Jumpman (C64, 1983) | The Jeff Gerstmann Hall of Fame 010

Описание: When we talk about early platformers, we usually end up talking about Donkey Kong. Or, if we're pretending to be historians, we bring up Space Panic. Few people truly want to talk about Space Panic, which is fine. It hasn't exactly aged well. It came out in 1980 and felt dated by 1981. Instead we tend to think about games that let you jump. Take, for example, Randy Glover's Jumpman. "Jump" is right in the name. You know what you're getting here, right off the bat. But it's more than just jumping. Jumpman and its follow-up, Jumpman Jr., are great, early exercises in level design and the importance of little gimmicks. Most of the levels here put their own unique spin on things, be it occasional fireballs, moving ladders, disappearing platforms, and more. We'd see more of this ethos in later games, like Space Taxi. Jumpman is a very particular kind of game, which is to say that I think it feels pretty good, but that's because I've been playing it for years and years and years. It's a little awkward, if I'm being honest. It's also on the short list of games I saw that made me think "I have to get a Commodore 64, that's where all the action is now." It got some follow-ups, legal and otherwise, down the line (including a kickstarted reboot for the Ouya?), but there's nothing quite like the original article, be it on the C64 or on the Atari 8-bit family of machines, where it technically debuted.

In short: I love me some Jumpman.