Jumping Is Fun?
As I played through yet another movie-based platform game filled with jumping puzzles that shall remain nameless, I began to wonder if there are any gamers out there that actually enjoy jumping puzzles. Do game companies do market studies in which the gamers polled overwhelmingly ask for more jumping in games?
Jumping sequences are quite simply lazy puzzle design. A short mediocre game can easily be padded out to a long mediocre game by throwing in a bunch of jump sequences and calling it a day. That this is a lazy approach to game design is further evidenced by the fact that jumping puzzles aren’t even implemented well. How many times have you had to make a blind jump because the camera wouldn’t align itself to let you see where you were going? How many video game characters have died because of poor edge detection or shoddy button response? Please, a moment of silence for the fallen…
I’m not really sure what can be done about all this. Game companies will continue to try and exploit movie licenses with hastily produced games filled with jump sequences, and as long as people keep buying these games this will never change. As a game reviewer I can only warn people about what they’re getting themselves into, it is up to the game buying public to stop all this inane hopping about. Remember, every time that you buy a game simply because it has a green, flatulent movie star on the cover you’re asking for more … and dooming intrepid game reviewers to long and frustrating hours repeating the same jump sequences over and over again.
