Video Game / JumpStart 2nd Grade

"The elevator ^Note Lift in the UK can take us on all kinds of adventures!"

We're gonna JumpStart 2nd Grade
We're gonna JumpStart 2nd Grade
We're gonna Jump
Jump, Jump
We're gonna Jump
Jump, Jump
We're gonna JumpStart 2nd Grade

A game in the JumpStart series of Edutainment Games. It was originally released in 1996, and succeeded by JumpStart Advanced 2nd Grade in 2002.

When the school day ends, the schoolhouse is taken over by Funny Animals, and a bookcase moves aside to reveal a secret elevator leading to educational adventures. Your Exposition Fairies are C.J. the Frog and his sidekick Edison the Firefly. Together, they form a Double Act, with C.J. reveling in being a self-styled "adventurer" while Edison plays the snarky Straight Man.

The game consists of various Mini-Games located in the classroom, a secret clubhouse in the schoolhouse attic, and many other levels accessible by the elevator. Every time you earn a hundred points, you get an animated stamp for your stamp collection. But collecting stamps is not your only goal. You also receive pen-pal letters from across The United States, each one asking you to do some kind of task. These tasks invariably involve playing a specific Mini-Game. Furthermore, you can't send your pen-pal a reply unless you have at least one stamp in your collection. Once satisfied, the pen-pal sends you a postcard from his or her state. The vague goal of the overall game is to collect a postcard from all fifty states.

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This game provides examples of:

• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: C.J. wears only a nice hat. In subsequent games, he has an Anthropomorphic Shift and becomes a Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal.
• Alien Invasion: invoked Played with, since the aliens seem to want to invade every planet in the solar system except Earth. After you receive your astronomy clue, Earth is offered as a choice alongside the other planets in the solar system (plus Pluto), but it's never Earth. Still, you have to thwart them.
• All There in the Manual: In the actual game, it's not mentioned what "C.J." stands for. According to the user's manual, his full name is Calaveras Jumping Frog, presumably a Shout-Out to the Mark Twain short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.
• Bold Explorer: What C.J. thinks he is
  Edison: Hmph, get a load of this guy. Thinks he's Davy Crockett.
• Bookcase Passage: The secret elevator is hidden behind one.
• The Cameo: invoked Mr. Hopsalot and Frankie, mascot characters of JumpStart Kindergarten and 1st Grade respectively, appear on the New Hampshire postcard, which shows them visiting the (not collapsed at the time) Old Man of the Mountain.
• Cool Shades: C.J. and Edison put these on when you play the science song in the classroom.
• Deadpan Snarker: Edison Firefly is quite the foil to C.J. Frog.
  C.J.: I'll keep watch in the elevator, Edison. You can handle any danger that might come up in here, right?
  Edison: If the chalk decides to stage a hostile takeover, I'll let you know.
• Digital Bikini: In the painting activity, you can color in two great works, Leonardo da Vinci's The Mona Lisa and Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. In the game's version of the latter, Venus is clothed in a knee-length chemise.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: After C.J. opens Edison's jar during their introductions, Edison laments that he doesn't get any respect around here.
• Educational Song: The three grammar songs on the blackboard, one each for nouns, verbs, and adjectives, as well as the science song activated by clicking on a science textbook and the caterpillar blues song when entering the Cave Writings for the first time. All five can also be played on the jukebox.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The mysterious Bone Vault is, as it turns out, filled with bones.
• Extreme Omni-Goat: The subject of the verb song, which is entitled "A Goat in My Room" on the jukebox.
• Free-Sample Plot Coupon: When you first start playing the game, it comes with one challenge (given by a kid from Florida) already solved.
• Green Aesop: The boiler room activity has no obvious educational point other than encouraging kids to recycle. The jukebox song "I'm Gonna Recycle" also has this message.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Edison wears a shirt with no pants.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: As this game is about adventure and exploration, the three difficulties are named after different types of explorers:
  • Scout — Easy: "I'm a scout. I'm a new recruit. Click on me to start at a low level."
  • Explorer — Medium: "I'm an explorer. Click on me if you already know the ropes!"
  • Trailblazer — Hard: "I'm a trailblazer. Click on me if you've mastered the other levels!"
• In-Game Novel: The bookshelf has six stories, each with blank spaces that you have to fill in from the words provided. Each blank space has two correct options, allowing for a degree of customization.
• Lost in Translation: In the United Kingdom version of this game, which was entitled Jump Ahead Year 2, Edison Firefly's name is changed to Newton, apparently because Edison was an American inventor and the British kids wouldn't know who he was, so they changed his name to that of a more recognizable scientist. The problem is, Edison wasn't just named after any scientist, he was named after the scientist who invented the light bulb, because he's a firefly...and unfortunately, Newton didn't invent the light bulb.
  • Then again, Newton was the person who discovered gravity, and Edison, er... Newton is a firefly who can defy gravity... by flying.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: C.J. has, "An adventurer [is always/must always/needs to/etc] [something relevant to the situation]."
• Mechanical Lifeforms: In the solar system game, the invading aliens appear to be robotic in nature.
• Negative Continuity: Every time you visit the Bone Vault, C.J. and Edison will act like they've never been there before and have no idea what's inside.
• Never Say "Die": "Dynamo Girl Saves the Day," one of the bookshelf stories, involves the titular superheroine saving the city from the "evil machine" of a Mad Scientist. Said "evil machine" is clearly a Time Bomb, but apparently they can't say the word "bomb." That'll change a few games from now.
• Non-Nude Bathing: In the bookshelf story "Grandma and the Bear," you can start the tale with Grandma sitting in either her rocking chair or the bathtub. If you choose the latter, the illustration shows a fully-clothed Grandma brushing herself in a bathtub that apparently contains no water. It's hilariously random.
• Oireland: Edison has an Irish accent. Oddly, this is dropped in the U.K. edition, which gives Newton (Edison) an English accent, same as the other characters.
• Plot Coupon: Twofold. You need to earn 100 points to win a stamp, at which point the counter resets with extra points carried over. Those stamps are used to mail letters to your pen pals in each state after completing their specific challenges, prompting them to send you postcards. The goal of the game is to collect postcards from all fifty states.
• Rhymes on a Dime: The giant caterpillar blocking your way to the cave writings (his name is Arvin according to the user's manual) talks in rhyme.
• Scare Dare: The bookshelf story "Old Man Jenkins" has this as its premise.
• Space Is Cold: No matter what planet you land on, when Edison goes out for a spacewalk, he remarks that it's, "a little nippy out here." Yes, even when you go to Mercury and Venus, where he should be boiling instead. And on Mars and the outer planets, it should be way colder than "nippy."
• Supervillain Lair: The villain of "Dynamo Girl Saves the Day" has one, located either on a mountaintop or underwater depending on which word you choose.
• Thinly-Veiled Dub Country Change:
  • The U.K. edition makes a valiant effort to change the setting from the U.S. to the U.K. Your pen pals are located across Europe rather than the United States, the historical stamps focus more on British history than the American history of the original, and the American football game is changed to a association football (soccer) game. Some details apparently couldn't be helped, however. Cave writings still use American sign language, just relabeling it "Adventurer's sign language." Also, fireflies are not indigenous to the U.K.
  • The Swedish, Finnish, and French versions similarly relocate the game's setting to their own country. Interestingly, while the Finnish and French editions place the pen-pals across Europe like the U.K. edition, the Swedish edition places the pen-pals across just Sweden.
• To the Tune of...: Some of the jukebox songs, including "The Cave" ("Oh, Susanna!"), "The Race" ("I've Been Working on the Railroad"), and "Melody & Harmony" ("Frère Jacques").
• Underground Level: Almost everything below the classroom. The exception is the football field, which is justified by having it right outside of a cavern. Apparently, the schoolhouse is on a hill above the football field.
• White Gloves: Edison wears a pair of white gloves.