Jump for Annoy…

Copyright (c) Noelle Adams. All Rights Reserved.

On the seventh day God looked over His creation, saw that it was good, and rested. The next day, Satan got to work, devising Monday morning gridlock, the mosquito, Telkom and… the jumping puzzle.

I’ve moaned a lot in the past about gaming frustrations but one of the oldest, and arguably the greatest, is the jumping puzzle. Crossing an expansive area by leaping from platform to (typically moving) platform nibbles away on nerves, particularly when combined with save point systems that force you to retread the same territory and tackle the same obstacles ad nauseum.

There is nothing more annoying than spending 10 minutes anxiously navigating your character across a series of jumps and then, with the exit in sight, mistiming a leap that plunges you to your death, or the stage’s beginning.

It’s a situation pretty much guaranteed to have you flinging your controller at the TV, or smashing your fist down on your keyboard. You have to wonder if hardware manufacturers actually encourage game developers to include jumping sequences, just to increase product turnover.

It may be a sign of my reflexes slowing and coordination de-coordinating, but jumping puzzles seem to have become more difficult in recent years. I doubt I’m alone in this thinking. With the shift from a two- to three-dimensional gaming environment, it becomes tricky to judge distance in-game. Developers have realised the challenge this poses, and capitalised on the visual confusion.

What would have been a simple jumping stage if the Family Guy video game was 2D becomes a nightmare with depth joining height and width as an additional onscreen dimension. The game’s flat cartoony look misleads the player in terms of platform position.

First-person games are just as bad. With an inability to simultaneously move forward and look down at your feet, players in Call of Cthulhu have to estimate ledge distance when leaping… typically to your death.

The jumping puzzle is probably one of the most ubiquitous aspects of gaming. It’s a staple that remains to this day. Cast your gaze back to 1982 and gaming’s emergence into the pop culture mainstream. Even back then Pitfall Harry was hurdling across the mouths of crocodiles.

Scan your eyes across all gaming genres today. Platformers, Action-Adventures and First Person Shooters still include jumping sequences.

But why does the jumping puzzle, involving such a simple action, have such a long tradition? Why do game developers still use it, long after the Platformer Golden Age when Mario, Donkey Kong and Adventure Island reigned supreme? It’s because jumping puzzles are still an easy way to add diversity and extend game time, even if they alienate the player in the process. Jumping puzzles are too useful a device to be retired anytime soon.

But now let’s leave the annoyances of gaming and celebrate one of the many joys instead. GEAR is now officially one year old. Congratulations to the entire GEAR team, past and present, for the achievement. And thanks to our ever-growing number of readers. That’s really something to jump about.