I have had so much fun playing Jumping Joe! & Friends for the Nintendo Switch. Really, if you want to know all about the game, you can check out my review detailing what the game is all about, whether it’s right for you, and just how much fun it is (coming soon). But in this helpful guide, I will be giving you 5 tips for mastering Jumping Joe! & Friends I learned by playing the game for hours on end.
In order to become the best at Jumping Joe! & Friends, you will need to be patient, practice your jumping skills, learn the game’s enemies, get as much gold as you can, and try out every character until you find the one that works with your playstyle.
5 Tips For Mastering Jumping Joe! & Friends:
- Take Your Time
- Unlock Race Mode to Practice Your Jumps
- Understand Your Enemies
- Farm Gold with Golden Pig
- Play with Every Character to Find Your Favorite
Let’s take a look at what this game is all about before we go into detail about each tip listed above.
What is Jumping Joe! & Friends?
Jumping Joe! & Friends is a high score challenge game about jumping on platforms to see how high you can get before dying.
You first select a character, each with their own special attributes, and then select a game mode to play. The base gameplay and game mechanics are the same no matter the mode.
The game is controlled by two buttons: left direction and right direction. Platforms are randomly generated in those two directions and your goal is to press left or right to climb as high as you can go.
- Stay still for too long and lava will rise from the bottom of the screen and engulf you.
- Jump in the wrong direction and you will fall to your doom.
- And, finally, numerous stages hazards and enemies will try and eliminate you from reaching your highest of heights.
Jumping Joe! & Friends is a fun, simple, and challenging high score game best played in short bursts.
Now that you know more about the game, let’s get into the 5 tips I learned by playing Jumping Joe! & Friends I wanted to share with you.
1) Take Your Time
When I first started playing Jumping Joe!, I immediately hopped as fast as I could from platform to platform.
Let me just say that this only led to my demise time after time again.
I tucked my frustration away and tried figuring out what I was doing wrong: why was I only getting to platform 10 or 20 instead of 100?
The answer is to be patient and take your time.
True. This game doesn’t allow you to stand still for too long as a rising wave of lava will engulf you after a few seconds, but it is enough time to correctly pick your upward path.
- look at the least dangerous platform to jump on
- let your eyes and brain register if it is left or right
- then, press the appropriate direction to make a successful jump
Too many times have I gone into autopilot-reaction mode and pressed the incorrect direction button. This forced me to jump in the wrong direction to my death or onto a booby-trapped platform.
Please, I implore you, learn from my numerous mistakes and take your time before you press a direction button to jump.
You will climb much higher if all you do is take an extra millisecond or two to process the correct direction you should jump and align it with the appropriate button press.
2) Unlock Race Mode To Practice Your Jumps
Patience is a great foundation for this game, but so is practicing your jumps.
The best place to do so is in the game’s Race Mode.
- Play Arcade Mode a bit without expectations as you accrue enough diamonds in order to unlock Race Mode. Doing this should not take you too long.
But why practice in Race Mode, you might be asking? Because Race Mode features no enemies or hazards to kill you.
This makes Race Mode the perfect place to practice your jumping skills. Anxiety free.
I know I was elated to find this out. I hopped into Race Mode repeatedly to better my reaction time, to get a feel of my button pressing cadence, and to find my optimal button pressing speed that would get me my highest score without jumping off to my doom.
It was much more relaxing to play this mode without bats and saw blades coming at me from every direction.
Make sure this is the first mode you unlock if you are looking to improve your Jumping Joe! skills.
Personally, playing Race Mode helped me a lot in the long run and it could do the same for you.
3) Understand Your Enemies
Now that you’re playing with patience and have your jumping skills practiced and near-perfected, it is time for you to know your enemies.
Learning your enemy’s movements and behavior will allow you to live much longer and snag higher scores.
Trust me. This knowledge comes from first-hand experience of dying a billion times to random dangers.
I did not know the bat would swoop in a circular arc the first time I came across it. Let me just say touching the bat hurt.
I also did not know that the saw blade only moves in a horizontal fashion, the cannon spurts fire at a consistent interval, and that some platform spikes will disappear as you approach them.
I died a lot from each of these hazards and enemies until I stopped to study the behaviors of each one.
Once I learned how each danger behaved, I was able to navigate around each trap during my subsequent playthroughs.
In short, you will die less if you know how the dangers in this game work. Because, knowing how your enemy’s work is one fifth of the battle . . . or at least, one fifth of the tips you need to be successful at this game.
Moving onto my favorite tip . . .
4) Farm Gold With Golden Pig (Game Changer!!!)
Game modes and characters require diamonds to unlock (diamonds are the game’s currency).
You accrue diamonds by collecting them as you play, as diamonds are randomly placed on platforms throughout.
Let me tell you, collecting enough to unlock a new mode or character can be a chore. So, finding the fastest way to unlock everything was super important to me.
Enter Jumping Joe’s friend, Golden Pig.
Oh, boy! I wish I knew about this character the moment I started the game.
That’s because Golden Pig’s intrinsic ability allows it to double the worth of each diamond you collect while also attracting diamonds to it.
That’s right. If there is a diamond on a platform next to you or near you that you didn’t jump on, any diamond in your vicinity will automatically float towards you. Doubled the value.
This. Is. Amazing.
Playing as the Golden Pig allowed me to gross thousands of diamonds in short order, a far cry from the measly tens and hundreds I was collecting by playing as any other character in this game.
This changed everything for me.
I decided to farm diamonds (that is to say, I played the game for hours solely to collect diamonds for hours on end) for a while instead of focusing on getting the highest score.
I amassed enough money to open every game mode and unlock every character by farming for diamonds in little to no time at all.
Then, with everything in the game available to me, I focused on playing the game and getting high scores I only dreamed about before.
This tip truly changed how I played this game. It really did.
And I am hoping it will change yours.
5) Play with Every Character to Find Your Favorite
My last tip for you is to try out every character in the game to find the one that is best for you.
Luckily, you followed my game-changing tip of amassing great wealth in this game in short order by playing as the Golden Pig over and over again. This will make it much faster to unlock all of Joe’s friends.
Each friend has a unique ability that changes how the game is played.
Of course, I enjoyed playing as the Golden Pig to make money fast. After that, I dabbled playing the game with everyone else.
I like selecting the Mummy because it slows down the movement speeds of enemies. Joe is also great once he is upgraded to be able to withstand multiple hits before he dies. Oh! How can I forget about the silly bird that automatically allows you to skip dozens of platforms at the start of a game?
I played with each character until I found the right one for each game mode and situation. I then used my favorite character over and over again to achieve my highest scores.
Play with all of the friends and find the one that best suits you. You will not regret it.
Conclusion: Just Keep Jumping, Just Keep Jumping!
Good Job! Now you know all 5 tips at becoming a Jumping Joe! & Friends pro.
You have truly made me proud for making it this far. Just remember to be patient, practice your jumps in Race Mode, learn your enemies, amass a lot of diamonds by playing as the Golden Pig, and then unlock every character with your wealth in order to find the friend that is right for you.
I believe in you, so grab your Nintendo Switch and get that high score you deserve.
By Wally
(Screenshots taken by me. Images sourced from product pages on the Nintendo website. Logos, characters, and images are owned by their respective owners)
