Around and Around We GoOVERALL: 3/10
Who likes roller coasters?
Monkeys?
Significant Others?
Sky buckets, monkey droppings, or aliens?
So the last three are a bit iffy, but that's the way I felt about this game! Depending on your source, this game has one of two story lines. One originated in Japan and one originated in the US. Therefore, you're either a cloaked man trying to save his girlfriend while dodging angry monkeys, robbers, and girls on roller skates.... or you're a robber dodging cops, gathering loot, and avoiding the local zoo. Whichever is the case, this is NOT a game I would recommend to most people. While I've got to give it kudos for adding en enemy conveyor belt they'd like to call a roller coaster... there's not much else I find laudable.
GRAPHICS (3/10):The first screen you come to, the menu screen, is horrible. It doesn't even inspire me to the play the game and consists of the words "Jump Coaster" in all red and on a plain black screen. If I walked by an arcade machine and saw that, I'd assume the machine was down for maintenance and I'd move on without reading the words. It's not attractive, lacks creativity, and causes me to wince.
Next is the playing screen. It's just as ugly. Green roller coaster tracks, white ladders, red platforms... all on a black background. The red and green are even puke- worthy shades, and when the characters appear, things only get worse. Your character is an awkward purple, the other human - like characters are sky blue... monkeys are red, sky buckets are sky blue, and rollerblading girls (if that's what they are) are an orange- ish yellow. Who in the world -picked- this color scheme!? As though a horrible color pallet wasn't enough, they programmers of the game decided to make every stage and level on the SAME pallet. I had enough of the colors after the first few stages and was ready to remove the eye sore from my vision.
Equally as bad as the colors were the characters. The little purple guy with the cape was a little cute, but he was definitely the star of the screen. The only thing which caused the monkeys to be recognizable was the fact that they moved upside down across from ropes and tossed down bananas. Had it not been for these saving factors, I would have assumed the red masses were cats.
The monkey cats were tolerable. Let's discuss the rollerblading girls. For the life of me, I NEVER would have labeled the yellow/ orange figures as anything even related to a human. I might have gone for 'strange octopus alien'. I always try to consider the fact that such games as this are older arcade games and thus deserve some leeway when it comes to rating the graphics, but my graciousness can only go so far. I don't care how much I've had to drink* or how little sleep I've had... those yellow/ orange figures are NOT rollerblading girls.
Perhaps the game designers simply didn't like women? If you are following the 'nice man saving his girlfriend' story, then the only thing that could be considered the girlfriend is... [insert drum roll]... and alien head. That's right: an alien head. Is this guy dating an alien? Or is his girlfriend just REALLY, REALLY ugly?
For all my effort, I can't figure out the graphics of this game. They don't make sense to me and only make the game rather comical... something I'm sure that is not intended.
Then too, there is the questionable mass that the monkeys throw down at you. The game manuals say the mass is a grapefruit. I say it's a digested and released grapefruit. Monkey poo, anyone?
SOUND (1/10):Please, please, PLEASE take my word for it: Don't even bother with the sound. Wear earplugs or mute your computer. This game has THE most annoying sound effects I have EVER come across while gaming. EVERY little action comes with a sound, and it's an annoying one at that. Even walking comes with a 'deedeedeedeedee' sound that's bound to drive anyone batty. Travelling across ropes, climbing ladders, falling, or getting hit by fruit all have a unique sound.
Then on top of all this noise, the background music consists of FOUR repeated musical notes. The game over music? Five notes.
Not only does the music lack in diversity, but it also lacks in quality. It's choppy, it's rusty, and it's unappealing. It's not even worth any further comments.
ADDICTIVENESS (3/10): I would play Jump Coaster only if it was my sole gaming option. It's only redeeming factor was the unique inclusion of an enemy conveyor belt. I enjoyed dodging enemies that traveled along the coaster and only played past the first stage so that I could see the new coaster designs. They caused the game to be slightly unpredictable and gave the platform game less of a rigid feel. However, even the coasters become less of a reason to play as you progress: once you've seen a couple, you've seen them all.
STORY (2/10):
I know that writing a story for a platform game is a pretty difficult thing to do but...someone couldn't come up with a better plot? Whether you're considering the 'guy rescuing girl' plot, or the 'robber escaping cops' plot, it's rather dull, unassuming, and disappointing. The story could have been a lot more fun if the writers took off with the rabid monkey / alien takeover ideas that stem from the graphics. I don't even write stories for games, and I guarantee you I was having a lot more fun imagining my own scenario for the game.
Besides that, if you want to go with the 'guy rescuing' girl theme, you make more points if you win by collecting all the money. What kind of a lesson is that too teach children? Your girlfriend is in danger, but collect the money instead because she'll want you to pay the bills? Speaking of which, what put the girl in danger in the first place? Was it all the loose poo- flinging apes?
DEPTH (1/10):I really don't think there is much to be said here. My rating here should be pretty self-explanatory if you read the review.
I don't know how many levels the game actually has because I couldn't bare it long enough to find out. However, reading up on the game reveals that there are only two screens which repeat (in the MSX version). The bad guys start to move faster however, and the money bags start to increase in point value.
DIFFICULTY (7/10):This game is -ridiculously- hard in my opinion. I'm no star at any games, but this one takes the cake. Enemies are EVERY where, meaning you must constantly be on the look out from all directions. The blue men travel side to side. The rollerbladers/ octopus aliens come at you from any direction on a track, and monkeys constantly drop things on you. If you're on a ladder when a monkey drops something above your head, there's not enough time to get off the ladder before you die. If you don't jump at -exactly- the right moment as an enemy approaches you, you die.
If you walk off the edge of a platform (even at the lowest level!), you die. If you fail to jump over intersections of roller coaster and platform.. you die. If you jump for the sky bucket and miss... you die.
The controls are finicky, and the game becomes centered around the timing of your button clicks. Even if you manage to grab all the money bags, another bag appears in the middle of the screen and you have to backtrack to get it in order to move on.
All things considered, this really isn't a game I'd recommend to anyone. It's frustrating, annoying, and difficult. It doesn't really surprise me that there are only 2 released versions of the game. The roller coaster idea was a nice one, but it simply ended up irritating me.
*Just fyi, I don't drink.
Graphics
3 Sound
1 Addictive
3 Depth
1 Story
2 Difficulty
7
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