When you hear "PS1-era FPS/Platformer hybrid", you'd think the game in question would be a horribly aged mess. Well I'm happy to report that not only has Jumping Flash aged fairly well, but it's a lot of fun!

There are a few pains here and there with turning your character, as well as draw distance. (the first level of World 5 was a BIG pain because of this) But as a whole, I found myself very charmed by this fun, frenetic acid trip of a game!

(I love the cutscenes too, big fan of the aliens that go mrermmrbgbgh)

When people mention "PSX aesthetics", this is the game that immediately comes to mind for me, this is the purest definition of "PSX aesthetics" out there, it's such a joy for the eyes!

The gameplay is really fun as well! One of the better done FPSes on the PSX, the movement is fun and the weapons feel satisfying!

My biggest issue is just how Short it is, clocking in around an hour or so, and while it is obvious the game wants you to re-play it, I couldn't really be bothered.

I started Chrono Trigger a couple days ago but decided I'd also play a short game here and there on the side as to mix things up. The first ones of these I decided to play was Jumping Flash and I gotta say, it was a really nice time.

This is one of if not the first 3D platformer to come out (I dont think its actually the first) and the way it goes about being an early 3D platformer works wonders. The game is a first-person 3D platformer which is already kinda unique. Whenever you double jump tho, the camera changes to look directly below you and for a game like this where you're mostly jumping on floating platforms and your jumps are crazy high, it really does work well.

The game's also pretty atmospheric with its early 3D goodness. It has a sort of liminal space feel in certain levels and its really neat. The OST is also surprisingly good. I can't remember a single song on the top of my head rn but the whole game had some groovy tunes.

The bosses for the most part are decent. They would have been better with a strafe as without it, you're mostly just messily jumping on their heads but for the most part they're passable. The doom-like levels also weren't my favorite because again, no strafe. They felt awkward without one unlike the regular levels.

The game also has several different sets of extra remixed stages but I didn't play them. They just seem to be harder and you move faster and have 5 jumps instead of 3 but other than that, from what I've seen the actual level layouts are the same.

Yeah this was a fun time man, definitely a lot better than you'd expect for such an early 3D platformer! Also is it bad to say I think I unironically liked this more than Mario Wonder? Lol

This is a game I'd heard about ages ago, but had never thought of playing until recently. I picked it up for cheap the other day, and today seemed like a good a day as any to play through it. Despite the wonky controls, I was very happy with the time I spent with Jumping Flash, and it was a fun 1.5-ish hours of my time going through the Japanese version of this iconic early PS1 title.

The evil Baron Aloha is attacking the planet, and it's up to the robot Robbit to stop him! It's a fairly short adventure through just 18 levels, some of which are just boss fights, but what's here is good. You're either killing a boss, or you're hunting through a level for 4 carrot-shaped rocket pods to unlock the exit to the next stage. After beating a boss, you get a cute cutscene of the little squid-creature controlling it going to a little Japanese-style dive bar to complain to its buddies how it just got its butt kicked X3. The game's design is very lighthearted and silly, which serves it well. The overall presentation is really nice on the whole as well. There isn't a ton of music in the game, but there are a lot of really great tracks that I'll definitely be adding to my MP3 player before long. The visual design is also very abstract and cartoonish to fit with the low-polygon necessity of a 1995 PS1 game.

The game's controls are fairly clunky, but they're very serviceable (and at times exceedingly clever) given this is a 3D platformer with no analog sticks coming out before the revelation that was Super Mario 64. You control Robbit in a first-person view, with up and down on the D-pad moving you forward and back, and right and left turning you the respective direction. Robbit can also double-jump, and upon doing your second jump, you automatically look down to get a view of your shadow so you'll know just where you're going to land. This is a really clever take on 3D platforming, and it really makes the whole game flow really well. The only real problem I encountered with the platforming is that left and right on the D-pad don't have entirely consistent functions. Sometimes they'll turn you in the mid-air of a double jump, and sometimes they'll simply turn you. It has something to do with your height of where you are in the jump, but it's still annoyingly inconsistent in a pinch.

Robbit also comes equipped with lasers (I like to imagine they fire out of his eyes <3 ) as well as special weapons he can launch if he finds special weapons tokens. The combat is fine, and the bosses are good fun, especially as you can also Goomba-stomp enemies by jumping on them to hurt them (this is a really fun thing to try to rush down bosses with). That said, it's a little awkward that you need to hold L1 to stop in your tracks to look around if you wanna aim anywhere other than directly ahead of you (or directly below you, if you're post-double jump), and given that R1, R2, and R3 aren't used at ALL in the default control scheme, the lack of a button you can hold to strafe is kinda difficult to forgive, even if the game is more than easy enough to complete without it. Honestly, your jump-stomps are so good and Robbit can take so much damage that you're better off using your guns as a last resort if you even need to fight at all in the normal levels.

Verdict: Recommended. It's not gonna set the world on fire, and it's a bit short, but Jumping Flash is still a really solid game despite how far 3D platforming has come since its release. It's certainly not worth paying an arm and a leg for, but if you can find it for a couple of bucks like I did, it's well worth spending an afternoon with.

I've known about this game for a while now, but I thought it would be something like Crash Bandicoot or something.
When I saw a gameplay video and it turned out to be a first-person (shooter?) platformer, I had to immediately try it out.
This is a genre I have not had any experience with, and I don't even know that many first-person platformers (aside from Mirror's Edge)
The game controls pretty good for an early PlayStation game and for a 3D platformer.
The double jump and how it refills each time you stomp an enemy made the game that much more fun.
The game is pretty to look it and the soundtrack complements the goofiness of the enemies and the playful nature of the levels.
The boss fights were all pretty great but felt a little easy (the whole game is not that difficult; I only died a couple of times).
I also found the addition of a couple of linear levels a break from the more expansive levels (they are not really that big) and were more like traditional shooter levels.
All in all, a good time if you have a couple of hours to spare and you don't mind the PlayStation graphics.

Buddy suggested we play a quick game together this holiday season, proposed Jumping Flash!
They finished it a couple days before I did considering I was a bit busy with Christmas stuff and that whole ordeal, so oops on my end but...

Simple and short, pretty interesting concept that doesn't do a terrible job of putting it in action.
A couple levels were a bit frustrating (ice physics don't particularly mesh well with this control scheme) ((5-1 can eat my ass)) but I didn't have many problems outside of those. The bosses were a lot of fun, especially once I realized you could easily just jump on top of them and fire from above 'til they exploded.
The air movement is a bit strange, but I will give props for panning the camera down after double jumping, a little detail that goes a long way in making platforming a bit easier combined with the shadow created by Robbit.

Not bad for a game I had never heard of until a few days ago, solid 7/10 game.