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Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley |OT|
- Thread starter Shard
- Start date
So splosion man, a game where you... pressed 1 button to do 1 major action through basically the entire game, has more interesting gameplay than a game that allow you to shoot, melee, slide attack, and some kinda special "bomb" attack, while going through a collection of mostly well-made graphical recreations of popular comic art styles?
Eh, as much as I wanted to love Splosion man, it lacked the gameplay to make it as exciting for me, as many others found it. I just never wanted to go back to it, for anything more than co-op gameplay + the characters Freakazoid-like personality.
I'm hoping this'll be the Twisted Pixel game that makes me like the actual gameplay as much as their quality animation and humor. Gunstar Heroes-like gameplay sounds satisfying to me!
Looking forward to finding out for myself.
The time to start looking is around 5AM EST. They rarely go up exactly on time, but this is the earliest.
Eh, as much as I wanted to love Splosion man, it lacked the gameplay to make it as exciting for me, as many others found it. I just never wanted to go back to it, for anything more than co-op gameplay + the characters Freakazoid-like personality.
I'm hoping this'll be the Twisted Pixel game that makes me like the actual gameplay as much as their quality animation and humor. Gunstar Heroes-like gameplay sounds satisfying to me!
Looking forward to finding out for myself.
Viewt said:
The time to start looking is around 5AM EST. They rarely go up exactly on time, but this is the earliest.
SAB CA said:
For me, it's not so much about what the game offers gameplaywise, but how it offers. 'Splosion Man was simple indeed, but the simple gameplay was well implemented. The design was built around this single, very simple but powerful idea. The levels were short enough without being repetitve, the puzzles were fun and quite varied, and the difficulty curve rose nicely. Especially the co-op levels are really original and crazy.
Comic Jumper has a lot of shooting, but the shooting isn't done well in my opinion. I find especially the feedback lacking. I don't feel my bullets hitting the enemies. Sometimes I'm not even sure that I'm hitting them. This comes really evident in the boss battles where you have to basically keep the trigger down for the entire battle. The best indication for damaging the enemy is the number in the corner of the screen (health of the boss) that keeps getting lower.
Melee fights are too simple as well. There's not too many options for you and no room for tactics or variety. There are also moments when the art style makes the game more difficult unnecessarily. For example, it can be hard to spot the pipe you should grab.
Don't get me wrong, you can still enjoy Comic Jumper, but it could've been so much better with stronger basic gameplay. I'm thankful for Twisted Pixel staying faithful to their original style and literally putting themselves into the game. Hopefully their next game will hit me harder gameplaywise.
jizzlobber
Member
when will this start showing?
i'm interested, looks cool!
i'm interested, looks cool!
HadesGigas
Member
Trial avaialable to download:
http://marketplace.xbox.com/es-MX/games/offers/00000000-0000-4000-8000-000058410a20?cid=SLink
Nevermind all that Spanish, still works.
http://marketplace.xbox.com/es-MX/games/offers/00000000-0000-4000-8000-000058410a20?cid=SLink
Nevermind all that Spanish, still works.
toythatkills
Member
Mmm. I think if they had twice or three times as many enemies but you could kill them in one shot, the game would be much better for it.Aaron said:
As it is you walk forward a few steps, go backwards a bit and stop for ages to kill everything, take a few more steps. It's a run and gun without the running. Until you get bored, which happens quite soon, and you just ignore the enemies and run, and just hope you make it to the next checkpoint without dying, then go again from there.
played the demo and buyed the game directly afterwards. the sense of humor is what makes the game great. the gameplay is ok, a bit simple and hard as fuck. but the graphics, voice acting, humor and unlockable extras are great.
if you like the other twisted pixel games, play the demo (which is very long btw).
i love it!
if you like the other twisted pixel games, play the demo (which is very long btw).
i love it!
Yeah, the game sounds really bad. Worse than the 2D Matt Hazard game even.
I'm always shocked at how spectacularly developers can fail at emulating old school 2D action games. So many games of this type clearly have paid no attention to quality enemy placement, assign way too much health to enemies that should die immediately, and leave us with some unresponsive controls. Those elements can completely ruin a good attempt at one of these games.
What made Bionic Commando Rearmed so damn good was the attention to detail lavished upon the core gameplay. They started with the same design as the NES game and expanded the arsenal and enemy tactics in a very smart way that did not spoil the action.
It seems to me that some of these issues are created by the concern that they might be making a short game. Some of the changes seem to be in place simply to extend the game length even at the expense of gameplay. For a 2D action game, I think most people will be pretty forgiving if you can deliver outstanding gameplay from start to finish. They should focus on understanding what made 8 and 16-bit action games tick before they attempt to copy one.
jizzlobber
Member
review scores are around the 8/10 mark... not bad.
some bad impressions but i'll check it out
some bad impressions but i'll check it out
Popeck said:
After playing the demo, I can definately see where you're coming from. I think a lot of this, in this case, can be blamed on modern day game design and ideals; For example, enemies have nice little mini-explosions that go off as your bullets hit them, but while it's nice in a detailed way, it's not as facinating as old-school flashing enemies with screen-shaking pain that caused Wolfteam-style explosions. Or the fact that the game's melee would have been easy to understand with just a few context-sensative punches and kicks, but yet TP's style of over-animating shows you SO many different animations of attack Smiley can do, but you don't have any direct control over it.
In ways, this is very similiar to how I felt about parts of explosion man; I personally wanted to tilt the controller in a way in order to choose his spastic, well-animated run (like Sonic with spin dashing), but he just did it whenever he felt like it.
I haven't purchased the game yet, but I'm pretty sure I will. The quality of everything else surrounding the gameplay is pretty unique and endearing, and with 800 pts back at end of the Nov, some DLC for 'Splosion man, Premium Theme + Avatar items + all those frickin unlockables + all the interesting art styles, and the unique moments in the stages, it seems well worth the plunge.
So, I'm still waiting for the TP game that lets me take control of their crazed love of animation. But past that, let me say, this game has a fantastic Demo + hub area! Game integrated ways to show off your old games, voice acting for everything, characters with multiple lines of dialog, A great panel style for the cinematics, a variety of exciting gameplay changes that seem rather arcadey in nature... WORLDS better than the Hydrophobia demo, EASILY. There are a lot of little things, in the way the demo was handeled, that I wish every other company would take note of, and impliment with such love and attention.
Oh, and glad to see that leveling up could take care of a lot of the "wishy-washy" feel in the gameplay. In the end, I think I'll be enjoying this more than 'splodey-man, and it feels more up my alley than Blade Kitten...
Reluctant-Hero
Member
S1kkZ said:
Crap. Wish I knew that when I played through the intro, thanks! That'll be a big help in future levels.
Quick impressions. The dialog is hilarious. I can see how the gameplay will get repetitive, but I dig it anyway. So far I'm pleased with this $15 purchase.
SAB CA said:
Actually one of the weirdest things about Comic Jumper IS the animation. The first level has entirely lip-synced dialog which looks amazing for an XBLA game.. but it's just for the first level. They go back to repeating "jibber jabber" animation right afterwards for everything else. Probably to make the demo look awesome, but it's kind of a dick move in the end.
supermackem
Banned
Wow it looks amazing is funny as hell and alough it can be repetitive i love the game world and it was worth it for the sheer :lol while playing it.
toythatkills
Member
I thought it was intentional. Or at least in the case of the Manga, where the lip synching is deliberately anime-bad.Rlan said:
Princess Skittles
Prince's's 'Skittle's
Oh yeah, this game is really poorly designed, really hard to enjoy as a game.
It'll probably sell well and be highly praised because it's about comic books and is so cleverly self-referential.
It'll probably sell well and be highly praised because it's about comic books and is so cleverly self-referential.
snoopeasystreet
Member
It's a shame the game play isn't as good as 'Splosion Man but it's still one hell of a game.
Buy it if you support games with unique and crazy presentation.
Buy it if you support games with unique and crazy presentation.
humor is great but the controls and gameplay feel like a flash game to me...am disappoint.
There were lots of sections in the demo where I felt that the mobility of the character was just not what it needed to be and made the swarms of enemies feel cheap, if you platform without shooting it feels ok, if you shoot without jumping it feels ok, but any time you try to do both the game controls like shit for some reason, and that seems like a big no-no the way things are laid out.
There were lots of sections in the demo where I felt that the mobility of the character was just not what it needed to be and made the swarms of enemies feel cheap, if you platform without shooting it feels ok, if you shoot without jumping it feels ok, but any time you try to do both the game controls like shit for some reason, and that seems like a big no-no the way things are laid out.
jizzlobber
Member
I don't see how jumping while shooting is so hard.
I'm loving this, combat is pretty basic though, but haven't played much yet, hoping for more guns.
love the presentation, and the music is fantastic!
worth 1200 allards for sure!
I'm loving this, combat is pretty basic though, but haven't played much yet, hoping for more guns.
love the presentation, and the music is fantastic!
worth 1200 allards for sure!
Rlan said:
Hah, that's pretty suprising. Interesting, though. NOt a deal breaker, but that is a pretty odd, low blow. I'm sure they'd say it has something to do with the style, and the budget of Smiley's appearances! :lol
Amneisac said:
:lol
---
Oh, note: to the person who mentioned earlier how the pipes to jump to in stage 1 (and I'm guessing onward) where horribly colored, too true. Fell right into a pit the first time I had to cross construction pipes.
In a way, the length of stages and the humor overall reminds me of the old Tick game... Wave of endless Bradbots = "Night of a Million Zillion Ninjas" , I'd say.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Looks spectacular, pretty good variety in the first level. I found it very funny. The gameplay isn't standout so far and the enemies do take too many bullets, but that's what upgrades are for.
finished it, one of the funniest videogames i have played (i laughed for the first time while playing a videogame). the humor is awesome.
the gameplay is way too simple and annoying. enemies take too many bullets, beat em up sections are not fun, third person shooting is awful, controls are not as precise as they should be (sliding, avoiding bullets and shooting at many enemies at the same time) and some levels are too long. the upgrades make things a bit better.
game is still awesome, thanks to the great writing, voice acting and humor.
there is also a ton of stuff to unlock (and i mean a ton!).
the gameplay is way too simple and annoying. enemies take too many bullets, beat em up sections are not fun, third person shooting is awful, controls are not as precise as they should be (sliding, avoiding bullets and shooting at many enemies at the same time) and some levels are too long. the upgrades make things a bit better.
game is still awesome, thanks to the great writing, voice acting and humor.
there is also a ton of stuff to unlock (and i mean a ton!).
HadesGigas
Member
Adam J. said:
http://www.slackcircus.com/ does it.
On another note, this is awesome:
http://g4tv.com/videos/49111/Comic-Jumper-Stats-Song-Video/
Neuromancer
Member
Just finished the trial version. I don't know guys, I liked The Maw and Splosion Man but I'm just not feeling it. It's kind of funny but I really don't care for the gameplay much. As much as it pains me I'm going to take a pass on this one. =(
Good god, the first "60's" comic book level in the museum was like around 30 minutes too long. One of the most dull gaming experiences I've had in a LONG time. There are exactly three enemy types and absolutely no variety at all in how you combat them or traverse the level. Again, the entire episode ran unbelievably long culminating in a boss encounter that flat out sucked.
A real shame as the premise and humor is great, but as discussed, the core game is a total turd. Blew my freebie 1200 'summer of arcade' promo points on this game and I regret it. At half the price the hilarity would be worthwhile, and I am only pressing on just to see more wackiness that doesn't involve actually playing; but $15...it's pretty bad.
Wait for a sale people.
A real shame as the premise and humor is great, but as discussed, the core game is a total turd. Blew my freebie 1200 'summer of arcade' promo points on this game and I regret it. At half the price the hilarity would be worthwhile, and I am only pressing on just to see more wackiness that doesn't involve actually playing; but $15...it's pretty bad.
Wait for a sale people.
Dark Octave
Banned
I pretty much agree with most of what you said.Stumpokapow said:
Was disappoint when the game started as a weak brawler, but once the guns opened up, it became a totally different game and lot more fun.
jizzlobber
Member
where can I get Brad's theme?
it's a pisser!
it's a pisser!
Brandon F said:
I agree with this, even as a huge fan of Twisted Pixel (so far). I'm in the museum now, and it is horrible. Not difficult, just boring, like repeating the same two rooms 30 times.
The premise was there, but the execution on this is awful. Even after spending almost $100k upgrading my guns to max, they're still peashooters that take 30 shots to destroy a damn midget.
HadesGigas
Member
Shotgun Kiss
Member
Man, fuck the haters; this game is awesome. I'll concede that enemies take too many hits in the shooting segments, and the gameplay isn't as tight as Splosion Man, but the humour, presentation, and variety make up for it.
The song that plays when you're looking at your stats is hilarious.
I was pretty surprised to heard words like "douche" and "turd"; I guess Twisted Pixel aren't concerned about making the game kid-friendly.
YouTube link.
The song that plays when you're looking at your stats is hilarious.
I was pretty surprised to heard words like "douche" and "turd"; I guess Twisted Pixel aren't concerned about making the game kid-friendly.
jizzlobber said:
YouTube link.