I want to talk about Jumping Flash. But also I don't. Rather, I want to talk about the Sony Playstation. The original console, released in September of 1995. It was far from my first console, but it was an important one to me because it was the first console that I ever bought with my own money.
Growing up as a child of divorce, my gaming library was fractured. At my dad's house I started with a Commodore 64, and then a NES, Genesis, Master System, Sega CD, and Super Nintendo. At my mom's I had an Atari 2600, then a NES, then a Turbografx-16. So I mean, I had games at both houses. But different consoles and different libraries. When I got to high school, I faced a gaming drought. My dad was angry at me for trading in old games that he paid for to Funcoland. He vowed not to buy me a new console. On the other hand, my mom had less disposable income and felt burnt by our TG16 acquisition as the system had died in the US and there were no new games to be found. So when the next generation of consoles started to roll out, it was all on me. One Saturday I asked my mom to drive me to Circuit City (RIP) and I promptly plopped down whatever cash I had to put a Playstation on layaway. It took me months to pay of that $300, but one day I finally owned a PS1 and it was a huge deal to me. Rather than being bought by one parent and thus being the property of one house, this console was mine. I'd go back and forth between my parents' houses and the PS1 would come with me packed in a bag. Of course that $300 MSRP included no games. Which meant I had no games at first. Instead, I had to settle for Playstation Picks, a demo disc that came bundled with the system. It's a weird feeling to have a new beefy and expensive system and no games. It's not like now (the end of 2023 as I write this). If you pick up a PS5 now, even with no games, it has access to a bevy of free-to-play downloads. Demo discs are unnecessary when you can just download Fortnite and Rocket League. Kids today don't know how good they have it. In 1996, when I finally paid off my PS1, I was stuck with Playstation Picks. It's a mythical launch title in its own weird way. A purple disc with very little playable fun. But some random gameplay videos could potentially keep you tied over. All I know is that I played the hell out of that demo disc. I rollerbladed in ESPN Extreme Games. I tried to come to grips with gravity in Wipeout. I lost endless hours to the concept of fighting games transitioning to 3D in Battle Arena Toshinden. And I experienced a true first person 3D platformer with Jumping Flash. Jumping Flash is a crazy game for 1995. It's sort of a first person shooter, but way more focused on platforming. And it's on a console, not a computer. I mean, nobody had sorted out the controls for such a game on console at this point. But they pulled it off here. It's rudimentary, yes. But it works. Try to remember there was no analog sticks on the original Playstation controllers at launch. All you could do was move with the d-pad. So think of that as WASD. But there was no strafing. The only controls were moving, and shooting and jumping and a secondary weapon. The real trick here is that you can TRIPLE jump. This lends incredible verticality to the platforming that honestly feels unrivaled until you get to like Mirror's Edge on PS3. If nothing else, Jumping Flash was way ahead of its time. But I've gotten ahead of myself. In Jumping Flash you play as a mech rabbit. Seriously. This was a game released in America in 1995. To say that Sony was serious about stepping into the console game with the intention of going hard is an understatement. Where Nintendo had chosen to American-ize their games in the late 80s and early 90s, Sony was like, "nah, these games are Japanese." They knew that kids in America were ready for mechs and bright colors and new ideas. As a side note, I've often thought that Zac Snyder was inspired by the sleeper Jumping Flash when he made his visual masterpiece, Sucker Punch. I say this with no irony. I really do think he incorporated this game into his movie. And I really think Sucker Punch is worlds better than it's given credit for. How is Jumping Flash in 2023? Well, it's a mixed bag, but way better than it should be. This game was released a year before Super Mario 64 and Tomb Raider got all the credit for bringing 3D platformers into reality. Jumping Flash did it first and did it well and with way more vertigo. The game also managed to successfully merge FPS and platformers into an amalgam that worked. It's bright and cute and fun. Having said all that, the meat and potatoes of the game is my most dreaded blueprints. At it's core, it's a collectathon. The goal is to find X number of parts scattered throughout each world in under ten minutes and then making your way to the exit. And I hate that layout. So the game is forward-thinking. It looks good. It plays well (for the time). It's got a cool art style. The boss battles are fun. And it's still a show-piece for the hardware. And yet the whole conceit of the game is something I really don't like. Which puts me in an odd spot. I celebrate this game. I like the minute to minute gameplay, but I don't care for the overall goal. So then how do I even sum this up? I think Jumping Flash is an awesome achievement. I always have. I think it deserves loads more credit than it ever got. I think any fans of gaming history should play it to understand the growing pains of 3D gaming. It's an awesome game that I don't actually enjoy enough to finish. But it's good. I don't know.
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