I absolutely adore a good party game. It could be a quick go on The Jackbox Party Pack or lengthy expedition with Tabletop Simulator, all of it’s great fun for me. It was only a year or so ago when me and my friends got into a Trivial Pursuit craze, putting many hours into Ubisoft’s Trivial Pursuit Live. So when I got the chance to preview Jump Stars I was pretty excited.
The core of the game involves contestants playing through four randomly chosen mini-games that vary from sumo styled fight offs to platforming races. If you get at least 1500 points in all four mini-games then you get to enter The Gauntlet, a final stage which is setup to test you on an array of skills at once. It’s all a relatively simple premise but that’s a good thing since it means anyone can pick up a controller and play along at their own pace.
Whilst Jump Stars does do a good job of appealing to the casual consumer, I don’t see its value in a more core gaming environment. Much like most party games, Jump Stars is set up so that the competition always comes down to the final battle. Early games aren’t overly significant and everyone’s got a chance of winning right up until the end. It’s a bit of a doubled edged sword. On one hand, it does create an exciting and close match where everyone has a reason to give it their all to win. On the other hand, the skill ceiling is very low and there’s not too much reward given for playing well. How much each of those factors mean to you isn’t something for me to say. It’s necessary for a party game but at times can feel very frustrating. Just think Mario Kart and how easy it is to lose a race because some guy in 9th pulled a god-tier power up with the blue shell. Rage ensues.
Interestingly enough, it’s outside of the gameplay that Jump Stars really made me smile. The introduction is a fun little segment showcasing the so called plot of the game. Effectively the host went mad and began holding people captive to play his game show but the way it’s portrayed is really cool. Quality voice acting, easy on the eye visuals and just the right amount of creative thinking comes together really well. Not to forget the classic Wilhelm scream reference too. Certainly worth watching through on your initial launch of the game just to get an idea of what’s happening.
The controls are extremely easy to get your head around and take mere minutes to learn. You move, hit and jump. That’s all there is to it. I felt it worked nicely on the Xbox One pad which I believe is the best way to enjoy Jump Stars regardless of platform. Outside of a few frame rate drops, which I’m putting down to this being an unfinished version of the game, everything is responsive and slick. There’s no dodgy delay on gameplay or anything like that. If you make a mistake, it’s your fault. The game doesn’t punish you for its own downfalls.
Generally speaking then Jump Stars is a promising looking party game. If I was to highlight a real concern it would be that its value is purely as a four player experience. I found testing it out that with three players it begins to get duller and two is not even worth your time. This means it will rely on you getting a good group of people around since, at the moment at least, Jump Stars is purely a local multiplayer game. I could see it working at a house party or a small gathering but it might not necessarily be the game you and a friend go to when around each other’s place.
Kurt contributed 8 articles to ICXM in 2017, covering game reviews, and Xbox news with a focus on hands-on impressions and verified-source reporting. Their bylines on the site span the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative. They post on X as @kurtjp35.