Line #13 VideoGame/JumpKing


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jump_king_5.png]]
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3	-> ''Legend has it there's a smoking hot babe at the top...''
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5	''Jump King'' is a PlatformGame, developed by Nexile and released for [[Platform/IBMPersonalComputer PC]] through Platform/{{Steam}} and Website/GogDotCom on May 3rd, 2019.
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7	As its title suggests, it is simply about an unnamed King, who is absolutely gifted at jumping in spite of wearing full plate armor at all times. One day, he learns of a legend telling him of a Smoking Hot Babe languishing on top of a distant tower, and resolves to reach her the only way he knows how - by jumping a perilous path through narrow, vertical levels.
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9	The game received expansions aside of "Main Babe", titled "New Babe+" and "Ghost of the Babe".
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11	As you may have already guessed, the game is very short, but is also absolutely NintendoHard, being primarily designed to challenge speedrunners, much like ''VideoGame/RemnantsOfNaezith'' or ''VideoGame/GettingOverItWithBennettFoddy''.
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13	[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Has nothing to do]] with ''VideoGame/JumpForce''.
14	----
15	!!Tropes present in Jump King:
16	* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The Colossal Drain level, which is somehow located ''above'' the Redcrown Woods.
17	* AirAidedAcrobatics: In windy areas, the player needs to use the wind to jump over large gaps.
18	* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Even this game holds back sometimes.
19	** All jumps that take the player between screen transitions are "full jumps", as in jumps that don't ask of the player to measure jump strength. Jumps are made automatically after reaching maximum charge, so the only point of failure left is remembering which of the two directional keys to use.
20	** Landing on slippery surfaces with Giant Boots equipped results in a split-second pause in gameplay akin to a HitStop. This makes it slightly easier to make a slide-cancelling counterjump, as Giant Boots bar you from using the other way to deal with the momentum.
21	* AudienceSurrogate: Or rather, Audiences Audience Surrogate. The Prisoner, found in Colossal Dungeon, enjoys one thing only: others falling. He represents the mindset of many chatters and viewers who watch other people play "Jump King" to laugh at their failures, missed jumps and frustration. While he will encourage Jump King to [[{{Determinator}} pick himself up]], he's only doing it for another opportunity to see him fall, with the same breath calling him stupid for trying longer than previous climbers. If the player progresses a fair bit, during your next "visit" he'll express relief for getting to see you land on your face again.
22	* BeastWithAHumanFace: Hard to notice because of low resolution and only 2 frames of animation, yet present for the Snake Lord. Its snout ends in a regular-size human face which is the one actually talking to the Jump King. [[https://nexile.se/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/character-concepts.jpg Concept art where it's easier to discern]].
23	* BeautifulVoid: Most of the game takes place in areas with [[SceneryPorn richly detailed]] art and either quiet and somber background music or no music at all. There are a handful of other characters, but they're spread far apart, and many of them tend to be as subdued as their surroundings.
24	* BlessedWithSuck: DoubleSubverted. Your reward for chasing after a white raven up and down dozens of screens and returning the Blood Red Stone is an enchanted ring that'll only make your expedition harder by making '''everything''' slippery. You can just take it off. Later on, in The Bog, you might want to put it on again: sliding overrides the mud that prevents you from walking and positioning yourself perfectly, while the water slowing you down makes it much easier to kill your momentum and prevent sliding off platforms after landing, mostly invalidating its drawback.
25	* BubblegloopSwamp: The Bog in Ghost Of the Babe where only one of the screens in the area takes place above water.
26	* ChallengeRun: The purpose of Giant Boots (no walking) and Snake Ring (all surfaces slippery). Especially the Ring, as falls are much more punishing when you can slide off platforms in the fallen-down state and keep tumbling down. Encouraged by achievements corresponding to the three Babes times two above items[[note]]said achievements don't permit beginning at New Babe+, Redcrown Woods only[[/note]].
27	* CheckpointStarvation: Conventional checkpoints do not exist - any fumble you make will cause you to barrel towards the bottom and force you to make your way back up again. That said, there ''does'' exist an in-effect checkpoint right before Chapel Perilous, where the level is designed in such a way that you will not get kicked back into Stormwall Pass unless you jump back down there yourself. That doesn't mean you can't [[RageQuit take a break]] whenever you fancy - the game saves continously, for good and bad.
28	* CleavageWindow: All three babes' dresses show off their cleavage.
29	* CreepyCrows: Inverted; the crows sit on some platforms and fly off once you disturb them by jumping there. They seem to like glittering things, as one grabs a golden coin, another a jewel.
30	* DarkerAndEdgier: The Ghost of the Babe map is much creepier than previous areas. Even the Babe is implied to be mischievous or meaner compared to the other two.
31	* EyePop: The babe and her gargoyle footrest in Ghost of the Babe route both do Eye Pop when they see the player character arrive.
32	* ExcusePlot: The game has an intro text, but it simply says "Legend has it there's a smoking hot babe at the top." There's also an old man at the camp where you start off, and a couple of other [=NPCs=] later on, but they don't say anything deep either.
33	* FantasticRacism: The gargoyles hold humans in low regard, referring to them as "mud men" for their lack of wings/inability to fly.
34	* FloatingPlatforms: Art design for areas attempts to avert this and justify the placement of any level geometry by having it either jut out from the sides of the screen or structure in the background, even if said the structure is absurdly flimsy. Some of the worst offenders are chandeliers that Jump Kings jumps on hang off multiple screen long chains, [[FanNickname the Chimney]] is stabilized on a crumbling corridor with only a couple brick rows left and the main game's Tower is standing on a man-sized ice pillar.
35	* HairballHumor: Cats met in House of Nine Lives respond to the player's presence. Usually they meow or purr at you, but unique lines have them coughing up.
36	* HalfHumanHybrid:
37	** In the House of Nine Lives, inside a secret room, is hidden a strange looking cat-like being.
38	** The Bird chased across Ghost of the Babe is a bizarre example. It has human feet, but otherwise looks just like an ordinary bird.
39	* HopeSpot: When first entering the climbing area of the Ghost of the Babe DLC there is a platform in the middle of the screen. It's just one block too high to be reachable with a maximum height jump, meaning the player has to drop down to the Bog and climb back up.
40	* InterfaceScrew: The slow-down effect of water will throw off everything you've learned about timing jump strength up to this point - the core mechanic of the game. Essentially, the player has to learn two separate games: Jump King and Water Jump King. Then the player needs to learn to seamlessly adjust between the two - otherwise jumping out of water will feel like using too much muscle to pick up a piece of cardboard.
41	* TheLostWoods: The first set of screens has the King jump through the branches of ancient trees in the Redcrown Woods.
42	* MsFanservice: The Smoking Hot Babes of course! Merchandise for the game makes this even more so, especially the three postcards for each Babe in celebrating its three year anniversary.
43	* {{Minimalism}}: No enemies or bosses, little plot- if any at all, very sparse dialogue, zero voice acting and cutscenes (except for the ending), short soundtrack composed mostly of ambient background themes...
44	* MoodWhiplash: One might expect that the game be rather boisterous and silly due to its ExcusePlot and brightly colored cover art. Instead, most of the game is surprisingly peaceful, almost contemplative. That is, of course, until the player reaches the final area for each of the three paths and the atmospheric music that permeated the previous stages is suddenly replaced with OrchestralBombing and OminousLatinChanting. Whips around again upon reaching the top and the {{Sexophone}} kicks in.
45	* NewGamePlus: PlayedForLaughs, as it's called "New Babe+", featuring, well... a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin new babe]] at the end. However, as all of your acquired items persist between runs, then technically every run is New Game+.
46	* NintendoHard: AND HOW! When one slip-up can mean the difference between going forward and having to do ''entire segments'' over again, this is called a "rage game" with good reason.
47	* NippleAndDimed: Averted. If you look hard enough at the babe from New Babe+, you can actually see her nipples in the ending picture. Smoking hot indeed!
48	* NoAntagonist: The Jump King doesn't face an actual opponent once during his journey - it's just him vs. the platforms he has to master.
49	* NoDamageRun: While Jump King is invincible, no-fall runs are effectively this. Ghost of the Babe requires 2 falls when jumping down the hole in the tower that leads next to The Bog and another to get to the bottom of The Bog itself, which are accounted for the achievement teasingly named ''"Nobody's Perfect"''.
50	* OurGargoylesRock: The most often encountered race besides humans. They'll silently observe you struggle through Stormwall Pass, barely even blinking. [[spoiler:They can also stop time.]]
51	* ParachutePetticoat: Once the Jump King finally reaches the Main Babe on top of the Tower and they hug and kiss, he looks down at the way he came from and realizes that he would now have to jump all the way down. Instead, he jumps off the tower with the babe in his arms, her skirt acting as a parachute, and they are carried off by the wind into the sunset. An ending still confirms that they landed safely.
52	* {{Retraux}}: The game's graphics are reminiscent of old-school Nintendo games for a 2019 game, right down to the chiptune sound effects.
53	* SceneryPorn: The backgrounds are quite rich and atmospheric. The sunset sky (night in New Babe+) at the end is quite breathtaking.
54	* SchmuckBait: Subverted. While for a game of its kind one might expect that the tease of a "Smoking Hot Babe" would simply be a trick to encourage people to play as long as they can, the game actually delivers on this claim, even giving some cute art at the end for the player's troubles.
55	** Played straight with the unlockable boots. All of them require incredibly difficult feats to unlock, such as chasing a bird to the top of the map to get a gold coin, then going all the way back down to the merchant. When you equip them, they either do nothing or actively handicap you, bestowing upon you ice or snow physics on every surface.
56	* ShoutOut:
57	** The game's title screen has a clear reference to ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' with its subtitle of "Tactical Leaping Adventure".
58	** Jump King's design- specially his helmet- makes him look a lot like VideoGame/ShovelKnight.
59	* SlippySlideyIceWorld: First this trope is played with in the Windswept Cliff. It is the game's cold and snowy area, yet it doesn't have ice platforms. Instead, as its name suggests, it has a strong wind that nudges the King in a direction even when he's standing still, and so really messes with the jumping. Said wind changes direction on a timer, often forcing the player not to make certain jumps until the wind begins blowing in a favorable direction.
60	** Later on, however, the Blue Ruin is a very straight example of an ice land, complete with slippery platforms.
61	** In New Babe+, Colossal Dungeon.
62	* SuperNotDrowningSkills: Neither the Jump King nor any of the [=NPCs=] seem to have a hard time breathing underwater.
63	* TakenForGranite: Denizens of Underburg are all struck with a curse/plague that slowly turns them into stone, carried by the ill wind blowing through the town. One of them says that even opening and closing eyes is an effort. Those who speak have their dialogue typed out on screen noticeably slower than the normal speech of unaffected characters from other zones. If you bother to notice, there are many others who do not speak at all, completely petrified by now.
64	* TimeStandsStill: [[spoiler: The Halted Ruin]].
65	* TreeTrunkTour: Once you make through the first few screens of the Redcrown Woods, you'll need to ascend through the hollowed-out trunk of an enormous tree.
66	** Reoccurs in Brightcrown Woods.
67	** The Philosophers Forest is an entire area located within a massive trunk, covered with moss.
68	* TriumphantReprise: Credits theme of New Babe + route is the triumphant version of the game menu theme.
69	* VanishingVillage: The Hidden Kingdom. It suddenly appears before Jump King (or does he appear in it?) after passing through Lost Ruin. It's inhabited by fairies, a small court of gnome-like creatures and their Magnificent King who believes this Kingdom to be the whole of the world. The Hidden Kingdom disappears just as mysteriously at the last jump of its topmost screen, its warm golden light and greenery replaced by a mostly empty screen of roiling storm clouds below and black brickwork of the Black Sanctum. It'll always be there for you when you come back (fall down) however.
70	* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: The Tower of the main game and The Dark Tower of New Babe+. Subverted by Phantom Tower in Ghost Of the Babe, which despite looking the part (even with the infamous Babe Jump at the end) doesn't offer the promised Babe. Played straight with the Tower of Antumbra.
71	* UnderTheSea:
72	** The Deep Ruin in New Babe Plus is an underwater segment that makes it so that your have to hold the jump button longer to traverse.
73	** The Bog in Ghost Of the Babe combines this with mud reminiscent of the snow from Stormwall Pass and Brightcrown Woods meaning you can't freely move around unless you equip the Snake Ring.
74	* WallJump: You don't actually jump off walls, but you bounce off walls as you jump, and you need this ricocheting mechanic to reach half the platforms.
75	* WeirdWeather: Winds blowing through Stormwall Pass and Underburg reverse their direction at regular intervals. The Hermit [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] how impossible it is. Clouds in the backgrounds of Great Frontier and Underburg move in opposite directions to each other at the same, suggesting there's something strange about them.
76	* WintryAuroralSky: At the lowermost screen of Colossal Dungeon.

Context VideoGame / JumpKing