Collection essentials #363: Jumping Flash! (PS1)

This is a game that perhaps doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. Jumping Flash! was an early PlayStation title, releasing in North America less than two months after the PlayStation console itself, and it is considered the first true “3D platformer” ever made! For a genre pioneer, you don’t hear a lot of talk about it.

You may also notice that the box looks different from other PlayStation games I’ve talked about. At the start of the PlayStation’s lifespan in North America, it used long and thick cases like the one shown above instead of the small standard CD jewel cases that became the norm. These long boxes came in a few different forms, some being large jewel cases like the Sega CD and Sega Saturn, while others were made partially of cardboard with art actually printed right on the box.

Although it may be the first 3D platformer, it’s still quite different from almost all others, because the action takes place entirely in a first-person view! You play as a robotic bunny named Robbit, and the object of the game is to explore the levels trying to find four jet pods before time runs out (and also fighting a boss at the end of each world). You’re armed with a gun for self-defence, and you can find power-ups hidden in the levels to help you out, too. But the real fun of this game is, as it says in the title…JUMPING!! You can jump INSANELY high in this game, and it’s so much fun! You can do a “double jump” (something fairly common in video games) by pressing the jump button a second time at the apex of your first jump, getting even more air! Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

I don’t have a whole heckuva lot to say about Jumping Flash!, I guess in part because of one of the game’s flaws, which is that it doesn’t have a whole lot of content and feels like it could have been fleshed out a little more. An experienced gamer will likely beat this game within a couple hours of starting it. You can try and beat your best scores and times to extend your time with the game, of course. A later PlayStation game would be expected to offer more meat on the bones than this game does.

I’m not really sure why Jumping Flash! didn’t catch on with more people releasing at the start of an early console’s lifespan when there wasn’t a clear #1 game or franchise. Other 3D platformers such as Crash Bandicoot a year later would go on to far overshadow it in terms of sales and popularity. It did at least sell well enough for a sequel, which unfortunately I have not gotten around to playing myself yet. And while I wouldn’t call it the best of the ‘90s 3D platformers, it does bring a unique joy that its competitors do not. For that, and for being the first of its kind, it’s a deserving essential on my list.