Yer Man Scullion has been writing again (when does he ever stop, I hear you ask) and has given us a guide to that ever-green species of gaming, the humble platformer. Conceived as the first of a series celebrating different video game genres, Jumping For Joy will sadly be the only volume to see the light of day. This is a crying shame as, if this book is anything to go by, that collection would have been a corker. (I don't suppose once you've finished the Encyclopaedia set with the combined GX4000/C64GS/Gizmondo pamphlet that you might return to this, Chris?)
As the cover states, Jumping For Joy aims to give you the history of platform video games and it does so by dividing the subject into three parts. The first is the most obvious, start at the very beginning of this jumping platform malarkey - Mario. Well, Donkey Kong, but you know what I mean. From there, every home, handheld and arcade game that has a platform in it is included. There are, for me, some pretty obscure titles here, and it made this book another educational read along the lines of his previous books. Speaking of which, yes there are entries for games already covered in the NES and SNES volumes but there is no repetition, no copy and paste. Each entry in each volume is unique. As with the encyclopaedias, each game gets either one quarter, one half or a full page entry with a write up, release details, a screenshot and, with most, a fun fact. Especially the fun fact for Sonic 3 on page 45 - what the literal F did I just watch???
Following on from Mario, much like the sunshine after the rain (get that ear worm out of your head now, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha - hey, it's better than that Right Said Fred "tune"), is Sonic (I may have given that way at the end of the last paragraph...), and whilst you have to admit that the quality of the Sonic games has never been consistent, their treatment here from Mr Scullion is.
With the two headliners out of the way, we're only 65 pages in out of 167. The rest of the book is taken up by the 50 iconic platformers you need to play. At this point, I must admit that I agree with the author. This is his 50, you will have your 50, and I have mine. Accept that and enjoy what he has to offer.
Each of the 50 titles gets a two page entry, a detailed write up, a few screenshots (most get four to six) and a fun fact. Besides that, there are also three other titles listed as recommendations (value fans will know that adds up to 200 titles listed in total), and whilst some of them might make you question what a platformer is, the justifications included make perfect sense. Really, what this section does is demonstrate how varied and rich the platforming genre actually is and I know I spent the next couple of weeks after reading this book trying out as many of the titles mentioned here as I could.
Jumping For Joy is a love letter to the humble platformer, with great writing, a fine sense of humour (you have to be able to take a joke to listen to that Right Said Fred song), and the usual quality production values from Pen and Sword. Even if you consider yourself jaded about the genre, pick up a copy and I think you'll find it will re-kindle some of the passion you once had. The only negative I can think of is that this will be the only volume of the series. Still the latest encyclopaedia is now out as well (the N64) and looks to be another worthy addition - and kudos to Chris for getting two books out in a year! Expect a review of the N64 volume on here as and when.
You can buy Jumping For Joy direct from the publisher here (as well as the author's other books), and from the usual high street booksellers and online retailers. You can also follow Chris on Twitter here.
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