Arkedo Series: 01 - JUMP

Sanuk Games has a good thing going with their miniature ‘retro’ titles. They’re marketing is spot on, partially because of Yan Marchal’s unique sales pitch. He poses the question whether players are happy with their current gen consoles, spouting amazing HD graphics for a sizeable investment. Then he presents the Arkedo series; a set of 3 games with modern pixel art, which seemingly doesn’t use any of this processing power.

The first release of three, Jump, is a brightly colored title revolving on, you guessed it, jumping. With a hatted protagonist leaping over enemies and ravines, it’s reminding of the first generation of gaming. More so, it might be a giant hat off towards classic game Pitfall, certainly in regards of visual design. The only slight difference is that the blocky appearance adapts to modern standard, to smooth graphics with slight additional lighting effects and faux 3D. The presentation gets completed with a simple, bit-music soundtrack.  It isn’t bad, but the 30 levels have 3 tracks and the first song, which logically players will hear most, is the most repetitive.

Luckily, there is less repetition in the gameplay, though it does stay centered around the one mechanic, which is jumping. Each level is littered with coins, diamonds and hearts for players to collect. But more importantly, our little guy has to defuse bombs before their individual timer runs out. As players progress, challenges get harder or introduce new things, one of which is an additional weapon that can be collected to throw at enemies.

Good luck trying to get through this, Indiana Jones! Or Pitfall, whichever.

Along the way, the game will do the mandatory homages towards those games of old, such as Super Mario Bros or the appropriate Indiana Jones; fitting for the hatted hero. All are seasoned with a bit of humor, but one of the best qualities are the humorous death comments and level titles. It features well-known excuses of those trial and error games of yore, such as: “Blame it on the controller.” It makes keep playing this miniature title fun, when retrying can be such a drag.

Because jumping isn’t as simple as it may seem. It isn’t the toughest mini-game, but some parts will require planning and a good eye. Luckily, the controls are smooth to prevent frustration, but there will be inevitable deaths in some levels. After tackling all the Adventure mode stages, Challenges can also be unlocked. But strangely, these can only be unlocked by acing the Adventure mode. It seems like adding insult to injury to add additional challenge to an already difficult game, just to get additional content. It would’ve been better to gradually unlock challenges. It can be debated whether this adds longevity, but really it’s just an unfair difficulty addition.

Good thing I burnt all those calories, sitting on my butt, while playing Jump.

Jump is a great first of 3, by creating a simple and polished mini-game. It isn’t the most original platormer, but as it is meant as a first generation game, it isn’t that much different from the original Super Mario Bros or Pitfall. It might overdo the difficulty just a tad, but other than that, there’s no reason for any classic gaming enthusiast to pass up this great mini title.

Gallery

Daav Valentaten, NoobFeed. (@Daavpuke)