Jumping Jack Son must travel through the strange dimension where the recording is kept, revealing and playing any other rock recordings he can find before the classical instruments destroy them. This is not as easy as it sounds, since the records are all hidden in zones built up of square platforms. Certain sections of the zones have to be turned to the same color, by leaping on them, which makes a record appear. Jack can then pick it up and take it to the correspondingly-colored record deck in order to set it playing, building up the tune with drums, bassline and harmony.
Once all the records have been placed on the decks, Jack can go on to the next level. Spirits sent out by the classical tyrants wander around the zones trying to stop him from completing his quest, giving Jack a good biffing if they can catch him.
Jack can drop a limited supply of cassettes in front of his enemies to hold them at bay for a while, as well as picking up items along the way to help him. These include sleeping pills to put the instruments to bed, hard-man rock shades to scare them off or colored Walkmen for magic powers such as invisibility.
At various stages throughout the game 'challenge' stages appear. On these Jack must find a route through the level to enlarge glass orbs, but each square can only be crossed once. If this task is completed, then a password to higher levels is given.
This is a very attractive and enjoyable puzzle game in which you play a sort of London Philharmonic buster. As Jumping Jackson, rockstar extraordinaire, you have to revive the flagging spirit of 'rock and roll' by wiping out classical music and giving bass, drums and axe the airplay they deserve. What would Nigel Kennedy say?
There are 16 levels to the game, each plagued by nasties such as violins and classical acoustic guitars. Complete with leathers and teased hair, you are on a mission to collect limited edition records, each on colored vinyl, and place them on the appropriately colored record deck.
To claim each disk, you have to turn a strip of floor tiles one color by bouncing on them. When you have done this, the corresponding record appears for you to go and collect it.
Many of the levels are complex mazes, carefully constructed from disconnected floor tiles and random teleporters. And you are pursued by the vicious classical instruments, all of them fully paid-up members of the Orchestra of Doom, who rather annoyingly follow you through the teleporters.
I knew I was in for something special the second the intro tune started. A far cry from the usual plinky keyboard line and poor synth drums that make up 90 per cent of Amiga music, JJ opens with a very clever "live" recording of Jumping Jackson's band playing their anthem "Jumping Jackson" complete with audience singalong. To my ear it sounds very much like an old KISS track, which is no bad thing.
The graphics are everything Amiga graphics should be. Cartoony, colorful and full of character. Add to that smooth scrolling and lots of cute little touches, like Jackson's end-of-level dance, and you have a great looking game, and one that is very playable. Sixteen levels is not really enough but, for what you have, Jumping Jackson is a very good product. A few more levels and this game would be terrific.
Jack is determined to save the few remaining rock records. On each level he jumps around square platforms, avoiding angry classical instruments. Certain squares change color when jumped on: When a group of them is made all the same color, a record appears for Jack to place on the relevantly colored record player. Playing records gradually builds up a rock tune - when all the records are playing, Jack can teleport to the next level.
Occasionally, special tiles appear which can give our hopping hero such extras as a jukebox (to carry more than one record simultaneously) and sunglasses (cause classical instruments to flee in terror!). Every four levels, there's a challenge round where Jack must hop once on every platform to gain a password.
How to run this game on modern Windows PC?
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