I Wanna Cute Jump!

Creator: LAWatson

Average Rating
8.5 / 10
Average Difficulty
71.9 / 100
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Tags:

Adventure (2) Needle (2) Gimmick (3) Boss (1) Puzzle (2) RNG (1) Art (1) SourPls (1) Pathing (1)

Screenshots

  • by NightShark115
  • by bantsmen

Creator's Comments:

lawatson [Creator]
This game is a decently-made needle gimmick game centered around technical aspects of fangame movement and interesting maneuvers. The game is also about overcoming tedium and repetition, which you might or might not be able to overlook. I'd recommend everyone to give it a try, but you definitely have to have a specific taste to make it through the later parts of the game. It starts easy enough but gets noticeably harder as you progress. The game also has secrets, which is where that 80 difficulty rating is coming from.

As the developer, I recommend this game for anyone who wants to try an unconventional style of fangame, or anyone who is perfectly on board with getting stuck on weird seemingly impossible levels a lot.

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[5] Likes
Rating: N/A       Difficulty: 80 80
Jan 2, 2020

9 Reviews:

Cosmoing
"The game is also about overcoming tedium and repetition, which you might or might not be able to overlook."

This phrase sums up the majority of this game. Every gimmick introduced to you in this game is used to make you wait or make you reset attempts. For the most part it's honestly not the worst, and I even enjoyed some of the more complicated pathing offered. But as soon as the bird showed its square head, the scales tipped heavily towards the "I don't want to play this anymore" side.
There's also a massively helpful component to the game that you can use before but is only introduced 2/3rds of the way through the game: You can save on any regular block by pressing CTRL and then down 3 times. Why this was only mentioned so far into the game is beyond me and had someone not told me beforehand, the experience would've been infinitely worse up to there.
The game also ends with a boss which I thankfully had low hopes for, since all of the later attacks of the boss are basically an instagib. Gotta love repetition!

I'm not sure who I would recommend this game to, but if you do end up playing, then I think my recommendation for this game is simple: if at any point you become annoyed, quit. It will not become more fun for you.

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Tagged as: Needle Gimmick RNG
[4] Likes
Rating: 3.0 30       Difficulty: 75 75
Jul 19, 2022
ninz
rating based on any% clear
it's very cool
theres also tons of new content if you go for extra, it is quite harder, id rate it an 85

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[4] Likes
Rating: 10.0 100       Difficulty: 70 70
Jan 1, 2020
Nearigami
I was a tester. I didn't get to finish the game but this game is very weird. It'll definitely be one you'll either love or hate. For me, I was just along for the ride. I plan on updating when I play through the game further but for now I'm kinda stuck.

This game at first just seems like a weird platforming type game. Nope. It's a puzzle game. It's very distinct and different from any other puzzle game I've played and figuring out what to do requires thinking ahead and even some align knowledge.

The game also uses jump refreshers in some very refreshing ways and I enjoyed it pretty consistently.

Overall I recommend this game so far but keep in mind it will be galaxy brain, and it won't be for everyone.

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Tagged as: Gimmick Puzzle
[4] Likes
Rating: 8.0 80       Difficulty: N/A
Dec 31, 2019
PlutoTheThing
I think the easiest to way to describe this game is it's the distilled essence of a "rage game", in fact a lot of what's present here is probably what you'd get if you had someone who hates fangames describe what they are like. The game is awkwardly precise, objectively unfair to the player, wastes your time whenever it can, and in spite of that I think it's an incredibly fun game which constantly fights against you every step of the way. The game has a variety of mechanics which often get introduced in innocent ways but you will quickly find this game really squeezes every mechanic, even down to just basic fangame platforming, to find all the little things that can be used against you to make a new devious challenge. In doing this, the game presents some truly unique concepts, it's really fun to try to figure out or understand what you need to do in each screen and the game is so rich with ideas that you can never really tell what's coming next. The boss is pretty nice too, very fun with cool attack ideas and I never got bored despite it being a little learny towards the end. This game is definitely not for everyone, however if you are the kind of person who can look at something that's specifically designed to be obnoxious and see the merits, humor, and sometimes brilliance in it's design, then you'll probably find Cute Jump to be a work of genius.

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[3] Likes
Rating: 9.0 90       Difficulty: 65 65
Feb 6, 2024
Jopagu
I Wanna Cute Jump is a piece of art. We have seen many artistic fangames throughout the years, with a number of games that have deep themes and symbolism, games that innovate in unusual ways in terms of gameplay, and games that are simply beautiful to look at. Cute Jump perhaps does none of this, and yet I still believe it is one of the most interesting pieces of art to emerge from this community. Cute Jump instead challenges our notions of what it means for something to be art, and about the purpose of art. This isn't a new idea, mainstream visual art has had movements such as abstractionism and dadaism that similarly challenge the societal image of art. Furthermore, abstractionism has its place in fangames, with things such as I Want bringing strange and abstract images and gameplay. However, Cute Jump does something that is, to me, novel. Instead of challenging the idea of what art looks like, it challenges our idea of what art does.

Art is often considered as that which is meant to evoke emotion in its audience. People often look for art that brings emotions that are typically simple and good, such as happiness, nostalgia, appreciation of beauty, or humor. However, much art is also devoted to bringing about emotions considered negative. We have horror movies that bring fear, tragedies that bring sadness, political pieces that bring social discontent, and more. This is usually recognized as a core part of artistic expression, and art without negative emotions is sometimes considered "low-brow". Why then, are some emotions excluded? Why are things like frustration and impatience considered invalid targets for art? Cute Jump is a game dedicated to evoking those emotions, and it has seen derision, with this being called "bad game design" or a poor choice on the part of the author. No one negatively reviews a horror movie for being scary after all, why is the intentional use of frustration considered a negative?

Cute Jump asks us what role these emotions have in games. It does not ask you to like it, but it asks you to go in with an open mind. It asks you to explore your response to things like luck checks and waiting, and for you to consider how these emotions might be used to elevate our experience, rather than detract from it. Just as it is okay for someone to dislike being scared and thus avoid horror, it is okay for you to dislike frustration and avoid this game. Cute Jump simply asks that you consider these feelings a valid part of an artistic experience. I ask that you try this game with an open mind, and really think about how you perceive the game, about whether you really dislike these things or if this is just a knee-jerk reaction based on your preconceived ideas of art. It's okay to try this game and quit after a few screens if you truly dislike it, I just ask that you approach it with due consideration and respect for the game.

Despite me praising it's uniquity, Cute Jump is not the first to do these things, rather just taking it further than I've ever seen. But seeds of the same ideas can be seen throughout fangame (and even general gaming) history, in fact all the way back to the beginning. When the original I Wanna be the Guy was a thing, it gained popularity as a "rage game", and it was one of a host of such games, which often wore their goals on their sleeve, such as Unfair Mario. These games were designed to be unpleasant, unfair, and frustrating. They were meant to make you angry. They often insulted the player and barely even tried to be "fun" in the conventional sense. These games were incredibly popular, a mainstay of let's plays and middle school classrooms. And yet, over time, they evolved to lose those aspects, a trend followed by fangames. What were once "a RAGE game for MASOCHISTS" became "a challenging precision-platformer". Even among the fans of these games, frustration and unfairness became negative talking points rather than the entire point of a game. For a long time "Masochistic" was a badge of pride for fans of hard games, and yet recently I've seen people consider it insulting and react with anger to the word. The idea of enjoying frustration has become so taboo that people refuse to acknowledge that games, particularly difficult ones, are frustrating, and that this enhances the experience! Frustration creates a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when used right, but people have it ingrained in their minds that it is a bad word, and a sin of game design, even when those people are playing hard games and inherently experiencing frustration.

Cute Jump takes off all the window dressing, and forces the player to confront that yes, this game is frustrating, yes this game is tedious, and yes it requires luck! And yet for many of us this game is fun! These aspects are interesting and creative! Not everyone will like this game, this is a given for any sufficiently abnormal art, and yet enough people have clearly enjoyed this to show that the taboo is misplaced, that frustration and its like are in fact valid forms of artistic experience. So yes, Cute Jump is "a RAGE game for MASOCHISTS". Furthermore, it is tedious, luck based, and annoying. But I posit that this game is proof that the "rage game" era is not dead, despite claims to the contrary. People still enjoy these experiences even if they believe they won't, even if they have been led to believe that this is a demonstration of bad game design.

Cute Jump is a successful experiment, and I hope that this type of design sees more use, as it truly was a one-of-a-kind experience. It made me think about games in a way few other things have. I absolutely recommend everyone try this, no matter how briefly. I hope that it can make you challenge your beliefs, and reconsider what makes something "art".

I have put off this review for several days, trying to figure out how to word my thoughts. I wanted to say something profound, and I hope that came through what is ultimately several paragraphs of somewhat messy writing. This review is jumbled and disconnected, but I think my points got across well enough. I hope some of you appreciate what I'm saying, and that it can motivate you to play I Wanna Cute Jump and see it in the way I see it.

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Tagged as: Adventure Needle Boss Art Pathing
[3] Likes
Rating: 10.0 100       Difficulty: 75 75
Nov 5, 2023