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As someone who’s enjoyed Twisted Pixel’s work thus far, I was hopeful that Comic Jumper would continue their trend of fun arcade titles on the cheap. And while there’s plenty of their trademark humor and charm spread throughout, the core gameplay is pretty disappointing. Comic Jumper is a game that’s occasionally fun to witness, but rarely fun to actually play, and I don’t feel comfortable recommending it to anyone looking for anything more than a few lighthearted laughs.
It doesn’t take long to realize that Comic Jumper’s big selling point is its humor. To this end, the goofy pair of Captain Smiley and Star are ideal protagonists, and the rest of the cast does a great job at setting up some completely silly scenarios. The game constantly barrages you with witty one-liners, hilarious antics, and some absurd fourth wall breaking references. Whether Star is getting fined for cursing in a Silver Age comic, Smiley is negotiating payment with Twisted Pixel (who appear as characters in the game via green screen shenanigans), or they’re both referencing how the developers know nothing about manga, there’s a fair amount of ridiculousness going on all the time. A lot of it is fairly throwaway humor, but every so often it strikes gold. There are some genuine “laugh out loud” moments to be found, and all told they’re the best that Comic Jumper has to offer.
It’s good that those funny moments exist, because Comic Jumper falls pretty flat in every other area. The controls aren’t as responsive as they could be, the upgrade system is super shallow, and the general gameplay is incredibly dull. It toggles back and forth between button mashy “beat ‘em up” segments and side-scrolling shooter segments, and there’s nothing unique about either. Even worse is how each level is long, linear, and repetitive. There’s also very little enemy variety, and many of them (especially the bosses) are gigantic “bullet sponges” to boot. This all leads to each level feeling like nothing more than a big grind. You’ll spend tons of time dumping hundreds of bullets into the same static enemies over and over, and I frequently found myself wishing I was done with a given level- not the best feeling to have while playing a game. Finally, Comic Jumper is strangely priced at $15 compared to the $10 price point of previous Twisted Pixel games. This isn’t really a huge concern, but it is a little unfortunate to be paying more for what I feel is a noticeable step down in quality.
Comic Jumper almost feels like a knee-jerk reaction to the overwhelmingly positive reception that ‘Splosion Man’s crazy ending received. It seems that Twisted Pixel tried to make an entire game based on such antics, but ‘Splosion Man was great first and foremost because of great gameplay- the humor was simply icing on the cake. Comic Jumper shows what happens when gameplay is left on the wayside in favor of some funnies, and is probably best left alone by those unwilling to sludge through hours of mediocrity just to hear a good joke.
For additional information on my review style and scoring system, click here.
