Rating:

Jumping robot babies.

If that phrase did not make you giddy, or at least provide a smirk, Jed may not be for you. It is, however, for everybody else.

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Full Review

The flipping stage, variable platform thing seems to be a recurring trend for platforming games. Perhaps it is the way of the future. I hasten to admit my trouble with these kinds of game, trick stages or no. I kind of just suck at platformers. It didn't, however, keep me from enjoying Jed, Jonathan Whiting's latest release.

Per most skill focused games, the plot is fairly minimal but told in a fun way. Through the 'storybook' you come to discover that you are playing as Jed (presumably), a negligent robo-parent who took a nap and let its robo-children get abducted. Your job is to get them back at all costs! The trouble is that while you are tasked with retrieving your baby robots, they become your hitpoints so that if Jed takes a bump you survive and the babies go. Selfish, really.

Plot holes aside, Jed is about surviving its typically 8-bit bizarro world of jumping fish, rotating blades, and blue-wheeled robots. The game eases you in with typical platforming fare and then throws you the curve ball, played here by yin-yang looking portals that swap you from the foreground to the background (the latter is viewable in shade from the former). Initially it's straight forward: you make it all the way down to the end of the foreground, swap, and run back the other way to finish the stage, completing certain challenges in between.

As you progress, the mechanic takes new and interesting effect when the two worlds begin to collide so that tasks in one necessitate contact with the other. In some stages the flip-flopping also provides you with a choice of paths through the stage. Will you take the slippery ice-world or the extra difficult path of hordes of leaping fish? The choice is yours.

At times the collision feels off but it is forgivable. The puzzles are fun to think through, challenging enough for an experienced platform player and just frustrating enough for someone like me to feel determined to get through. At about stage 8 I broke down and setup JoyToKey to ease my pain. It made a big difference.

Coupled with unlockable content, a great soundtrack, and generally fun gameplay, Jed is definitely worth a download.