Xbox LIVE Arcade Game of the week – Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley

I’m sure at some point or other, most of us have ignored a less than satisfactory story. I mean for stuff like Just Cause or Killzone it’s all about the kick ass gameplay right? In those sorts of games, narrative is just filler that gives the gameplay an excuse for existing. It’s a dynamic most of us just accept without question, it’s just how some games are. But can the reverse also be true? What if the gameplay was just an excuse for a story? And can that story be so utterly hilarious that you could find it within yourself to forgive even the most cardinal of game design sins? If you want to find out, you should definitely play Twisted Pixel’s Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley.

The first stage of comic jumper features 5 different gameplay styles, twin stick shooting, platforming, old school beat-em-up, on-the-rails shooting and quick time events. Every stage in the game features some of these same segments presented in almost exactly the same way.  Ok so that’s no bad thing right? All those things can be fun if done well! But that’s the problem; comic jumper doesn’t do any of them well at all. In every shooting segment you use the same weedy gun, platforming is Ghosts ’n Goblins annoying, the beat-em-up sections only have one combo and the quick time events are just plain boring. Sure, you might find one or two of these things enjoyable the first time round, but you’ll be pulling you’re hair out in equal parts of boredom and frustration once they’ve been drilled into your mind after the first few stages.

Of course if it’s such an awful game, why is it worth even writing about? Well that’s simple, it’s just plain funny. But let’s just wind this train of thought back a little so I can tell you what this game’s actually about. You see, In Comic Jumper’s world, comic books aren’t drawn by artists. They’re “acted” like some sort of improvised TV series, with each issue having cartoon villains and heroes hired on as freelance actors. Still with me? Yeah don’t try and apply any logic to any of this stuff, if fact just forget logic entirely, it’ll be easier for all of us.

You play as Captain Smiley, the lead hero in the comic book “The Adventures of Captain Smiley”. Unfortunately it’s a comic that’s not doing so well, store owners tare it up in disgust, people have no qualms about using it as substitute toilet paper and all the school kids think Smiley’s a loser. With the comic’s popularity at rock bottom, all Smiley’s co-stars quit and there’s not enough money left to publish another issue. Just when it looks like he’s going to have to cancel his own franchise, Twisted Pixel step in and give Smiley the ability to guest star in other people’s comics to help make ends meet. Yes that’s right, the developers put themselves in their own game, playing the role of………. the developers of Comic Jumper (again, abandon all logic ye who enter here). Not only that but they threw in some totally crazy live action footage to represent themselves. No, snap out of it! You haven’t time warped back to the mid-90s, this is just a very weird game ok.

So what’s so funny about all that (apart from everything)? Well most of the big laughs come from the dialog, which is good because there’s rarely a moment in Comic Jumper where someone’s NOT talking.  Everything from trying to shoot when not inside a comic or just examining your in game achievements is enough justification for a few quips from Smiley, his potty-mouthed sidekick Star or one of the many colourful characters you meet along the way. A lot of the really good stuff is actually one-time-only events that occur in the mission hub, encouraging you to constantly re-explore the small environment after every mission just to find new jokes.

The humour itself is extremely self-aware, with subjects varying between the absurdities of video game logic, the ridiculous tropes of whatever comic book genre you’re currently in, Smiley’s ineptitude as a hero or even Comic Jumpers own shortcomings as a game. That last one always confuses me a little, I’m not sure how Twisted Pixel managed to identify that elements of their game laughably poor yet not feel the need to do anything about it. But I suppose if anything, that just makes it even more hilarious, especially when you consider the level of polish the rest of the game sports.

Even something as mundane as unlockable extras has been painstakingly implemented, featuring literally hundreds of items from every stage of the games development, complete with notations that track its progress all the way from a comic book one of the staff wrote when they were 12 to a fully fledged Xbox title. In a truly inspired move the game even gives you a score multiplayer that increases every time you unlock more of the stuff. And while the graphics might not be quite up there with other indi titles like Amnesia: The Dark Descent, the way it shifts between 4 equally impressive and totally different art styles as you change comic genres more than makes up for that.

The presentation does slip up occasionally though, thanks to some rather rigid character movement during cutscenes and a few issues with overused assets, but that’s really just splitting hairs. Comic Jumpers only real non-gameplay related flaw (what a weird thing to say in a game review) is that it’s all over too soon. This is an indi title after all, so it’s hardly surprising it only gets to briskly cover 4 different comic genres (modern, silver age, fantasy and manga) and can’t afford to dwell on any one subject for too long. That brings me to the sad thing about a game that champions everything else over gameplay: once you’ve finish it, then that’s it. You’ve listened to all the jokes and watched all the cutscenes, essentially this game no replay value of any kind.

I don’t know if top quality humour can justify half-baked gameplay and I don’t know if I could ever call Comic Jumper a “good game”. All I do know is that when I put my controller down after finishing it, I still had a great big smile on my face, as if I was still recoiling from the world’s greatest and most well told joke. Comic Jumper is a game that will likely make you happy, and when it comes down to it that’s all we really want, so does it matter how it gets you there?

Comic Jumper
Developer: Twisted Pixel
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade

The Good

• Huge amount of hilarious dialog.
• Great cast of characters.
• High Quality voice acting.
• Enough unlockable extras to put most other titles to shame.

The Bad

• Very limited gameplay.
• No replay value.
• Only 4 comic genres to chose from.

Recommended similar games
‘Splosion Man
Gunstar Heroes
Earthworm Jim
Contra