I love comics. One of the first books I ever read was a children’s book based on Spider-Man involving a madman at a zoo. Once I mastered the fine art of reading on my own, I naturally explored my love for comics, reading anything I could get my hands on. Unfortunately, being young and naïve, I chose to buy two cheaper Spider-Man series’ instead of the classic, and more consistently strong Amazing Spider-Man series. Needless to say, a lot of my early comics were the disposable trash of the early 90s. Twisted Pixel’s newest game, Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley begins like a memory lifted from my brain. A corny comic character involved in cliché shenanigans. The game tosses the player into a comic book world, a concept handled brilliantly in the 1995 Sega Genesis game Comix Zone. Comic Jumper will instantly draw comparisons by players who have had the pleasure of playing its spiritual predecessor. However, once the level ends and the game level pans out to live action footage of a disappointed kid reading a Captain Smiley comics, followed by montage of other angry readers tearing the book in two and using it as toilet paper, you’ll realize this is a horse of a drastically different color. However, Twisted Pixel, breaking the fourth wall (something that happens a lot) decides to fund Captain Smiley’s quest to reinvent himself and viewers are thrown into a newly built base and the real heart of the game begins to unfold.



Comic Jumper is pure genius in the story department, Twisted Pixel deserves every ounce of praise for crafting a story world that takes a corny character and uses him to show that even the most beloved genre and style of comic can be as equally cheesy. Aiding Captain Smiley along the way is Star, the titular shape resides on Smiley's chest and is your typical sarcastic, crude sidekick; the Bizzaro to Smiley’s Superman. Out of work, but given a second chance as a guest star in other comics, Smiley hops in a time/genre travel pod straight out of “Timecop” and lands in the savage world of Nanoc, a warrior that may remind some players of a character that helped propel a certain mush-mouthed titan of cinema into political office (I'm not talking about Ronald Regan here). Twisted Pixel's writers have a great sense of humor poking fun at the specific genres of comics, mixing the parody characters of Nanoc with Smiley's own rogues gallery, who out of work themselves must also seek guest starring work.

Over the course of three specific genre chapters, Smiley and Star will find themselves in various precarious situations. For instance, Star’s lewd quips run afoul of the censors in a Silver Age title (an obvious parody of the Comics Code Authority) and every violation of decency nets a fine. However, cleverly blatant sexism (from both Smiley and Star) and outright racism, in the form of the Origami Kid, an Asian stereotype that makes Mickey Rooney’s Mr. Yunioshi, look restrained. The Origami Kid gets away with various references to "locket ships" and lets Smiley know he is "vely honolable" before our protagonist puts a halt to things, asking how this is getting by the censors. The censors appropriately reply with a little historical jab at notion that while excessive violence and language weren’t cool in the 1960s, offensive stereotypes were still fair game.

By the time the game hits a manga inspired world, all bets were off at what the designers would do next. For someone who doesn't care for mangas and anime in general, this section is a treat in riffing that would make Mike and the Bots proud. You'll gun down busloads of schoolgirls throwing hearts with bullets of bubbles on your escape from "Hent High" (their mascot is appropriately the Tentacle). The incredibly subversive and no holds barred humor (that never strays very far from the Teen rating), is quite honestly the best feature of Comic Jumper, but that comes at the cost of a conclusion that feels like it has run out of steam. The game's final level ties up the story, but the writers struggle to try and keep the laughs coming. Maybe it's intentional, but Captain Smiley and Star's story arc is neither what I expected nor really wanted.



Unfortunately, as great as the story and presentation of the game is (and graphics and sound for that matter), the gameplay, is at best above average. Starting out as a side scrolling shooter with occasional beat-em-up sequences, Twisted Pixel mixes things up with various shifts in gameplay during big action sequences. A few quick time events pop up, the shooting scenes switch to third person, on-rails sequences, and even a few driving segments make their presence known. It’s all great and appreciated early on, but the rather unrefined controls soon become an annoyance. Movement is handled with the left analog stick, while the right stick aims your guns. The fluidity of both feels far too loose, with some later boss battles requiring you to move your character away from hazards while keeping your cross hairs aimed on the boss, a daunting task. The bosses themselves all have a pattern you'll need to learn and I don’t complain about this; if it were merely the case of the patterns being tricky, I wouldn't mind. The slippery controls on more than one occasion have not responded as precisely as I would like and resulted in a frustrating death.

The death system of Comic Jumper is another equally frustrating situation. There’s no power-ups for Captain Smiley and when you die, you go back to the last unannounced checkpoint; your only help is the ability to upgrade your maximum health, but the benefit seemed minimal at best. Well, to be honest, you can refill your health, by purchasing or earning a power-up; unleash it and the Twisted Pixel crew pounds their fists and feat on the panel, destroying all minor enemies, inflicting some massive damage on the boss, and giving you a new full health meter. However, unless you spend all your upgrade cash on these power ups, be prepared to quit a level, buy the power up and replay all the way back to the boss, as there are no saves in a stage (which can take up to 45 minutes). Also, should you use a power-up and still die, you get to start that fight all over again sans super move. It's sloppy game design at its finest.

Saving the worst for last, once you enter the game's second comic world, you’ll find levels that are uninspired and ultimately the game devolves into repetitive sequences of gunning the same enemies down, screen after screen, with death coming often, making your only challenge making it to a new checkpoint before passing on. The worst offender comes in the manga themed world that features a boss battle that honestly feels broken (I had to resort to using a power-up), and cheap damage from minor minions due to their attacks getting lost in the black and white art design. Needless to say, the poor control system makes matters worse and undermines the fun of the story. The only saving graces are the brief shifts in gameplay that do help refocus the sense of fun, but it’s not enough to save the game from being a near disaster at times.



Replay value comes in the form of unlocking concept art, fake comic covers, interviews, and various other extras; however, since these items all add to an overall score multiplier I found myself doing this early on, and by the last stage in the game, I had unlocked all bonus features and upgraded Captain Smiley completely. Once the credits rolled, the only incentive left was to collect two outstanding achievements. The tacked on challenge mode is based on the gimmick of completing certain short segments without taking damage. Good luck with that, thanks to the control system. I could see myself playing through segments of the game for the humor and story down the line, but after nearly maxing the game out in about six hours, this one can go back on the digital shelf for the time being.

Graphics

• Stunning. The game adopts a specific style of animation and design with each comic genre. The main Captain Smiley world consists of bright colors; Nanoc’s world has a more earthy tone and feels like a late 70s/early 80s Marvel adventure title. The two most unique worlds are the cell-shaded muted palate of the Silver Age and the pitch perfect black-and-white manga universe come to life.


• Transitions between major segments are handled via page turns that really sell the idea that players are taking part in the creation of a real comic.


• The game has a tremendous sense of depth at all times with action taking place on three planes: foreground, midground, where the majority of the action occurs, and background. In the beat-em-up sections, Captain Smiley sends thugs crashing against the screen and into various objects littering the walls. Arch nemesis Brad’s Bradcopter swoops at viewers with ease.


• There’s no slowdown despite some very graphics intensive and busy set pieces. All character designs feature detailed fluid animations.

Audio

• Great voice acting from everyone involved. Each character has a unique personality and performances remain consistent throughout.


• Sound effects subtly change from genre to genre, however, like the gameplay, they can become very repetitive.


• The stats menu song as well as song background music are flat out hilarious.

Conclusion

Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley honestly feels like a labor of love from the creators. A lot of the bonus features show the dedication and thought that went into seeing the game come to life. Twisted Pixel deserves tons of respect and admiration for creating a truly inspired and original game world. If it weren’t for the great character design, sharp script, and wonderful art, the entire experience would have been torturous. Unfortunately, the A+ presentation is kneecapped by the (at best) C+ rate gameplay. There are moments of brilliance, but the clunky controls and repetition really threaten the enjoyability of the game’s final stages. The game could have benefited from a lot more play testing at the very least. At a $15 price tag on Live Arcade, I can’t in good faith recommended Comic Jumper. Try the demo and if you don’t have any problems with the controls or gameplay style, go ahead and take the plunge. Personally, I would wait until this hits a $10 price point, but solely for the story.

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