even in terms of product quality, two things that Comic Jumper doesn't need to worry about. What I mean is the lowering of standards in terms of humor and wit, which is something that affects Comic Jumper so much that I'm surprised the company hasn't vanished up their own anuses (anai?). It seems as if the company, Twisted Pixel, has taken all of the success (and none of the feedback!!) of their last game, 'Splosion Man, as a green light to escalate the scale of their "zany" brand of humor, to which they have filled this new title to the point of it exploding into confetti and half-baked internet memes.Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley, revolves around... well, Captain Smiley, and the greatest crisis he has ever known: his comic has been canceled! Thankfully, because self-aware humor is so fun these days, a bunch of scientists from Twisted Pixel have decided to help the Captain reboot his comic, but he has to do some guest appearances first in other stories. So it's pretty much an excuse to pay homage and to take the piss out of different comic books all in the guise of a retro style side-scrolling shoot-em-up.
Gameplay in Comic Jumper should be familiar to anyone who used to play video games in an arcade, specifically a public arcade circa 1991. Any kind of arcade will do with the exception of Pac Man because Comic Jumper plays like a disjointed combination of them. For the most part, the game plays as a side-scrolling shoot-em-up in the vein of Shank and occasionally transitions into a Sin and Punishment esque Rail Shooter, light application of God of War style Quick-Time Events, and a severely cut down melee brawler reminiscent of Bad Dudes or Streets of Rage. I would like to say that these changes in gameplay helps keep the game fresh, but after a while, a pattern is formed. There's going to be some fighting, then some shooting, then some rail shooting, then boss fight then win, rinse repeat. The only thing keeping the game from blending together into something forgettable is the art style.
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Don't get too smug yet...
As suggested by the game's premise, you do go through at least three distinct art styles, from Golden Age Conan, to Silver Age Superhero to Manga. If there is a strong point to be had when it comes to Comic Jumper, it is that the dev team did their research. Every world in Comic Jumper feels like they were taken straight off a comic shelf. At the same time, the story does have some fun at the comics' own expense. Whether it is admitting the absurdities of censorship at the time, or even straight faced ignorance of diversity, Comic Jumper makes it clear that it is going for goofy and tries to instill that same sense of whimsy into the player. This is where the game falls flat for me.With gameplay that feels ported from several other games with little to no options to aid its transition to more modern standards and an art style that pops, Comic Jumper should just barely be pushed into the Buy column right? Well, here comes the silver bullet, the one I put into the gun back in the first paragraph of this review specifically. Comic Jumper is so full of inside jokes, memes and pop-culture skewing that it has absolutely no identity of its own. A nod to a popular movie or game is fine if its done in terms of parody or homage, and should be done in a subtle way, to make the person work for the reference. Comic Jumper... well let me put it this way. I actually counted how many times 'Splosion Man has been advertised in-game in addition to internet memes and jokes I could pick out throughout my first run through of the game. 'Splosion Man is advertised indirectly and overtly about nine to eleven times throughout the game; the jokes are in the double digits and stopped being funny the first two times. It's the videogame equivalant of Family Guy, just jokes with no structure or meaning, just done for the sake of a cheap "what the hell" laugh. Also, putting in live photos of your buddies into levels when all you have for your reputation is an N+ clone diluted with Portal jokes isn't clever, Twisted Pixel, it's just pretentious.
I could go on about how the game continuously took me away from the experience, but it can be summed up that the game sabotages itself. It coins itself as a light-hearted romp through comic history and while that is certainly present, it also fails to distract from the fact that there is nothing truly original about it, now matter how hard it tries to hide it.
Bottom Line: For a price tag of fifteen bucks on XBLA, Comic Jumper is not worth your time if you're over the age of 15 and don't find Lolcats hilarious, for those of a younger generation, go ahead and haz your funz.