| Author | Review |
|---|
B1ue Rising
126,470
TA Score for this game: 40
Posted on 06 October 10 at 01:23 |
This review has 48 positive votes and 9 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Comic Jumper follows the adventures of Captain Smiley a down and out comic book hero whose own comic has been cancelled. In order to gain his reputation back and regain his comic book hero status Captain Smiley must guest star in other heroes comics. Such comics include a Conan the Barbarian rip off and a Japanese manga style comic, the good thing about jumping from comic to comic is that with each one Smiley visits the game adopts the art style of that comic meaning that the game is always fresh and interesting.
Comic jumper is both a shooter and a brawler with the former being the most predominant of the two, Captain Smiley has two dual wield pistols that will change depending on the comic, they are easily controlled using the right stick to aim and if any enemies get to close the A and X buttons will allow you to use your fists and feet to fend them off. If you are not from an older generation of gamers then the pace and no mercy attitude of Comic Jumpers gameplay might seem unfair and annoying at times with enemies dealing large amounts of damage and overwhelming you most of the level you will die a lot. There are no health packs or shields and when you die you will have to return to the last checkpoint you activated which can either be generously located or several minutes back depending on the situation. Luckily however no matter how frustrated you get at dying seconds before the end of an area you never feel like the game is being unfair to you and you will never feel like just giving up, the fun is in the challenge and makes a nice change in pace from today's hold your hand games.
As a welcome little break when not comic jumping you can head over to the upgrade shop and use the money you have earned during the level in order to increase you stats such as health and damage, these are a must have if you are to complete this game especially with how challenging the later levels can become.
Comic Jumper is one of those games that attempts to break through the forth wall and reach out into the real world. Everyone in the game is aware that they are both in a video game and a comic book and act accordingly discussing their contracts and what they will be doing on their days off. Captain Smiley and his sidekick, a talking star on his chest, will often break out into meaningless squabbles and arguments that often have you in stitches at the things they say to one another. The overall dialogue throughout the game is top notch and with the top quality voice work that goes hand in hand makes Comic Jumper a game that you actually want to listen to and not just play.
A final note has to go to the soundtrack and sounds in Comic Jumper, all of the tracks in the game are originals and some will easily get stuck in your hand such as Brad’s theme and backing music, also the games sound effects from the wham bam of a punch kick combo to the sounds of bullets shredding through a brad-bot will never get old.
Twisted Pixel have obviously put a lot of time and effort into Comic Jumper and have come a long way since The Maw. They have created a perfect downloadable title that is both fun but not long enough for the fun to wear off and become a chore to play. The voice work and dialogue alone make this game worth picking up and with top notch artwork to go with it there isn’t much chance of you being disappointed with this game. The only thing you should be aware of is the hardcore and unforgiving nature of the game. if you are to used to games being easy then this may not be the title for you however if you are from an older era of gaming and appreciate and miss the challenge that games on the SNES etc brought then this may be the perfect trip down memory lane.
 |
NLi10
29,268
TA Score for this game: 253
Posted on 19 October 10 at 13:48 |
This review has 32 positive votes and 19 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
There is a lot to be said for looking pretty. It gets you noticed and sometimes that's enough to impress people. Comic Jumper is very pretty, it's also quite a good concept - bad comic book hero has to schlep as a guest star to earn money to reboot his franchise. In this instance though the demo shows you everything the game has to offer, and is in fact far more polished than the rest of the title.
There really isn't much love here when it comes to gameplay. The 'old school' vibe is present, but none of the care and attention. The gameplay is repetitive without ever being inventive. If you didn't live through the 8-bit era of 20 years ago you could be forgiven for thinking that this is how it was back then, but on the whole it wasn't. Developers took care over the smallest details of enemy placement and when you got hit you knew it was your fault and not just the fuzzy gameplay that you have in Comic Jumper.
There is no feedback to the player - often (esp comic 3) you are getting hit without any clear message that it is happening. Also you can't really tell that you are causing damage to the enemies. There is no audio clue, or rumble to suggest these, just the muddy visuals.
The muddy visual problem crops up with the pipes in comic 1, where it isn't clear that you can grip onto these, and in some case you can't even see the pipes.
Essentially you hold down the right trigger and spend the game pointing at the bad guys with the left stick. The game even includes an auto aim to help. I'm not sure who thought this was fun.
Melee sections are essentially one button combat, one button defence - even the Turtles arcade machine added a bit of variety. You can buy a melee power up that does absolutely nothing to change this.
The light gun sections have some of the worst reticule control of any game I have seen. I've played PS2 versions of light-gun games that had snappier control, and that was 10 years ago. Now the Wii has put quality light gun games in our homes it's worth the dev playing a few of those and stealing the play style if not the responsiveness.
You get a super Y button power attack that the game then penalises you for using. As far as I know it's always the same animation, but I only ever used it twice as it seemed to do nothing anyway. Maybe it's to speed up the monotonous bosses.
The sound-bites are funny, but tied to scripted events so that you get very sick of the ones for loosing health and dying. Should have at least varied these by comic. On the whole the presentation and the story is great, but it's let down by a terrible game.
The enemy placement is poor, there is no thought to what makes a good challenge. Nothing that involves the regular grunt enemies is memorable.
The bosses are essentially either the one in a frame where you shoot something in the centre, or the one where something flies around and you have to avoid the deadly lines. There is one unique boss near to the end. All have a giant number for you to whittle down by pointing at the boss and holding down the trigger. All are tedious, and most are repeated 2 or 3 times throughout the game. At least the developers didn't decide to add a boss rush mode at the end.
The RPG power up system adds nothing to the game, replaying the first level with a fully powered captain really doesn't change much. If this had been worked into the level structure then finishing a comic powered you up making earlier comics easier. This would have enabled the devs to fix the difficulty problems and guarantee a balanced game.
I like that buying the extras gives you bonus money. Unfortunately this breaks the high score tables as only those with 325% bonus will do well. Also whoever thought that buying 160 pieces of concept art one at a time, requiring 3 button presses and an animation, was a good idea should be punched hard. A bulk buy option where you buy a set value or number would have been better.
The repetition is mind boggling - all levels have the same things happen but with different sprites. Oh look - the flying things are attacking me while the round things roll across the bottom of the screen - on every single level. Sometimes you fight the same identical mini boss twice in a row. there are levels on the 3rd comic that feel identical but have different backgrounds.
There are two levels that are COMPLETELY IDENTICAL except that 2nd time around the mid level boss is at the end and is replaced with the games most interesting (and only unique) boss fight. Again, they spent time and effort on this boss, but forgot about the rest. Surely the difficulty and flow of the level should now be different due to the power ups and story development? No? Oh - ok...
The game is hard, but lacks challenge. Your deaths are always due to getting bored and trying to rush the level. Due to the poor design taking it slowly and only letting one or two enemies appear is the tactically best option which is probably why they added par times for the levels.
I loved the Maw - LOVED it. It's the best 3d PS one style game I've played. It filled me with hope for the developers future titles. This is just a big bag of trash. It's like they employed 100% of people that knew how to draw comic book style and nobody who knew how to make games, or had any experience of the notion of fun. The Q&A team got rid of all the bugs as it is a glitch free experience - it's just a shame none of them had the balls to tell the devs that the game wasn't any fun at all.
This is only for die-hard comic book fans who enjoy skill-less repetition. I think most people would be bored even watching a You Tube walk through of this titles levels and should stick to just the cut-scenes and first appearance of each boss.
The only other reviews on here are 4 or 5 star reviews, mainly talking about the start of the game and only hinting about it's flaws. Younger gamers may enjoy this title as while it feels hard due to the frequent deaths absolutely anyone can finish it. Also the collectibles aspect may encourage fans of Splosion Man to buy it for the extra 2 levels (bought for 5,000 money in the shop).
This is the worst XBL title that I have paid money for and if there was some way of getting a refund I would. I'm going to get the rubber band achievement for leaving the game running while firing shots (another example of not understanding what fun is) and then delete the stupidly large 2GB mess from my hard drive even though I don't need the space.
1 star represents the good presentation and ideas that the team had, maybe someday this will get remade with content that matches those aspirations and become worth playing. At the moment if someone offers you this for free turn it down.
 |
Xx King Mark xX
0
Posted on 06 November 10 at 01:45
|
This review has 19 positive votes and 6 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Comic Jumper is an action video game developed by Twisted Pixel Games and co-published with Microsoft Game Studios.
In Comic Jumper players control Captain Smiley, a comic book hero whose comics are poorly received. Seeking help from Twisted Pixel themselves he "jumps" in other comics, hoping to bring back the genre's popularity. As he enters each comic genre his design and weaponry changes to suit the comic style.
Comic Jumper is an 2.5D action game in which the player must defeat enemies to progress. The main gameplay is about using Captain Smiley's dual pistols and platforming across levels, which is broken up by various segments which include melee combat, on-rails shooting and quick time events. In keeping with the game's humor, Captain Smiley can call on the actual developers of Twisted Pixel to perform a special attack, in which live action footage of Twisted Pixel employees is shown over the gameplay (which is a cool addition in my opinion), with the developers destroying nearby enemies. These special attacks are earned by completing melee sections without getting hit, or by purchasing them in the upgrades store.
By performing well in each issue players can earn extra cash on top of their base fee. Additional bonuses can be earned by fulfilling reader expectations, which involves things such as completing a certain section without getting hit. Cash can also be earned by completing special challenge levels or exploring the main base and conversing with characters. Money earned from the levels can be spent on upgrades to Captain Smiley's abilities or on various unlockable content, including concept art, interviews, gamerpics and two additional levels from 'Splosion Man. Unlockables purchased will also increase the amount of money Captain Smiley earns from missions.
For 1200msp you pay, you get every pennies worth out of it with the nice graphics, gamerpics, premium theme, and loads of fun. This game will give you lol's, lmfao's and rofl's! Even though the game is very hard it's very enjoyable.
I give it a 4.5/5!  |
Helmaroc
104,132
TA Score for this game: 293
Posted on 06 November 10 at 02:52, Edited on 06 November 10 at 02:52 |
This review has 14 positive votes and 2 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Comic Jumper has got a unique idea going for it. It has you, as Captain Smiley, jumping between various comic genres, battling your way through waves of enemies. But is this premise enough to make this a good game?
STORY
As mentioned, you play as Captain Smiley, whose costume has another character, Star, attached to it. Smiley has got his first comic released, but it ends up becoming a huge flop, and the comic is cancelled ends just as soon as it began. In comes Twisted Pixel to save the day. They agree to remake the comic if you can scrape enough cash. To do so, Smiley is tasked by his assistant, Gerda, to appear in other comic, in the genre of fantasy, the Silver Age and manga, and help the characters of those comics.
The story is a funny and original concept. Smiley and Star constantly crack jokes about the comics they’re in, all while annoying Gerda. The one problem is that it seems a little over saturated with Twisted Pixel. They even have they’re logo as the main title screen, which seems a little weird. Luckily, the amazing humour, which goes along with great voice acting, keeps you pushing through the game.
DESIGN
The only mode you have to go with is the story mode. You progress through the three comic genres, which have three levels each, trying to get the cash needed to restart Smiley’s comic. In total, there are 11 levels, with Smiley playing in his own comic at the beginning and end of the game. At the end of most levels is a boss. Many of these are unique, though they can sometimes be annoying and feel a little cheap. Each level takes approximately half an hour to complete, so you’re looking at about 6 hours of gameplay. To extend the play time further, there are various challenges that can get you extra cash to buy upgrades with (more on that in a bit). They all basically task you with killing as many enemies as possible, or reaching the end of an area without getting hit. I wish there was a little more variety in the challenges. These are accessed from the main hub area, where you can play levels from, view achievements, or see your bonuses you bought.
As for the upgrades, you collect cash during the main levels or challenges. You can buy various upgrades for Captain Smiley, like improving his pistol damage or giving him more health. You can also buy bonuses, which include various videos, concept art and more. These bonuses also give you an extra cash boost after completing a level or challenge.
In all, there’s a nice amount of play time, and the bonuses are quite interesting and funny, though I wish there was a bit more for the 1200 points price tag.
GAMEPLAY
There are essentially three main types of gameplay. The first is the most prominent. You use the right trigger to shoot your pistols (which act more like Uzis), and control the direction of the guns with the right control stick. You also jump with the A button, and can press Y for a special attack where the Twisted Pixel crew starts punching the screen, damaging all the enemies. This is very reminiscent of the Genesis game Gunstar Heroes. The bosses even have the same type of health bar. Unlike GH, you only have one type of gun, which kind of makes the gameplay feel a bit repetitive.
One of the other gameplay styles is more like a brawler. You press X to punch, and press A to do an attack that clears the enemies away from you, though this doesn’t hurt them. After playing the shooter style so much, this style is a refreshing change of pace that doesn’t happen too often to become repetitive. The final style is reminiscent of another Genesis title, Space Harrier. The camera is situated behind Smiley, and he runs forward when the game says to. The reticule appears on the screen and you move it around with the right stick, while shooting, while you move Smiley left or right. I always hated this style, and it really shows off some of the bad hit detection the game sometimes has.
So while the game is pretty fun, it can get a bit repetitive at times, and the hit detection can be annoying at times.
PRESENTATION
This is where the game really stands out. Seeing as there are three comic genres, there is three different art styles. The fantasy isn’t really that interesting, with a more of a brownish colour palette than the others. The Silver Age looks exactly like a lost 60’s comic, that comes terrible racism and sexism that was found at the time. Finally, the manga style is all black and white, and really looks like a manga book, though it’s sometimes hard to see what’s happening. Smiley also looks different in each genre and fits right in. I especially like how he looks in the manga genre. His guns also changes, like how he shoots bubbles in the manga genre and lasers in the Silver Age.
All of this comes with excellent voice acting that really makes the game all the more hilarious. I do have a problem with the lip synching though, as it’s not even meant to be close. It’s kind of jarring hearing them talk and having their mouths do the exact same motions, no matter what they say.
As with every Twisted Pixel game, the presentation is just phenomenal, and it really helps it stand out.
In conclusion, Comic Jumper is a fun game, with a great presentation and excellent humour, but the gameplay gets a little repetitive and doesn’t pack quite enough value for its price tag.
For that, I give the game a 4/5.
|
LitaOsiris
239,070
TA Score for this game: 293
Posted on 18 November 11 at 15:10 |
This review has 17 positive votes and 5 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Originally written for gamingirl.com in 2010 but slightly updated here
Comic Jumper is Twisted Pixel’s latest development which focuses on the adventures of Captain Smiley and his sidekick, Star, who is attached to Captain Smiley’s chest. Where Smiley is the hero who fights villains with guns and fists, Star is the trash talker of enemies and almost narrator of each scene with his quick wit and biting charm.
From comic to comic
The game begins with an issue of Captain Smiley’s comic but immediately after he finds himself in a rock bottom situation when he discovers he has been cancelled. His viewer ship have labelled the comic as trash and even the villains want nothing more to do with him. Enter Twisted Pixel who are kind enough to support Captain Smiley in these tough times. In order to regain his reputation and comic book adventures, Smiley must guest star in other comics to earn back his audience as well as cash to pay the bills. Such adventures include a trip into the jungle with Nanoc the Obliviator (note Nanoc is Conan spelt backwards), a blast from the 1960's past with Improbably Paper Pals and a manga style story with Cutie Cutie Kid Cupids. Each comic is designed in its own way and as such Captain Smiley’s appearance changes to match the comic, which I think is a nice touch. Even the loading screens during gameplay are very well done with the animation jumping from one comic box to another and in one instance where Star proclaimed it was time for a page turn.
The gameplay involves using Captain Smiley’s dual pistols as well as his fists to defeat many enemies across the various levels which includes side scrolling shooting, on-rails shooting, melee combat and quick time events. The flow between each is done very well between the scenes and offers a nice change between each mode. However, there is no question about it that the gameplay is designed to suit an older audience, particular those who remember the difficult arcade games from the past. The game can be brutally unforgiving since there is no regenerating health or even health packs, which is especially noticeable during boss battles. Your only checkpoint will be before the fight begins so if you die you have to start all over again. I found this caused me to be determined to beat the boss but others could find it annoying.
Raw and ridiculous
The best feature of Comic Jumper is definitely its humour. The dialogue and the flow between all the characters is simply brilliant and is a testament to Twisted Pixel and their ability to develop story and characters. I found I was just dying with anticipation to get through to the next cut scene to see how the story would go. Even backgrounds show humour with as an example from one level in a museum, signs that say “Quiet please, security guards napping” and “Please do not touch, lick, stroke or mount displays”. In your headquarters there are other amusements with lines such as “Press X to stroke your ego” when viewing your achievements. Even the stats screen has random facts such as Smiley’s star sign, blood type and the amount of days since he last took a shower. One funny aspect of the game designed to give you some assistance if you find you’re in way over your head is the ‘Help Me’ feature which involves Twisted Pixel jumping into the game in an amusing, live action way to help you out.
Overall
Obviously a lot of time has gone into this game with the character development, story, even the soundtrack which has many original scores (including one for the stats page!), but overall and perhaps maybe as a consequence, I thought the game was a bit short. You can fully complete it even achievement wise in about five hours if you’re good and can get through the levels with few problems. Otherwise the length would be made up by constantly having to repeat sections which unfortunately is not a good formula for a game. Also the replayability factor is low. Since the game is mostly dependent on its story, once you know it, it’s like one of those movies you can only see once and then you have to wait a while to see it again so it will still be good. I recommend that you play the demo before you decide on purchasing it. In the demo you’ll get Captain Smiley’s level to play through which lets you experience all elements of the gameplay. For your purchase Twisted Pixel are generous and they throw in avatar items, gamer pictures of Captain Smiley and Star, a theme and an additional two levels for Splosion Man (one single player, one multiplayer), which I was quite happy with.
Comic Jumper is definitely a unique title and I’m glad I’ve played it. I would still give the game 4 out of 5 despite its flaws.
|
G Smith007
213,510
TA Score for this game: 197
Posted on 18 October 10 at 17:32, Edited on 22 October 10 at 22:34 |
This review has 11 positive votes and 4 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Comic Jumper is the newest creation by Twisted Pixel. These guys brought you the award-winning games, The Maw and Splosion Man. Comic Jumper is without doubt the funniest an toughest game yet.
Captain Smiley is not a popular Super Hero and his Comic Book has been cancelled because of this. He must travel through different Comic Books to earn enough cash to relaunch it. You will Punch, Climb, Drive and Shoot your way through three different Comic Book varients. Smiley doesn't travel alone. He has an annoying friend called Star who is attached to his chest. He complains about everything but has some of the funniest lines in the game.
The game is loaded with unlockables, from a Premium Theme, Gamer Pics, Avatar Awards, Staff Interviews and more. These can be purchased from Smileys HQ where you will be brought back to after completing a level. You will earn money for completing levels and challenges. You can also upgrade Captain Smiley in the process, like his health and strength.
Expect to die alot when playing this game. I'ts one of the hardest Side-Scrolling games i've played and has some fustraiting Boss Battles. This was all forgiven though thanks to it's great humor and creative ideas. The game is not all side-scrolling, the camera will sometimes change to the back of Captain Smiley and you must dodge incoming attacks. It does come rather repetative, as you will do the same things but just with a different background setting. This is not a bad thing though as the pacing between them is nice. I was a little disappointed with the length. It can be completed in around 2 hours but you can replay levels so you can buy all the unlockables and fully upgrade Smiley if you didn't in your first playthrough. You could also replay levels to beat your friends score on the leaderboard.
Comic Jumper is a solid game with nice art style and a great sence of humor. If you want a good laugh and a challenging game you should definitely check this out.
Overall Score 8/10 
|
Panda Jenkins
123,006
TA Score for this game: 293
Posted on 10 October 10 at 10:50 |
This review has 14 positive votes and 8 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
"Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley" is the newest game by Xbox Live Arcade developers Twisted Pixel. Being a big fan of their previous works "The Maw" and "Splosion Man" I was extremely hyped for it ever since I saw the reveal trailer last year. Surely it delivered to my expectations and has successfully become my favourite Xbox Live Arcade game because of its pure hilarity and overall enjoyment.
If the concept of this game doesen't sell it to you then I don't know what will. You play as Captain Smiley, a mildly successfully comic book action hero. Captain Smiley has a giant smiley for a head, and his sidekick Star is a obnoxious and rude... well a star on his chest. At the start you find out their comic has been losing success and fans and gets canceled. But thankfully the good old guys at Twisted Pixel (the game developer) decide to hire them and allow them to make some money back by guest starring in various other comic books. Of course Captain Smileys intentions are to relaunch his own comic book once he becomes rich enough again.
Really what makes this great though is the comedy surrounding the characters, themes, and various comic book styles. Each time you jump into a different comic book series the art style and various other things change to accustom to that comic books style. There is four different styles used in the game. Modern, Fantasy, Silver Age, and my favourite Manga. All of these look completely different to the other and have their own jokes surrounding the aspects of its own style. Being a big Anime fan, I found myself laughing throughout the entire Manga section just because of how true and suiting a lot of the jokes were. But Twisted Pixel managed to make jokes to pretty much every little thing in this game, whether it was the characters themselves, the setting, what is going on in the combat, and pretty much anything offered in this game. I don't know if I have ever laughed so much to one game.
That is not to say the comedy is the only thing this game offers. The game-play is loads of fun. Firstly I should say that it can be very repetitive, but this never ruined it for me. Twisted Pixel managed to make up with it through enjoyment or otherwise a fairly tough challenge. Most of the time you will find yourself shooting all the enemies on the screen. This is done through aiming with the right analogue stick and firing with the trigger. Enemies attack you from all angles and have various different attack types all mixed together (some ranged, some melee, and then a mix of different kinds for each). While most of it is side scrolling, there is sections where it will put you behind Captain Smiley and make you aim with a cursor. A lot of these sections get so over the top that they are awesome, Such as flying down from a skyscraper and while driving a golf cart. Also there is melee sections which require simple bashing but are amusing thanks to how the enemies fly through windows or into objects in the background. Lastly there is a few quick time event sequences in the game but they are quite minimal. Mixed into these sections is boss fights which all have patterns to be beaten, but don't end up being to simple like most games with sequence boss fights these days. Actually as I mentioned before the game is a fairly tough challenge. There is sections that will kill you very quickly and cause you to overcome them through trial and error. This is something that this game is quite dependent on. If you die during some of these sections it sends you back to a checkpoint several minutes before, so it tries to challenge the player fairly well but also could quite frustrate some people too. What makes this game hard a lot of the time though is that it requires good multi-tasking, Something me and a lot of other people (males) suck at.
Visually the game has fantastic art direction. All of the comic styles look great and stand out on their own. But what also makes the game look great is during all of these comics you find yourself jumping between the pages which just looks so awesome. There is various other things worth mentioning but they are best to be experienced by the player while playing it. Especially since a lot of them apply to certain comic styles and just add to the experience. But to comment along side the visuals is that the sound work is also great. The voice actors all do their roles very well and just capture the hilarity of them. The music is also good which has a big range of different tracks used for each different comic. There is also tracks recorded by Chainsaw known for his awesome Do-nut song in "Splosion Man" (Those who have played it know what I am talking about).
While there is a main story which should last the player around 4-5 hours or so, there is plenty of extra content to make it worth the 1200 point price tag. Firstly, you can hang around your super hero base. After each comic you finish there is tons of new extra dialogue that can be viewed with the various characters, villains, and objects in the base. Which most of it is hilarious might I add. There is also plenty of challenges that can be played to earn extra cash or otherwise compete on the leader-boards with. Lastly there is tons of un-lockables in the game. Like Twisted Pixels previous games there is a lot of Xbox related content that can be unlocked. There is gamer pictures, a premium theme, and avatar awards (one being a Captain Smiley head). But this time there is also un-lockable DLC for "Splosion Man" which is extra single player and multi-player levels. What is more is that Twisted Pixel have allowed us to unlock a lot of the concept art, comic book covers, audio tracks, behind the scenes videos, and so forth to be viewed. All of these have descriptions provided by the company too and they can be quite interesting to view and learn about it. I found it great finding out a lot of the ideas they pondered, or ideas/designs that were changed throughout its development.
While it can be repetitive and possibly frustrating, Comic Jumper is one hell of a game. It had me laughing throughout the entire thing, and also had me enjoying and coming back for more. I just found too much to love about this game and having it only cost me 1200 Microsoft points made it even better. It has to be my personal favourite game on the Xbox Live Arcade and one I highly recommend should be checked out by everyone.
 |