Jersey Devil

"An overlooked classic that's worth tracking down"

When Jersey Devil was released by Ocean in late 1997 hopes were high that the Playstation would finally have a Mario-beating 3D platformer on its hands. However the game never really seemed to capture the public's imagination and unlike Croc, Crash Bandicoot or even (aaaargh) Rayman it never turned into a squillion-selling platinum title.

Play JD for about half an hour and you can appreciate why some gamers flung down their joypads never to return. Even by 1997 standards the graphics are scruffy round the edges. In addition there's a huge amount of pop-up, as whole sections of scenery suddenly come looming out of the darkness, and collision detection is pretty poor so you find your blows failing to connect with enemies and you grope around to pick up objects.

The learning curve is steeper than Mount Everest; once you get inside the first building you're immediately having to negotiate enormously tricky jumps and glides over a gaping void whilst being attacked by a range of enemies. At the same time you're coming to terms with an idiosyncratic control system that jumps you automatically when you reach the edge of a platform so death is never far away.

The other factor that's immediately disconcerting is the length of the levels. Even if you know where to go and how to solve all the puzzles some levels can take between one and two hours to complete. And although there are checkpoint boxes you can't save to the memory card until you get to the end of the level so it demands huge amounts of time and patience to make progress.

So, with all these drawbacks why the high rating?

1. The game is superbly designed, with each area being big enough to give you plenty of opportunity to explore but not so big that you find yourself completely frustrated because you can't find out what to do next. Think original Tomb Raider rather than Crash Bandicoot and you're on the right lines.

2. There's a real feel of unpredictability; unlike many platformers you never know what's coming next. One minute you're demolishing a graveyard and the next thing you know you're lobbing bottles at a drunk or playing basketball with the undead, it's as weird and wonderful as that.

3. There's a completely unique atmosphere, partly due to the strange coexistence of day-glo cartoon characters and gloomy gothic settings and partly due to Gilles Leveille's amazing brooding classical musical score.

4. The end-of-level bosses are great, just challenging enough and completely varied in their attack patterns.

5. The camera's pretty flexible and reliable for a platformer. Once you realise that you need to keep you fingers firmly clamped on the L1 and R1 buttons to control it manually you can avoid all the snagging on scenery and leaps of faith that plague many other games.

6. It's FUNNY. From the animated introduction featuring the campest evil Scottish accent this side of Austin Powers to the most bizzarre group of enemies ever seen on your TV it will keep a smile on your face (even when you fall to your death for the hundredth time).

Overall what this game delivers is a real feeling of being there. The upside of the long levels is that, if you give it a chance, it will completely suck you into its unique world. OK, it may not completely be a Mario-beater but it's one of the very few Playstation efforts that really captures the spirit of Shigeru Miyamoto's best work, with the emphasis on an organic environment that's full of surprises.

One word of warning, just because this game's classified as a platformer don't think it's one for young children because it's pretty darned hard, in terms both of the logic needed to solve some of the puzzles and the manual dexterity required.

In my homeland at least this title's been long deleted so your best chance of getting hold of a copy may be to find one second-hand. If you see it don't hesitate, buy it and give it a go.

And I got through the whole review without using the phrase 'it's a hell of a game' :-)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/07/02, Updated 12/07/02