Played during the Backloggd’s Game of the Week (23rd May – 29th May, 2023).

sylvie's many games are fascinating meditations on game design, relying on the poetic contrast between a sweet atmosphere and devious level design, while Hubol's titles are more absurd, whimsical and garish, as in Craz'd! (2009). Their productions must be understood through an aesthetic of subversion, playing with traditional codes and the player's expectations. For example, cat planet (2009), a more concise project by sylvie, subverted the idea of a single action button, but remained relatively superficial in its exploration of game design. JIGGLY ZONE revisits this initial idea, but takes the opposite approach. The player controls a Jigglypuff and must collect fragments of medallions scattered across seven different worlds. Initially, Jiggly can only make a single jump, but the title gradually tries to push the player to their limits by offering a series of technical obstacles. The placement of platforms and spikes requires careful movement, making full use of the jump palette. The first objective, implied by the various Jigglies that populate this strange world, is to obtain a power-up in the Golden City. This allows the player to make successive jumps of decreasing height.

JIGGLY ZONE immediately takes advantage of this new resource by introducing more challenging aerial platforming, with multiple spikes dotting the screen. Despite the roughness of some sections, sylvie's philosophy is not to alienate the player: by pressing the down button, a checkpoint can be placed on Jiggly's position. This acts as a de facto savestate, breaking up the progression into easily digestible micro-sections. Much like Celeste (2018), the title allows players to familiarise themselves with Jiggly's powers at their own pace, but rewards their proactive – albeit often optional – use, as well as exiting the boundaries of the levels. In the first few minutes, each screen may seem chaotic and labyrinthine, but the acquisition of power-ups recontextualises them, as the player is able to get through a previously major ordeal in no time. JIGGLY ZONE manages to alter the pace and mode of exploration to avoid becoming unpleasantly monotonous. The lack of a map, which players will have to draw themselves in order to find their way through the world, is perhaps unfortunate. It is frustrating to get lost in a series of visually similar screens near the end, trying to find chests that were inaccessible at the start of the game.

There's something fascinating about the way the world of JIGGLY ZONE is constructed. The pixel art assets contrast nicely with the crepe paper backgrounds. The NPCs' dialogue is disjointed, and the player is treated like a pariah. Nowhere are they welcome, and all the characters are either sarcastic, contemptuous or defiant. Each group protects its treasures, but Jiggly simply ignores their warnings and complaints. The Golden City has suffered an apocalypse, the nature of which eludes the player. All that remains are the ruins of gilded buildings, their blocks engraved with a dollar sign. Was it the avarice of the inhabitants or that of the looters that brought the city to its knees? No answer is given, except that Jiggly grabs the last remaining treasure.

The various NPCs seem to be mere reflections of themselves, their remarks devoid of any rationality. As the title progresses, this feeling deepens, their words distorted and their sentences pierced by an eerie silence, like the hull of a ship cracked by the sea. This is of little interest to Jiggly. Conversation with the locals was a welcome reward when progression was slow and cautious. But with increasing power, the presence of other life forms becomes obsolete, anecdotal. In the final minutes, the player collects the last medallion shards without remorse. And then there is only silence.