Review: Electronic Super Joy A Beat-Bumping Platformer

The level design is very sharp, but don't expect large areas to explore. Electronic Super Joy is here to bring you a platforming challenge, not an open world, and in that respect it succeeds. And what world there is, it's very bare bones with not much more than what the gameplay requires. Still, it does a bit to keep it visually interesting. The vector art pulsing with the music is a very nice touch, and even the projectile enemies seem to only fire in pace with the music. This made for an easy exploit of just moving past enemies quickly before they have a chance to get a shot off (of what appears to be swastikas for whatever reason?). Considering this game wants to keep you moving as quickly as possible, I think that may have been a design error.



Now, you can't have a good platformer without tight controls, and Electronic Super Joy delivers. The game seems well suited for keyboards or gamepads (I made it through with the former). But get ready to wear those fingers out because this game is very fast paced and throws quite a few mechanics in to keep the gameplay interesting. My problem here is mechanics get added and removed rather haphazardly. There are several moments where the game seems to go "Taking this ability away now; just 'cause!", which I don't like very much. This is a very linear game so it would make sense to have a linear progression if you're going to change mechanics; or at least do it in a way that seems less arbitrary. A good example of progression is Super Meat Boy: same mechanics throughout the game, but the obstacles and scenery change and give each world its own feel (something is game also lacks somewhat).

Another weakness is the difficulty; but I'm aware many may consider this a strength no matter what. Now, I have no problem with difficulty. Among my favorite games are VVVVVV, Super Meat Boy, and Super Hexagon. However, let's look at the vibe and pacing. VVVVVV and SMB both contain predetermined courses (much like the game we're reviewing here). Super Hexagon, on the other hand, features procedural obstacles for a unique-ish play each time. It also has hyper visuals and a pounding soundtrack that gets your adrenaline going. This works well because in such an atmosphere the player needs to keep progressing to keep the sensory high going; so even when you fail you can jump right back in with new challenges so you don't get bored or frustrated. The problem with Electronic Super Joy is that it shares that same high-energy atmosphere, but its levels aren't procedural so it's easy to get bogged down on a certain part while the game refuses to slow down. At points I wanted to mute the game so I could concentrate on beating a certain obstacle, and that's the opposite of what the game wants. That said, when you are doing well the game feels amazing: the colors and wonderful soundtrack gave me enough catharsis to recommend this game.

The bottom line is that despite all my criticisms, Electronic Super Joy has enough fun and challenge that would tell any of my platformer-loving friends to check it out. However, if you're not inclined to such thumb/finger abuse I would at least give the soundtrack a listen, either of which is available through Humble and Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.