Platform: Switch
Publisher: SMG Studio
Developer: SMG Studio / Premo Games
Genre: Platform, Arcade, Party, Other
Players: 4
Release Date: January 25, 2018
Super One More Jump is one of those games that truly lives up to its name. I’m honestly impressed by how much fun I had with this game when I only had to press one button the whole time. Super One More Jump manages to make its simple jumping mechanic always feel fresh, exciting, and rewarding. The intricate level designs, the clever mixture of gameplay mechanics, and the sharply rising difficult come together to make a platformer that always manages to get you to play just one more time.
First, You Learn How to Jump
Super One More Jump is incredibly easy to play but unforgivingly difficult to master. Half of the game is already played for you because your character automatically moves forward throughout the level. All you have to worry about is timing your jumps correctly so your character survives until the end. Every threat is a one-hit kill and some of these threats, like tight jumps and gravity-pulling 180 degree jumps onto the underside of the platform you were just on, are pretty easy to maneuver around.
Initially, Super One More Jump does a great job of pacing the difficulty of the levels as you progress through them. Players are introduced to new mechanics like moving platforms, stop-jump buttons, super-jump springs, and activation switches as they make it to new worlds. Each world has its own special mechanic and the levels are cleverly designed around them, making you feel like you’re getting better at the game because you actually mastered the concepts. That is until you get to the later worlds. Halfway through the game, the later worlds become harshly difficult because they mix several of the mechanics at once while also demanding you to accomplish perfectly timed jumps.
It feels like an unfair difficult spike at first because these levels suddenly become more intense in difficulty than the ones before it. They are not impossible but they do become frustratingly difficult to the point where your death counter is going to be in the double digits by the first minute. Thankfully, Super One More Jump prominently features a practice mode that lets you play the levels you’re having trouble on at a slower movement speed, with no death counter and no collectibles.
Collecting Gems and The Rewards They Come With
Speaking of collectibles, each of the standard levels in Super One More Jump has three gems you can collect. Thankfully they don’t all need to be collected in one go, but you do need to finish the level with the gems you did collect so you get credit for them. The gems are always easy to find but surprisingly difficult to get. They’re usually placed near dangerous walls or tight spaces or hanging off a platform requiring you to make some skillfully timed jumps. Each gem is tied to an extra way of playing the level. Mirror lets you replay the level in an inverted view, night makes the rest of the level dark with your character and the few feet in front of them being the only visible sections, and rotation has you play the level as it slowly rotates clockwise or counter-clockwise in order to distract you.
I need to provide a warning here for my fellow motion sick gamers. I was unable to play more than a few minutes of the game in rotation mode without getting a headache. The rotation of the platforms are slow, but they contrast with the background of the level which is in constant motion. If you’re susceptible to motion sickness, I honestly warn against playing the rotation mode for more than a few minutes.
Gems also allow you to unlock new characters and skins depending on the theme you’re playing on. Super One More Jump features artwork and sprite-work by more than 9 artists. Each one of them is distinct and range from being bright and cute like the theme by cocefi to dark and detailed like the theme by Sven Ruthner. You get to choose whichever theme you like whenever you want. I recommend playing with the themes set to random so you can get to try them all out, and then sticking with your favorite theme as you progress through the game.
All The Ways You Can Jump for Fun
Super One More Jump, a game only about jumping, sure has a bunch of different modes that make the jumping mechanic always feel fresh and addicting. As you play throughout the standard levels, you will unlock new modes like endless mode, circuit mode, and the vault. Endless mode is a randomly generated level that continues endlessly until you die. Circuit mode has you running laps around the same level with subtle changes happening to the stage as you complete more laps. Vault mode levels are similar to the standard levels except they’re shorter, more straightforward, and lack collectibles.
Super One More Jump also features local co-op and local competitive play with 2P Co-op and 2P endless, respectively. 2P Co-op has two players take a Joy-Con or other controller and take turns jumping depending on the corresponding color of the platform they’re on. For example, player 1 is green and player 2 is purple. If the character is currently on a platform in the color green, then only player 1 can jump and vice-versa. 2P Endless is essentially a race to see who can survive the longest in a randomly generated level of platforming competitiveness.
Final Thoughts
Super One More Jump will have you timing your jumps for success and cursing at your Switch when you fail, but will always leave you with the feeling of trying just one more time. PREMO Games has made an incredibly addicting platforming experience that cleverly builds upon the concepts it introduces. Super One More Jump can get frustratingly difficult but the reward itself is persevering past that 100+ death counter. Super One More Jump is available now for $7 on the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo Switch.
Review Copy Provided by SMG Studio
