Joggernauts

TL;DR: Joggernauts is worth it in both single-player and multiplayer modes. Making a co-op game that works well as a single-player game is admirable and for that reason alone you should play it, especially if you like games like BIT.TRIP RUNNER. Anyway, here's the shit nobody's gonna read: Joggernauts is a weird fucking beast. It occupies the space between a social party game and highly competitive game. It's an answer to the question "What if someone added multiplayer to BIT.TRIP RUNNER or Super Meat Boy"? This is that game. You can play Joggernauts in one or two ways: 1: With friends. You've all had beers, you're all done making awkward conversation about work or the weather or about the hell planet you live on. Time for games, right? Each of you controls one alien, you jump in front of the line to defeat the obstacle that is colored the same as you. This sounds simple, but how much fun you get out of Joggernauts directly coorelates to how much you're willing to tolerate each others' fuckups and embrace the schadenfreude - which is why you have the beer. But if you're one of those people who grinds their teeth and is liable to throw the controller across the room and scream at Kathy that NO, KATHY, YOU DID NOT MAJOR IN SUPER MARIO STUDIES, I MEAN HOW CAN YOU NOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN FULL A JUMP AND A HALF-BUTTON A JUMP - one, leave the party immediately, you're being a horrible guest in your friend's home. Two, skip to two. 2: By yourself. Picture this: You're the ultimate gamer. You live and die by your own skill and mistakes. Women are literally lining up outside your messy apartment to fawn over you. You can get the nuke in Modern Warfare 3 in like, less than a half-minute. Where is your next conquest? Well, if you think you've really got the idea of platforming down... how about you do it with two characters? Huh? Of course, it's simple, but saying it and doing it are two different things. And attempting to coordinate jumps with two different characters is a game in and of itself. Sure, you can get your drunk layabout friends to help you. But what if the chips are down and you're all alone, waiting for your millions of dollars to come in? Can you master the art of concentrating on two characters at once? It's like juggling, but much cuter. And significantly more difficult - playing the game this way gave me the same experience of taking on RUNNER's hardest levels, and maybe that's not such a good thing after all - if every level felt like Level 1-11 of RUNNER, I'd have to stop, but thankfully you can enable modifiers in the menu during single and multiplayer play to slow down things and practice. Or just chill. Anyway, I've played this game on and off via the public demos at MinneBar and I really think it's a good multiplayer game, and I'd hate it if it drowned in Steam's goddamn lack of quality control. Give this a try. You'll like it, I promise. Or just get your money back. I'm not your mom or the cops. But sometimes I am.

I haven't tried to play it with more people yet, but single player is fun if challenging. Single player feels a lot like a more frantic Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, which is a rare experience in gaming. The concepts are simple, and the level design ramps up nicely to accomodate a learning curve. The presentation is lovely. While there's a lot happening on screen at any given moment, it never distracts from the clearly defined bright colors needed to play the game. My only real complain ist that I wish I could pause to look around the levels more. It doesn't impact me, but it would be amazing if there could some colorblindness accomodating setting(s) in the future.

[b]In a nutshell: Joggernauts is FUN![/b] Both entertaining and challenging, it is difficult yet rewarding, and always a good time. It has a magnetic quality that I will struggle to define... it draws new players in and soon they are enraptured, caught up in the simple joys and victories to be found within this game. [b]NB[/b] This game is [i]best played with friends[/i]! And it is local co-op only. But it does feature a single-player mode that suffices quite well if you can't wrangle your friends into picking up a controller. The comically silly atmosphere draws one in, even as the charming soundtrack and adorable NPCs try to convince you that this is surely a straightforward experience. But bring your best gameplay skills to the table! The deceptively simple controls must be manipulated with care and aplomb if you hope to complete all of the levels. Said levels are devilishly designed to push group coordination further and further, progressively adding new timings, obstacles, and puzzles for the players to traverse successfully. Crucially, the game has never been [i]too[/i] frustrating to me -- and if you find that it is? Just use the built-in difficulty modifiers to tone things down a bit! (You can also use the modifiers to make the game [i]more[/i] difficult, e.g. by enabling a one-hit K.O. mode.) Since this game was released, and prior to authoring this review, I've had the pleasure of introducing three friends to Joggernauts. While I had the advantage of having played an earlier build of Joggernauts at a gaming convention, they had never even heard of the game. I'm happy to report that my friends took to the game as quickly as I first did, and before we knew it, it was an hour later and we were basking in the elation of having cleared the first of three worlds within the game. Each world has a familiar map screen leading to numerous levels. Each level contains trophies to collect, some that are more difficult to activate or reach than others. Obtain all of a level's trophies and you're afforded one chance to clear a bonus round. Snag none of the trophies? No problem! You still complete the level! (However, there is a minimum number of trophies required to unlock the final stage of each world.) There are also bonus playable characters to unlock, and probably a few other things I haven't found or am forgetting to mention! Compared to the beta version that I had previous experience with, I am most impressed with the addition of the solo play option and the difficulty modifiers. These features make a profoundly positive impact on the game, and it's to the developers' credit that they put forth the additional effort to include said features. I've completed the first world of the game both solo and co-op now, and I'm convinced you'll enjoy Joggernauts no matter how you play it. I can wholeheartedly, unabashedly recommend it. Buy it now - you'll have a great time! [b]UPDATE:[/b] with the recent release of Joggernauts v1.1, we see continued developer support in important areas like UI improvement, alongside some fun new content in collaboration with other indie developers. That's right: there are new unlockable joggers, like Commander Video from the Bit.Trip series and Cowpokes from West of Loathing. I appreciate that this game is still receiving attention from its makers, and I think that bodes well for its future.

The game is great, a little bit of confusion on setup when trying to first connect with friends far away, but once you get it up and running it's a boat load of fun. Staying in sync with your friends and trying to come up with new strategies keeps this game from getting boring. It's the perfect game for a party. My main criticism is that for 15$ I would expect actual online co-op rather than using Steam remote play, as Steam remote play introduces lag, and even worse, input lag of up to about 500ms, depending on how good the internet is for whoever decides to host the game. If this game was 5$ it would be worth it, but for 15$ and a frankly lazy implementation of online multiplayer just wait for a sale.

Definitely worth playing at least once. However, the game gets very hard way too fast. Introducing concepts that even experienced gamers will have some difficulty with when they first come across them.

It's a really fun and challenging game. I haven't yet played it with a friend, but it sure seems like a whole different experience. Online co-op would be nice but I can see how lag would be a huge issue. The game is on the shorter side so you might want to wait for a sale.

Holy moly this game is chaotic. Every time we played this as 4 we laughed so hard at the constant screw ups we made. Don't be fooled by its look, this game is HARD, especially if you are playing as 4. You have to both have good reflexes and coordination. The game is extremely simple, you just have two buttons, but it'll melt your brain. Amazing game. If you have a couple of friend to play it with, try it, it won't disappoint.

Game gets way too hard way too fast. Having a weaker player also takes the enjoyment out of this. Its marketed as a casual party game when in reality its for experienced runner players only. Good luck finding a party of players that meet the skill this game demands.

This is a fun game to test your cooperative skills with teammates. Can get very challenging at times especially with 3-4 players. When everyone is making their switches and jumps the game is very satisfying. Note to developers: Not sure if the jumps and switches are timed to the music (sure feels like it), but if they are it would be very helpful to have a timing/bar indicator along the x-axis, to help assists the players. I know it would turn the game more into a rhythm game, but I think it would reduce the learning curve for new players.

Having lots of fun with this party platformer! Great with friends but I actually have a lot of fun with the single player mode. Highly recommened, with kids and older friends alike. Oh and it's pretty darn challeneging!

This game looks cute, but it will destroy your soul. Super fun to play with friends Joggernauts is basically Katamari in the streets, Dark Souls in the sheets.

I absolutely adore this game! Soundtrack is bangin', levels are slammin', and the voice clips are adorable ♡ This game may test your friendship, but if it can't survive a few levels of Joggernauts, are you really friends?

For the first half hour, you'll be questioning whether you have the brain capacity to play Joggernauts. If you stick with it though, it all clicks in to place. A total blast, especially with four people - it's the rare game where playing the same 15 seconds of a level over and over doesn't get boring, it actually gets more fun. "We've almost got it! That was so close!" Definitely recommend it.

This game is like a fine wine, best enjoyed between intellectuals of extremely high IQs, as well as their pet monkeys. Easily a 10/10 game, unlike duck game, which is the one piece of media I would remove from history if I were capable. But enough of that, this game will test you more than any Ivy League school out there, 5000 IQ.

Very fun game, it really trains your coop skills while creating funny situations to laugh at when you or your teammate dies, the graphics are beautiful as well and the controls are fluid. I also recommend this game for couples, it will bring you close together in a funny way. Only downside is that after a long session, the room around you will seem to move in front of you.

This is a great game. Out of the box, I found the single player mode to be more difficult than multiplayer. Adjusting the modifiers on the map view helped to make solo game play more enjoyable. Multi-player mode is were this game really shines. I introduced it to few friends and the four of us ended up playing for over an hour huddled around my MacBook Air with a bunch of controllers plugged in. I'm looking forward to playing this again with more people. A few helpful tips, the level where you enter a whales mouth is by far the most difficult level on the first two worlds. I would recommend skipping this level or adjusting the modifiers to make it easier. This is one of the few levels on the map that you can skip all together. Holding down jump longer will make you jump higher. There are a couple of levels that require both short and long jumps at specific points. Lastly, the audio on this game is fantastic and adds a lot to the game. Use headphones or plug into a good sound system to get the full effect. In summary, I highly recommend this game. It's a great party game to play with friends and has a fun single player mode.

reflexes and precision of a hummingbird on ritalin needed and therefore it felt as effortless as learning to skip on a treadmill. paracetamol should be supplied with

Good game. smooth graphic and trippy soundtrack

Played it with 3 friends. We have laughed, cried and argued! 10/10

This game is fun and charming and soul-crushingly, friendship-destroyingly hard. Put it in you.

this game was non stop laughs but it nearly gave me a fucking aneurysm from how stressful it is

This is one of my favorites, I would love it if there was a second one!

should add more players, too easy

Funny with friends 10/10

CO-OP GAME WITHOUT ONLINE IS A CHEESE BURGER WITH OUT CHEESE !!!!!!!!!!

good to play with your family.

it's really fun in co-op!

Max players=Max confusion

This is how you lose friends :/

Can be very demanding. Great game with only two buttons !

Good game, many jams, much desire.

Five thumbs up!

my brain is broken now

Hard game.

no