Jumping Flash! is a brief but fun and unique 3D platformer that deserves more recognition. I knew of this game as an ultra-niche cult classic but never had the opportunity to actually play it myself during childhood. Playing it now, it is surprising how well it actually controls. There is that classic tank control jank present in so many PS1 titles, but with how rapidly your robo-rabbit character turns and how ridiculously high you can jump, it really never becomes an issue. Within about 3 minutes I was jumping around, shooting enemies, and collecting items without a thought to control scheme.
If you asked me to recount the story to you I'm afraid I would utterly fail. The story is about what you would expect from an old-school platformer from this time period--non-existent. That doesn't really matter. All I knew was I needed to collect 4 little carrots from across each level and hop onto the exit pad in order to finish and move on. To be frank, that's all I needed to know since as soon as some short opening FMVs were finished playing, you are right into the action with a weird but oddly cute frog thing jumping toward you, prompting a quick decision to start moving.
The levels in this game, and the entire art style and design for that matter, are incredible. The enemy designs are unique and memorable (shoutout to that weird little TV bat thing), the levels themselves are varied and have huge personality, and the colors are vivid and vibrant. Even the power-ups are unique. You have your standard fare of invincibility, time-extension, and time-stop powers but also just some really odd ones like a giant nut that explodes into a bomb on impact or the ability to send a flurry of what look like party streamers at your opponent that snake around in a wide area. Everything about this game oozes a bright and whimsical personality.
Unfortunately, I can't praise it too high though as the one glaring flaw in this game is in it's difficulty. The game is far too easy for how amazing the art direction is and how creative some of the levels can be. I want to stay in each of these levels and worlds for so much longer but, with a run-time of about 2 hours, they fly by far too quickly. So many of the carrots you need can be easily obtained by simply abusing the double jump mechanic to gain an insane amount of height. This makes what look like interesting puzzle platform sections completely redundant when I can just fly past all of it and reach my destination anyways. I wanted more and to explore more but there simply isn't enough incentive or challenge to force the player to explore and truly appreciate each level as it is designed.
I absolutely love what this game is doing. At no point leading up to this did I think I would have so much fun or see so much potential in an early PS1 first-person 3D platformer. But, Jumping Flash! proved me wrong. Jumping Flash! is a fantastical, unique, and charming platformer that is a bit too short and easy for its own good. While the artistic style and core gameplay mechanics are stellar, the actual level design itself does not cater to the insane level of ability and control you have as the player when platforming, leaving many levels feeling more like really cool set pieces to stare at in awe rather than creative, engaging, and interesting platforming challenges to engage in. I see an insane amount of potential here that I really hope gets capitalized on in the sequel.
If you asked me to recount the story to you I'm afraid I would utterly fail. The story is about what you would expect from an old-school platformer from this time period--non-existent. That doesn't really matter. All I knew was I needed to collect 4 little carrots from across each level and hop onto the exit pad in order to finish and move on. To be frank, that's all I needed to know since as soon as some short opening FMVs were finished playing, you are right into the action with a weird but oddly cute frog thing jumping toward you, prompting a quick decision to start moving.
The levels in this game, and the entire art style and design for that matter, are incredible. The enemy designs are unique and memorable (shoutout to that weird little TV bat thing), the levels themselves are varied and have huge personality, and the colors are vivid and vibrant. Even the power-ups are unique. You have your standard fare of invincibility, time-extension, and time-stop powers but also just some really odd ones like a giant nut that explodes into a bomb on impact or the ability to send a flurry of what look like party streamers at your opponent that snake around in a wide area. Everything about this game oozes a bright and whimsical personality.
Unfortunately, I can't praise it too high though as the one glaring flaw in this game is in it's difficulty. The game is far too easy for how amazing the art direction is and how creative some of the levels can be. I want to stay in each of these levels and worlds for so much longer but, with a run-time of about 2 hours, they fly by far too quickly. So many of the carrots you need can be easily obtained by simply abusing the double jump mechanic to gain an insane amount of height. This makes what look like interesting puzzle platform sections completely redundant when I can just fly past all of it and reach my destination anyways. I wanted more and to explore more but there simply isn't enough incentive or challenge to force the player to explore and truly appreciate each level as it is designed.
I absolutely love what this game is doing. At no point leading up to this did I think I would have so much fun or see so much potential in an early PS1 first-person 3D platformer. But, Jumping Flash! proved me wrong. Jumping Flash! is a fantastical, unique, and charming platformer that is a bit too short and easy for its own good. While the artistic style and core gameplay mechanics are stellar, the actual level design itself does not cater to the insane level of ability and control you have as the player when platforming, leaving many levels feeling more like really cool set pieces to stare at in awe rather than creative, engaging, and interesting platforming challenges to engage in. I see an insane amount of potential here that I really hope gets capitalized on in the sequel.