Jumper: Griffin's Story 4.9

February 26, 2008 - At 15% on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer, the film Jumper is one of the worst-reviewed movies of the year so far. The consensus is that it possesses "little coherence and lackluster special effects." The same can be said about the videogame tie-in, Jumper: Griffin's Story, making it a bad game based on a bad movie. The mind-numbing gameplay and lackluster visuals should only be forgiven by younger gamers who don't know any better. The problem is, Griffin's Story bears a Teen rating and includes a few cinematic kill scenes that are probably a little too intense for young adolescents.

The game focuses on the jumper Griffin, who is a supporting character in the movie. Publisher Brash Entertainment is up front about its target demographic being casual gamers and fans of the film. This is evident in the lack of any story explanation in the game or manual. You are apparently expected to have seen the movie and know who these characters are going in. "Story" is in the title for cryin' out loud. All we know is Griffin's parents were killed, he's pissed, and he takes House of Pain literally.

Jumper is essentially a button masher. You run from room to room getting into fights with Paladins who are jealous that they can't jump around. The movie boasts the tagline, "Anywhere is possible." It's no coincidence that the game doesn't come with the same message. Here, Griffin can only jump to areas designated by floating orbs. And sometimes not even then. There are plenty of spots where you'll see an orb, attempt to jump, and nothing happens.

Cut scenes are shown before each level in a comic-book style that doesn't really fit the visuals of the rest of the game. During combat Griffin will sometimes trigger an "extreme kill" event where he transports his opponent to some gruesome situation and leaves them there to die. These events are done in CGI and look pretty enough, so it would have been nice to keep some visual continuity in between levels.



While combat requires little more than furiously tapping any of the Xbox 360 controller's face buttons, it can be satisfying. The X/Y/A/B buttons are used to jump to the corresponding side of your enemy and attack. So hitting the Y button will jump you to the far side of the enemy; the B button will jump you to the right side, and so on. A tiny bit of your brain will be needed because the bad guys will be guarded on one side, indicated by a red bar. Don't jump to that side or you'll be pwned. Any of the other sides are fair game, although one will be indicated by a green bar. Attacking this side will fill up your power bar for unleashing special slow-motion, Matrix-style attacks.

There is a customizable combo system split into Starters, Mids, and Finishers. You can set your own combination of buttons, but you'll likely find you connect combos quite arbitrarily just by attacking relentlessly.

Achievement Whore Alert: Griffin's Story hands out achievements like the guy on your local street corner passing out samples of that new energy drink. Within a few minutes of play I had unlocked several achievements just by mashing some buttons and randomly creating combos. You'll find you're earning 50 gamer points every five minutes or so. If your gamer score is important to you, this is one of the few reasons I would recommend playing this game.

The graphics won't have you jumping out of your seat. Characters are poorly animated, and the Paladins are apparently a legion of identical twins. The camera is busted and will get stuck behind walls. Or it won't follow you into a room and the door will shut, leaving Griffin to be mercilessly Paladined to death on the other side. The game stutters and the framerate frequently drops. It's also not very detailed. At one point you'll pick up a samurai sword and go around hacking up the enemy, but there is no blood spilled or damage indicated.

Griffin's Story is a short one. You can leap through the game in a few hours and there is no multiplayer. There is a Loot Room where you can check out the knickknacks you've picked up along the way, but you can't interact with anything.

Closing Comments
Developer Redtribe (Looney Tunes: ACME Arsenal) makes no mention of Jumper: Griffin's Story on its official website. A few minutes of quality time with the game will reveal why. This is the epitomy of a movie tie-in hack job. Low production values, monotonous gameplay, and lackluster visuals make this a story you can jump past. There is some fun to be had with the game's combat, but this will get old quickly for all but the most hardcore Jumper Super Fans. If that's you, then you must be looking forward to the Meet the Spartans game.

IGN Ratings for Jumper: Griffin's Story (X360)
Rating Description See Our Glorious Home Theater Setup!
out of 10 click here for ratings guideGet Ratings Information
4.0 Presentation
Neither the game nor the manual give you any backstory on what's going on. An entire page of the manual is dedicated to explaining how great Live is, but the game doesn't support the service.
5.0 Graphics
The "drop zone" kill scenes are pretty cool, but in-game visuals are choppy with an unstable framerate, The comic book cut scenes don't fit the design of the rest of the game.
6.0 Sound
Brash secured the voice of Jamie Bell from the movie but he's not given much to do. The music is a decent, orchestral affair.
5.0 Gameplay
I like the mechanic of jumping around the enemy with the face buttons, but that's pretty much all the game has to offer. What people really want to do is teleport like these guys do in the movie.
5.0 Lasting Appeal
The single-player is short and multiplayer is non-existent.
4.9
Poor OVERALL
(out of 10 / not an average)