Licensed videogames are much more often misses than they are hits. Having played a title like E.T., it’s easy to see why; many are just slapped together in no-time, and the games’ woeful inadequacies exemplify the cash-grab phenomenon. All that being said, we’ve had our eyes on the movie “Jumper,” and hoped once again not to be betrayed by the licensed game. Read on to find out whether it’s the same old story or if you should jump to the store to pick this game up.
Some basic terminology will go a long way in understanding Jumper: Griffin’s Story and the movie “Jumper” it is based on. A jumper is somebody who can transport themselves from one space to another. And a paladin is a member of a group of people dedicated to killing all the jumpers.
The story, told through a series of comic-book-like images with excellent voice over, paints a quite strong narrative. If the goal of the title is getting people excited about the story itself, then it easily succeeds. Unfortunately for Jumper: Griffin’s Story, the gameplay itself sabotages the whole effort.
As you can imagine, being a jumper, you are out to survive against the paladins by any means necessary. Unfortunately, most of these means are painfully repetitive. Sure, there are some weapons to pick up. But you can get pretty far by just button-mashing your way through the near-endless onslaught. Hitting the face buttons (X, Y, A, B) will make Griffin jump in a number of different directions, slipping out of sight and then delivering a wallop. You can also slide tackle using the Right Trigger.
In the early going, you will have trouble even keeping track of what your character is doing on screen, and yet you’ll be piling up the achievement points. If Gamerscore matters to you, then you can grab about 400 Achievement Points in 2 minutes, with virtually no skill or effort. I don’t want to sell my own button-mashing skills short, but I think anyone with hands should be able to pull it off.
The game is somewhat similar to Avatar: The Last Airbender — The Burning Earth in that its basic gameplay mechanic is some version of hack and slash, and it spews Gamerscore. Jumper: Griffin’s Story is far superior to Avatar story-wise, and so it isn’t quite in the same league.
The PG-13 movie and T-rating could suggest that this game is intended for younger audiences, but I think you’d have to be younger than 13 for you to enjoy the fighting. So, I think the title misses on that point as well.
All told, I’m disappointed that the gameplay could not match the story. In other licensed titles, so much is wrong that there’s nothing salvageable. But in Jumper: Griffin’s Story, we could have had a solid game if only the developers had spent more time on gameplay mechanics. Would-be fans of the movie should spend their hard-earned cash going to the movie theater and seeing “Jumper” again; this game isn’t going to cut it.
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