Jump! Jump! Jump! Start First Grade
Jump! Jump! Jump! Start First Grade
Jump! Jump! Jump! Start First Grade
Jump! Jump! Jump!
JumpStart 1st Grade (known as Jump Ahead Year 1 in the United Kingdom) is the title of two products in the JumpStart series of Edutainment Games, the first released in 1995 and the second in 1999. A third version, released in 2002, was titled JumpStart Advanced 1st Grade instead.
Both the 1995 and 1999 versions take place in a school setting and feature an anthropomorphic dog named Frankie as your Exposition Fairy. The main location is the first-grade classroom, from which you can travel to a school hallway that leads to other locations, such as the cafeteria and the playground. Both versions feature roughly the same educational activities, although sometimes with a changed premise.
In the 1995 version, the school is located in an ordinary suburban neighborhood, and the teachers and students are all human. Aside from Frankie, the only anthropomorphic animals are the mice who live in the classroom's mouse hole. One of these mice will reward you with a milk cap every time you earn one hundred points. The vague goal of the overall game is to collect all the milk caps.
In the 1999 version, the students remain human, but the teachers are now anthropomorphic animals. Additionally, the school is now located on an island, and the overall game has a nautical theme. Instead of earning milk caps, you earn clues that will allow you to take a sailing ship over to a neighboring island and find a treasure. There are six neighboring islands in total, each with their own theme.
The 1995 and 1999 versions of this game provide examples of:
- Animate Inanimate Object: The lunchroom features a sentient cash register and vending machine.
- Anthropomorphic Shift: Between the 1995 and 1999 versions, Frankie gets a bit more anthropomorphic. In subsequent games, he gets even more anthropomorphic.
- Big Eater: In the 1995 version, the kids you serve in the cafeteria are apparently so hungry they don't even wait to sit down at a table, devouring their food as soon as you give it to them.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: The Pizza Picking game. Who'd ask for a pizza topped with worms or even flies?!
- Celebrity Paradox: Glynnis Campbell, who is credited in-universe as the author of several bookshelf stories, was also the voice of Mrs. Flores and Miss Pickles in the 1995 version.
- Cooking Mechanics: Both versions have a cooking minigame in the school kitchen. They are basically the same in terms of gameplay mechanics, although the graphics are entirely different. Messing up in the 1995 version results in a visit by the infamous Glop Monster. In the 1999 version, your mistakes remain non-sentient and are simply eaten by your octopus instructor, Chef Gumbo.
- Educational Song: Both versions feature several of these. The songs in the 1995 version were written by Mark Beckwith, who is also credited as the author of several bookshelf stories. The 1999 version features all-new songs rather than reusing any from the 1995 version.
- Funny Animal: The animal teachers in the 1999 version exhibit this level of anthropomorphism. Oddly, their students are humans.
- Hub Level: The school hallway gets you to all the main areas.
- In-Game Novel: Both versions feature the same collection of children's stories. In the 1995 version, the whole collection is accessible at once. In the 1999 version, different stories are available based on your Difficulty Level.
- Large-Ham Announcer: The Milk Cap Mouse who sounds like a hammy game show host or a radio announcer.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The counting story "Who Has More?" features one girl picking on another girl for how much less candy she has than her, each refrain ending with her gloating: "Na na na!!". After they both eat their candy, the rude girl immediately gets sick from eating so much more candy than the other girl. "Blugh blugh blughhhhh!!"
- Mad Libs Dialogue: In the 1995 version, the kids in the cafeteria sound like this when they're asking for food.Girl: Please give me [one half tray of] [peas] and [one half tray of] [ice cream]!
- Mouse Hole: The 1995 version has one in the classroom. It leads to the Hole in the Wall Club, which is inhabited by anthropomorphic mice who form a musical band.
- New Work, Recycled Graphics: The 1999 version reuses some content from the 1995 version. The bookshelf stories are all the same, complete with the same illustrations, and the art activity is essentially identical.
- Old-Timey Bathing Suit: Frankie wears one at the beach in the 1995 version, never mind that he's naked for the rest of the game.
- Out Of Control Popcorn: You can trigger an animation of this at the zoo in the 1995 version. This also occurs in the bookshelf story "Popcorn Popping."
- Picky Eater: One of the bookshelf stories "I Cannot Eat This Broccoli" features a kid who goes on about the foods he doesn't like to eat, of which there is a lot. He'll gladly put away a peach pie if you've got one, however.
- Pop Up Video Games: In both versions, you can click around and make funny animations happen in just about every location you visit.
- Press Start to Game Over: In the recipe minigame in the '95 version, you don't even have to put a single ingredient into the machine the be able to trigger the Glop Monster. Merely pushing the red button before you've even started will also immediately make it appear.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: During the cafeteria food serving mini-game, the background music is an instrumental version of the famous Italian song "Funiculì, Funiculà".
- Punny Name: Frankie is a dachshund, a dog breed also known as a wiener dog because of its wiener-like physique. His name is a shortened version of "frankfurter."
- Rhymes on a Dime: The bookshelf stories are generally written in rhyme.
- Video Game Remake: The 1999 version is a remake of the 1995 version, obviously.
- Vocal Evolution: The 1995 version actually had two different releases with Frankie's voice changing between the two. The first release gave Frankie a deep voice with a lisp, while in the second release, his voice is higher-pitched and nasal.
