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Review: JumpJet Rex

At a Glance

ESRB Rating: NR - Not Rated
My Rating: Everyone
Genre: Platformer
License: Commercial
Fun-O-Meter:
Release Year: 2015
Review Published On: October 11th, 2017
Played on: Thaddeus

Available on:

Windows
Linux
MacOS

Available from:

Humble Store
Steam

Soundtrack: Available as DLC
Areas of Concern:
  • Mild violence


How to Save and Pause:

Your progress is saved as you play, so dont worry about losing your data.

Pressing ESC pauses the game.

Time needed per session:

While most of the levels can be completed within two minutes, most players are going to play several levels per session. So, plan on playing for at least twenty minutes to give yourself enough time to mess around and practice for higher scores.

Does this game pose issues for Christian players?

No - this is a great game for Christians
This is a very clean game, though some of the references to gaming and internet culture can be misinterpreted if players arent familiar with them.

Screenshots

[view screenshot]
Exploring a forest planet

[view screenshot]
Dealing with a mechanical boss

[view screenshot]
Dripping alien goo



Game Overview

Game developers often try to bring something new to the table. This might be flashy graphics, clever storytelling, or even unusual mechanics or concepts. Its something of an arms race, and while many of the games that result are excellent in their own right, sometimes you want the old and familiar instead of the shiny and new. JumpJet Rex is one of the latter, as its designed to look, sound, and feel like it was one of games released back in the DOS era. This is hardly a bad thing, as it allowed the developers to focus on making it a fun game for everyone.

Like the old games it pretends to be, the story is little more than an excuse. You play as Rex, and as you probably guessed, hes a dinosaur (a tyrannosaurus rex, to be specific). What you probably didnt guess is that hes also the first dinosaur astronaut, and this game tells of his first mission out in the vastness of space. You see, shortly after he got up there, scientists discovered that there was a giant asteroid headed towards Earth. With no time to prepare anyone else for the mission, its up to Rex to fly through space and destroy the asteroid before it wipes out dinokind.

Or at least, thats the premise. The bulk of the game is focused on exploring various planetoids and space stations. Each of these areas is a self-contained level where Rex needs to fly around and pass though floating gold rings. Once hes passed through enough of them, the door to the exit will open, and he can earn up to three stars based on how well he performed. These stars are used to unlock new levels, and they play a role in the climactic final level, so its a good idea to earn as many as you can.

The future of dinokind depends on you stopping that asteroid, so hurry up and hit the skies flying already!

Points of Interest

Adjustable difficulty

Normally, Rex is a one-hit wonder. This makes the levels quite difficult, but you also get infinite lives and plenty of checkpoints. Should this be too tough, you can opt for easy mode, which lets Rex take another hit before hed down. On the other hand, if you want to indulge in some controller-snapping levels of frustration, theres the Ragequit Rex mode. You get three lives, one hit point per life, and no checkpoints. The difficulty setting also determines how many stars you need to collect in order to progress -- the harder the challenge, the more stars are needed.

Colorful costumes

While old games rarely had a feature like this, modern games cant do without it. Changing Rexs appearance is free and can be done anywhere theres a changing booth. The catch is that you need to unlock new color schemes or head apparel by finding them in special levels or by purchasing them from space stations using the treasure youve found throughout you journey.

Hidden treasures

There are a number of secret collectibles stashed away among the stars. To aid you in finding these goodies, the level select map displays a message when youve selected a level possessing a treasure you havent collected yet. Not every level has such secrets, but the ones that do sometimes hide them off-screen or in a hidden bonus area.

Once collected, these items adorn your base like furniture.

Multiple endings

The games story can end in one of three ways. Your success or failure during the final level determines the result. Unfortunately for Rex, he makes the novice mistake of arming the planetoid destroying bomb before setting it, resulting in a crazed rush to the center of the planet to get the bomb in place and an even more panicked rush to get out of there before the thing goes off. Can you reach the core in time? If so, can you get back to your ship? These questions determine the fate of the Earth and Dinokind.

Split-screen multiplayer

Have a friend or sibling that would like to play too? Then youre in for a treat. This title features a few different ways for several people to play together. Aside from a co-op mode for the main game, there are a few game modes where players compete against each other. These include a deathmatch mode, a relay game where you feed cookies to hungry aliens, and a king of the hill mode. Up to four players can play together on one machine, provided you have enough controllers and keyboards to go around.

Steam community features

This time around they only amount to some achievements, but there are plenty of them. Many of them require some seriously tricky maneuvers or top-notch skills, so dont expect to just earn them all by playing through the game once. That said, if you can conquer the Ragequit Rex mode, youll have earned an achievement that less than 1% of this games player base has managed to acquire.

Co-op mode isnt well implemented

This is the biggest issue I can think of regarding this game. All of the multiplayer modes use a split screen, allowing everybody to move around the levels freely, except for the co-op story mode. This means that neither player can really move around much, as the other players character creates an artificial wall. Taking things slightly further, when one player reaches the goal, the other instantly vanishes and cant continue until the fist player collects the levels stars.

High difficulty

Like the classic games JumpJet Rex apes, its fairly difficult and somewhat unforgiving. Even on the easiest modes, youll end up having to restart levels often. This is less of a problem if youre not attempting to earn the star awarded for clearing the level without dying, but youll still end up back at a checkpoint more than you might like.

Concerns and Issues

Cartoonish violence

The vast majority of the violence present in this game comes in the form of Rex getting killed by hazards in the levels. Each way he can die features a unique and comical animation. For example, getting electrocuted results in his skeleton flashing briefly before his body crumbles to ashes. Simpler deaths, like getting poked by spikes, just feature him falling off screen.

When Rex attacks enemies, most of them just pop out of existence. The bosses on the other hand eventually get knocked out. Even after theyve been defeated, you can still make them flinch by attacking them again. Speaking of the bosses, the Yeti boss develops a nose bleed once defeated. This is the only time blood appears in the game.

Some of the references might be considered offensive

There are a lot of nods to gaming culture in this game, specifically with the names of achievements and some of the loot that you can find hidden in the stages. If youre not familiar with gaming culture -- specifically the friendly rivalry between casual gamers and hardcore gamers -- its likely that youll see these references as offensive or insulting. For example, completing the game on easy earns you the achievement named filthy casual. This is just playful ribbing, not an insult.