It’s games like this that really make me flex my reviewing muscles! It was a really hard decision between giving Jumper a 5 or a 6. I could certainly make some decent arguments to back either decision and I don’t believe in half stars on this site so that wasn’t an option. Let’s look at why I’m thinking about swinging the game either way and we will make a decision by the end. It’s a tough one, but at least Jumper is forcing us to think!

So, has anyone ever watched the film Jumper? I saw it a while back and it was actually quite good. A lot better than I had anticipated and it almost feels like a superhero film that wasn’t from Marvel or DC. I”m always up for some action, but you have to be careful when teleporting is involved. I don’t want this to become a review of the film so let’s get back on topic. The game’s story is….convoluted at best. Now, I don’t mind the fact that the game expects you to have watched the film, but the story should still hold up well on its own. There is a basic plot, but thanks to audio issues (Addressed later on) it can be a little overwhelming.

The main character is…..Griffin! His parents were assassinated when he was a kid and Griffin barely escaped with his life. As he grew up, Griffin learned that he could teleport from place to place and he could go anywhere that he remembered. There was nowhere on the planet that was too far for him. Then, he decided to get revenge on the group that took out his parents. Led by Roland, this group has hundreds of members and Griffin is on his own. (There are other teleporters and this is actually mentioned in the game, (Albeit so briefly that you would only know this if you knew the main character of the film and played close attention) but they aren’t helpful because they keep dying and getting Griffin in trouble. Griffin mainly needs to take out Roland and his two assistants who helped in the act. Finding them is pretty easy since the group is after Griffin. They’ll come to him…and he’ll be ready.

The gameplay for Jumper is pretty basic. You’re thrown into a 3D environment to fight that is similar to any other movie tie in game. As I always mention, it’s a tried and true formula. It’s almost guaranteed to be fun and you know what to expect. Adding in the fact that you could teleport in this game and we may have a winner….right? Well, we may be using a 3D fighting gameplay, but it can consist of a little more button mashing than usual. You teleport by using the right joystick to aim where you want to go and let go, but it is completely useless in a fight. I suppose that it’s good for running away, but your top speed is enough to escape from all minions and bosses with no exceptions.

You could play the game without teleporting and you wouldn’t really notice a difference. (Except for a handful of moments where they force you to use it) The actual hand to hand combat moments may seem impressive because you notice that Griffin is teleporting everywhere. However, it is merely an optical illusion. Teleporting is merely how how Griffin fights the opponents. It’s typically more of a hindrance than a help because you never know where he will appear next. The best way to fight is simply to keep on smashing the square and x buttons until the opponent goes down. It’s not 100% full proof, but if you begin to lose health…just fall back and regroup. I do give the game props with the level designs. They were nice and expansive without feeling as if you were playing the same level over and over again. Each of them were completely different and there was a lot of room to run.

See, your health replenishes itself very quickly in this game. When you consider the fact that Griffin is a fast runner and the arenas are huge during all boss and minion fights…you can’t lose. Sure, you may lose a few times, but you shouldn’t if you play your cards right. Never let your health dip too low and retreat at the first sign of danger. Wait a few seconds to recharge and go fight again. Rinse and repeat until you defeat all of the bosses. The bosses may have had patterns, but I didn’t notice any aside from the final boss so I just kept spamming my attacks until the went down. The final boss is actually the easiest. Hit him when he stabs the ground with his staff. Get away when he tries to attack again and then rinse and repeat. The boss is insanely easy, but it’s all about timing. So, the gameplay is one of the weaker 3D fighters and it is really just hitting two buttons together for the whole game. That being said, it was still decently fun and I ended up beating around 400 enemies before I knew it. The gameplay could have helped the game to get around a 7 if the rest of it had been as good.

The graphics are pretty weak. The character models vaguely represent the characters that you are supposed to see, but there isn’t a whole lot of detail placed into them. The graphics aren’t downright terrible, but I would say that they are sub par. The cutscenes are comic styled panels that don’t look half bad and it beats having cutscenes that are using the gameplay animation. I would have liked moving cutscenes, but it also beats the option of just using live action clips. (Which wouldn’t work anyway since this is Griffin’s Story)

The soundtrack is about as generic as you can get in a game. I walked away remembering absolutely none of the tracks in the game. I would have liked at least one good boss theme, but I suppose that it was too much to hope for this time. Maybe the developers figured that the music wouldn’t be that important or maybe others actually like the soundtrack. Only time will tell.

This is likely the first time that I’ve ever had to address the audio in a game. It’s not the first game of all time to have a problem with this, but I believe that it’s the first game that I’ve reviewed where I’ve encountered this. Nothing is wrong with the sound effects or the music, but the scale is off. During cutscenes, you can barely hear the characters speaking because of how loud the music is. (Or you can say that the voices are too long) It can take away from the scenes because you’re really straining to hear what is going on and you shouldn’t need to put in the effort. We want to hear the witty dialogue. Ah well…maybe next time.

This game also suffers from pretty bad lighting. Like with Indiana Jones, The Mummy, and other older PS2 games. Perhaps it’s just my console, but many of the older PS2 games are really dark. I can fix this by making the TV screen brighter, but it still makes noticing collectibles and such a little harder. It’s not a huge problem, but definitely worth noting.

Finally, I have to say that the game is too short. There are only 5 levels in the game and I beat it in under 5 hours. I’m sure that speed runners could beat it in around half of that time if they skipped cutscenes and ran right through it. 5 Levels is simply unacceptable for any game and 10 is the minimum that I find acceptable. There are a few collectibles scattered around for replay value, but I’m not sure how many of you would actually want to go back to find them. It is nice to include since some replay value beats none, but I can’t say that it will be high on my to do list.

Overall, Jumper is maybe slightly worse than I had imagined, but I had basically pictured this level of quality when I decided to purchase this game for my birthday. Games based on movies are rarely great, but they are typically fun. If nothing else, the gameplay was pretty fun, but it didn’t last for long. I definitely did expect more than 5 levels. So, the factors that would attribute to a 5/10 rating are the length and audio. The gameplay ultimately helps it to rise up, but a 7 is definitely out of the question. The game also had a glitch, which made me have to die on purpose to make the enemies reappear, but maybe it was a one time thing. I recommend this game if you want a nostalgic blast to the past of movie based video games. It was definitely a fun time. Just be warned that the game is very short. If you want a retro movie based game, check out the original Spider Man game for Gamecube!

Overall 6/10