Somehow, I stumbled upon this quick pick-up-and-play game while it was on sale on the Nintendo eShop, and I do not regret this purchase at all.
If you want to know if Jumping Joe & Friends is a fun competent game you should play, continue reading, fellow gamer!
Jumping Joe & Friends | Nintendo Switch | Arcade; Platformer; Multiplayer | Rated: E
*Version 1.0.1 reviewed and is the latest version at the time of publication.*
This review will answer 3 important questions you will want to know about Jumping Joe & Friends for Nintendo Switch:
- Is Jumping Joe & Friends fun?
- Does Jumping Joe & Friends accomplish what it sets out to do?
- And should you play Jumping Joe & Friends?
Jumping Joe & Friends is a fun arcade, mobile-esque experience about achieving and beating your high scores that is best played in short bursts that is technically sound. If you enjoy a simple yet challenging game that is entirely focused on getting a top score, Jumping Joe & Friends is for you!
Let’s take a detailed look at everything Jumping Joe & Friends has to offer!
►What is Jumping Joe & Friends?
Jumping Joe & Friends is a “score attack” game. This means that the gameplay focuses on trying to get a high score and then trying to beat your high score. Simple as that!
You play as Joe–a smug looking square with a hat–who jumps on platforms to reach the highest elevation possible. You can also unlock (and play as) Joe’s friends who each have their own special traits that slightly alter how you play the game which equates to varied gameplay.
The game world is a vertical shaft with platforms placed at random, as far as I could tell. Obstacles, enemies, and hazards litter the upward path to prevent you from moving onward. The way to the top will not be an easy task and will require reflexes, patience, and skill.
Graphics:
Jumping Joe & Friends has 2D colorful graphics that never tired my eyes or got in the way of the action.
Furthermore, I really enjoyed how the background is much lighter in brightness than foreground objects which includes your playable character, platforms, enemies, and items.
The game’s contrast allowed me to always be able to differentiate between the background and foreground, to better track enemies and my character, and to make precise jumps without being overwhelmed by what was going on in the background.
Everything has a nice, cohesive look to it and nothing seemed out of place or took me out of the game.
The art style is reminiscent of what you might find in games such as Cut the Rope or Angry Birds for mobile devices: bold, hand-drawn cartoon cutouts made to look crisp and clean on your Nintendo Switch’s screen.
Sound:
The menu music is upbeat and sounds like it was ripped from a happy, Saturday morning cartoon. This track is the same song that plays during Arcade mode, the primary mode in the game.
It’s happy, jubilant nature is a great juxtaposition to the challenging gameplay Jumping Joe & Friends demands.
The choice of music has really helped me feel less anxious as the difficulty increased the higher I climbed. I prefer Jumping Joe’s cheery song over something more aggressive and stress-inducing any day of the week.
Jumping Joe’s other modes have their own songs as well and each are mellow tunes that helped put me at ease while I played.
I also found the sound effects that occurred while picking up items or being hit by enemies to be non-intrusive and cohesive with the game’s overall presentation.
Control
Jumping Joe & Friends is very easy and simple to control.
The game only requires you to press two directions. That’s it.
You press L or the left direction button to jump left and R or the right direction button to jump right.
Jumping left and right makes up the majority of this game. Sometimes, you will be able to use an item which simply requires a single button press.
But how does the controls feel?
Jumping in this game feels smooth and the controls feel responsive and tight, initiating my commands the moment I press the button.
Game modes, options, and settings
Jumping Joe & Friends has 4 game modes and a settings menu.
- Arcade Mode
- Multiplayer
- Race Mode
- Hero Mode
- Settings
The primary game mode, where I spent a majority of my time, is Arcade mode.
Arcade mode is Jumping Joe’s main mode where you are tasked with climbing as high as you can, collecting diamonds (the game’s in-game currency) and items while avoiding enemies and obstacles as you climb.
Multiplayer mode allows up to 4 people to climb higher together. You can tweak various settings for this mode including the number of rounds to win, round time, number of lives available, and the difficulty.
Race mode is the mode I played the most after Arcade mode. Race removes all obstacles and items in order to task you with climbing the highest in the shortest period of time. In my experience, this is a great way to practice your left and right movements in order to get better at the game’s basics.
Keep in mind that Race mode needs to be unlocked before it is available.
Hero mode, my new favorite mode, is super duper hard. It is meant to be a much more challenging version of Arcade mode and it is.
There are way more obstacles, enemies, and threats from the very start of Hero mode that Arcade mode can only dream of.
I recommend playing Hero mode after you are confident in your Arcade mode skills or if you want to jump into a real challenge.
Keep in mind that Hero mode must be unlocked before it is available.
And lastly, the game has a simple Settings mode that has two options: to turn On or Off the game’s sound effects and music on an individual basis.
Use this to turn off the upbeat music if you are not a fan or to turn off the sound effects if you feel they are too intrusive.
►Who is Jumping Joe & Friends for?
Jumping Joe & Friends is for anyone looking for a simple to play, but challenging to master, modern arcade-like game for their Nintendo Switch.
This game is also great if you are looking for a small, bite-sized game to play in between larger games or as a quick time waster while you are out and about.
►What will you primarily be doing in Jumping Joe & Friends?
The majority of my time spent with Jumping Joe & Friends was jumping. It’s in the name of the game, after all. And that is what you will be doing: jumping as high as you can!
The main goal of the game is to keep jumping while avoiding dangers in order to get a high score. Every platform you successfully jump on gives you a point that is added to your score.
When you ultimately meet your doom, which will happen a lot, your score will be saved, allowing you to jump right back in to try and beat your high score.
It is repetitive, simple gameplay that is best consumed in short bursts.
►Is Jumping Joe & Friends a good game?
Yes.
Jumping Joe accomplishes what it sets out to do which is to be an addicting, pleasant high-score time waster.
It does this by melding responsive controls, colorful graphics, and simple gameplay together with incentives to get better.
Incentives include
- beating your own high score
- opening up new modes including the very challenging Hero mode,
- and unlocking new characters that change how the game is played.
All in all, it is a technically proficient game that focuses on doing one thing and one thing well.
►Is Jumping Joe & Friends fun?
Yes, it was a lot of fun!
I played about 5 hours of this game which is a lot when each round takes 30 seconds to a minute to complete. And I usually played for about a half hour, way more time than I think the developers probably had in mind.
The game is obviously meant to be played at a few minutes at a time.
With all of the preamble out of the way, I thoroughly enjoyed trying to beat my high score.
I would die a lot every time I came across a new enemy or obstacle. The first time a section of the walls shot out and crushed me was a shock, but it only taught me to pay attention to my surroundings.
I enjoyed watching and learning the patterns of the various enemies including the circular swarming bats, the fireball shooting cannon, and the floating saw blades.
By learning my enemies, I was able to avoid them and climb higher, achieving even better scores than before. I grew up on games like Jumping Joe that were all about self-competition by acquiring scores, so this game is right up my alley.
Getting better at this game meant improving my skills.
I often found myself jumping into an enemy and having to start over because I wanted to get to one more platform when I should have just waited. I also jumped onto platforms with spikes on them due to an impulse to keep jumping when I could have easily rested for a second to search for the safest path upwards.
Jumping to my doom or missing out on items was always my responsibility instead of a random occurrence created by the game. I really enjoy knowing that my own patience, skill, and foresight would help me reach a higher score without random intervention of the game itself.
Finally, I loved unlocking the game’s other characters.
Jumping Joe’s friends include a cat, a mummy, a Viking, and a rocket bird among others.
Each one of these characters have different abilities that change the gameplay. I found a lot of joy in playing as Joe’s friends.
The mummy, for instance, slows down obstacles. This was really helpful during Hero mode when there were plenty of dangers coming at me from all sides. Bats and saw blades move slower along with every other enemy in the game.
My favorite friend must be the “Diamond Pig”. This cute fellow allowed me to open up the rest of the characters and game modes super fast. Diamond Pig doubles all diamonds you get while playing.
I spent a couple hours simply playing as the pig to obtain as much diamonds as I could without worrying about getting a high score. Once I had enough money to buy all of the friends, I began focusing on obtaining the best score I could.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Jumping Joe & Friends. There is simple, quick fun to be had in jumping left and right and not having to think about complicated controls.
I enjoyed playing Jumping Joe–in between sessions of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Paladins: Champions of the Realms–because it is a game that I did not have to think about dozens of game mechanics to understand and play.
There will always be a place in my gaming library for Jumping Joe & Friends and games like it.
But, there are a few things I would add to Jumping Joe to make it even better.
►Jumping Joe & Friends: What would I improve?
Add statistics menu.
I have played hundreds of games in Jumping Joe, I have tried out each character, I have died to the bats a billion times, and I have never once been swallowed by the rising lava that consumes you if you stay still for too long (pro tip: keep jumping!!!).
But, I have no way of looking at how many times I avoided death or consumed by it.
Heck, I would also love to see how many times I jumped over all, to the right, and to the left, but Jumping Joe does not provide any form of statistics menu to allow the player to know.
The only data that is kept is your best times in Race mode and your top three scores in Arcade and Hero Modes respectively. And these can only be seen when you die during a run.
A statistic mode will go a long way in being able to keep track and motivate me to keep playing well after I am ready to put the controller down.
Add leaderboard to compare scores.
Along with a statistics menu, I would like to see the developers implement an online leaderboard to compare yourself with the best players (or leaders) of the games various modes.
I have unlocked all of the characters and modes and have achieved a score of over 1000 in Arcade mode. At this point, I have done what I have set out to do with the game, although achieving a sufficiently high score in Hero mode alludes me.
That is to say, I could be done with Jumping Joe after 5 hours of play. Sure, I will pick it up from time to time to play it for fun, but a leaderboard would help give this game longevity.
Trying to beat the top players in the world is incentive enough to keep playing especially when the top players would always change. You may claw your way to the number one spot one day only to find a player on the other side of the globe stole your spot the next, encouraging you to jump higher.
As you can tell by my enthusiasm, an online score tracker is sorely missed.
►Jumping Joe & Friends: Should you Buy, Borrow, or Pass?
Buy
I recommend you buy Jumping Joe & Friends if you are looking for bite-size game with focused gameplay that is simple to learn but challenging to master.
The various modes and characters will give you enough value as long as you are not looking for story-driven content that can be played for hundreds of hours.
This is a great little game to play during your commute, on break, in between classes on campus, or when you are just not invested enough to play a chunky, meaty game.
And if you simply love high score games, this one’s for you.
Borrow
I recommend you borrow Jumping Joe & Friends if you think you would enjoy the game but you are hesitant about the gameplay as well as the amount of content and modes available.
There are only three modes which are all based on the same concept of climbing higher.
Additionally, you may not enjoy the limited selection of characters or the game’s overall aesthetic (it’s bright, colorful, and cartoony).
Play this at a friend’s house if you are on the fence about this game.
Pass
I recommend you to pass on Jumping Joe & Friends if you do not like high score games or games with a few modes.
You might also want to pass on this game if you are looking to have your statistics tracked or to compete against others online. There is a multiplayer mode but it is for local play only and there is not an in-game option to check out who has the highest score in the world.
►My Jumping Joe & Friends Technical Proficiency Review Score:
Now that you have read my thoughts on Jumping Joe & Friends for Nintendo Switch, let us take a look at my Review Criteria and Score.
- My Review Score is based on technical aspects that hinder or improve the user experience.
You now have a clear idea of where I stand on this game by reading my thoughts above. Jumping Joe is a bunch of fun!
The Review Score, categories, and explanations outlined next will help you better understand how Jumping Joe functions as a whole.
Glitches:
Do weird graphical or audio instances occur that often times are humorous and or distracting?
- I have not experienced any glitches in my time playing Jumping Joe & Friends.
Freeze or Crash:
Does the game freeze or crash?
- I have not experienced any freezes or crashes in my time playing Jumping Joe & Friends.
Slowdown:
Does the game chug or slowdown?
- I have not experienced any slowdown in my time playing Jumping Joe & Friends.
Load Times:
Does the game contain long load times?
- Jumping Joe & Friends has minimal loading only at the start of the game during the title screen. This loading takes about 7 to 10 seconds, and then the game is free from load times after.
- Low load times are great for this game since you will be dying a lot and starting new sessions every minute or so.
- I loathe loading, so Jumping Joe’s short load times gets a round of applause for me.
User Navigation:
Is the game easy to navigate?
- Navigating menus in Jumping Joe & Friends is simple and easy to do.
- The main menu is set up vertically which only requires a press of the up or down buttons while selecting a character uses the left or right direction buttons.
- The one thing I would add is an on-screen prompt to explain what each button does as I had to guess how the navigation system works by trial and error.
Other:
Is there anything else noteworthy about the game?
- Technical proficiency aside, Jumping Joe & Friends could use additional modes, a Statistics menu, and online score comparison to really give it longevity.
►Final Verdict: Jumping Joe & Friends
Jumping Joe & Friends is a fun little arcade game that has challenged me to be better, climb higher, and hang out with an oddball assortment of friends. While I hunger for a way to track my stats and to compete against players worldwide, I thoroughly enjoyed my time beating my own high scores, playing the ever so hard Hero mode, and duking it out with others locally on my Nintendo Switch for hours on end.
If you are interested in Jumping Joe & Friends for the Nintendo Switch, you can find it on the Nintendo eShop.
(Screenshots taken by me. Images sourced from product pages on the Nintendo website. Logos, characters, and images are owned by their respective owners)
