Game On :: Jazzpunk Review

February 25th 2014

Jazzpunk

 

Before we begin, I’m setting a challenge for you. Find a person that has never watched The Mighty Boosh, Adventure Time or Ren and Stimpy. Now attempt a summary of any of the above.

Let’s be honest, the first thing you did was to look up to the left, then let out an audible question mark. So how do you review a game that sits within the niche genre of LSD induced creations? You attempt to find logic in Spock’s version of Hell, starting with the name.

 

 

In the box labeled “JazzPunk” you’ll find a 50’s spy game. Well… sort of. You’ll be given seemingly simple missions by a cell shaded Mr Pringle wearing sunglasses, but that’s where any sort of linear story path ends.

“Infiltrate the Soviet Consulate” are the words sprawled across the path for your first mission, but not before experiencing an extended barrage of colourful vector shapes accompanied by what I’d describe as the sounds of pipes being hammered by other pipes. Instantly you notice Jazzpunk is a little left of center, with humour literally lying around. One example is a magazine named ‘Readers Digestive Organs’.

Giving you the freedom to roam any level allows you to explore as much of the nonsense as possible; and to be honest you have no real choice in the matter. There are no targets on the map to give you any sort of clue as to what you’re meant to be doing. You’ll end up interacting with anything and everything, resulting in one of the following scenarios: playing Frogger to retrieve a disk containing frog porn, wipe the crumbs off a stranger’s face with an oddly illustrated finger or throw popcorn at patrons within a movie theatre – all within the space of five minutes.

 

Jazzpunk

 

I don’t think anyone can really describe the beauty of this game, it’s something you have to experience for yourself. But I’ll give it a try. Imagine Leslie Nielson, made into a 3D model, thrown into a computer and sent around a world written in a collaboration effort by The Pundemonium Society and Syd Barrett.

It is, to put it politely, a total mindbender; complete with every possible colour in the visible spectrum to enjoy. So what comes next?

Open Steam, purchase the game, free your mind, go with the flow, and enjoy your time down the rabbit hole.

 

 

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