Erik from The Gamers Lounge writes 'Hive Jump was one of the first games The Gamers Lounge really got behind. Originally released in 2017, members of The Gamers Lounge backed it on Kickstarter back in 2014 after hearing a lot of good things about the game. Most recently after seeing success on the Steam and the Wii U it has been brought to the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. The big question is. Successfully funded back in 2014, 3 years later Hive Jump has finally found its way to my Wii U. Offering a different version of the game experience catered to Nintendo’s awkward console, was it worth the wait? While oprainfall did preview Hive Jump on Steam back in April, there are some noteworthy differences in the Wii U build.
A little Contra, a little RPG, a lot of aggravation, and you have Hive Jump!
Hive Jump is a great idea for a game, with good production. However, the fun factor is diminished by the difficulty and constant glitches! I’ve played Hive Jump for roughly 27 hours and have yet to complete a single hive in its entirety. I know what you’re thinking, it can’t be that bad, but it is.
Enemies, even on easy, constantly come at you. Which is par for the course, but the quirky controls use both sticks to move, and the trigger buttons to shoot, jump and launch grenades. Controlling your soldier gets silly when trying to run, jump, and shoot at the ever-moving baddies. Another gripe is the ridiculous hit effect enemies have when you come into contact with them – they can, and for the most part do, literally knock you across the screen which is just frustrating. You have a life bar which is useless as most enemies, even on easy, can kill you in 2-3 hits. Or my favorite is they can trap you in a corner and juggle you to death with no escape!
Hive Jump Review Games
Now the game isn’t horrible, even with the constant crashes. I’ve lost more boss battles due to crashes in the middle of combat then I can count! It does have some really cool features that lend to the RPG feel, like cut-scenes, and a cool weapon system that lets you unlock and upgrade weapons which are purchased from the goo monetary system.
Another great feature is the ability to upgrade in between levels so you don’t feel so underpowered on difficult levels. The fun factor kicks in along with massive irritation when you play two-player co-op mode. Like Contra, both players are on the same screen and can and will kill each other with grenades being tossed about by the enemy. The real challenge is one player carries the explosive ordnance you have to deliver to the end. The reason is if you get knocked off the screen you have a timer for either player to get back into eyesight of the other or, you guessed it, instant death to the player who can’t be seen! Pray he’s not carrying the backpack.
The visuals in the game are very cool. You can unlock and customize your soldier by using skins and visor colors. The weapon effects are also neatly done as each weapon has its own effects and colors. In two-player mode, you can choose an icon that hovers above the soldier so you can try to keep track of who’s who during the craziness.
The music is okay. It drones in the background and doesn’t really add a huge amount to the atmosphere of the game. Sound effects are lacking as well – machine guns don’t really sound like machine guns lol. This however doesn’t really add or detract from the game’s mechanics or overall feel.
While I actually like Hive Jump and its ideas, as a beta tester of multiple different homebrew games this still has the feel of an incomplete beta. The times of choppiness during gameplay and the instability issues really make this game a drag due to the time it takes to go through each hive. I seriously think however with a little more time and polish, this game could be epically fun and have huge success in its genre. Keep up the effort Graphite Lab, it’s almost there.
Hive Jump Reviews
Hive Jump blends together a mix of randomly generated levels, platforming, shooting, and even base defense to make for a fine action platformer.
There are some fantastic titles that have released over the years that use randomly generated levels such as Dead Cells, The Binding of Isaac, and of course, the classic, Spelunky. The roguelike genre can sometimes be intimidating because many times, you are left within deep areas to explore, and it can leave the player trapped in a deep maze to get out of. However, the great titles in the genre leap beyond just random level design and create something memorable.
Hive Jump is somewhere in between these two. While the game does have some satisfying combat and smooth movement mechanics, it never does anything special to separate itself from the pack.
The story isn’t worth much getting into. It is your typical alien invasion narrative where humanity must make its final stand to survive. There is some dialogue between characters that got me to chuckle a couple times, however, overall, the story wasn’t anything to write home about.
What Hive Jump does do that differs itself from the norm is that there is some light strategic base defense. Before jumping into a new level, you must defend your bases from the hostile alien race. You can use the experience that you have earned in each level to buy more troops for a certain base, reveal information on other bases you will eventually invade, or invest in mega robots for defense. It wasn’t much and not very in-depth, but it was a nice diversion from the randomly generated levels and side-scrolling platforming.
Speaking of the levels and platforming, this is Hive Jump’s bread and butter — at least, it tries to be. Each level kind of just blends together a little too much and can make you feel like you have been walking around in circles for eternity. On top of that, the lack of enemy diversity can also make everything seem a little too familiar too often.
However, the platforming and combat make up for the bland level design. The movement feels tight and concise. Some weapons pack a satisfying punch. I say some because there certainly are some weapons that can be passed on. The rocket launcher and shotgun almost felt as if they were a waste of my time because of how slow the rate of fire was. On top of that, the damage dealt from these weapons didn’t feel significantly greater to the machine gun. Once I upgraded my machine gun, I was blasting weird alien creatures left and right and spraying fire all willy-nilly, just like the old Contra days.
“While [Hive Jump] does have some satisfying combat and smooth movement mechanics, it never does anything special to separate itself from the pack.”
Each level drops you, or up to 3 other players, at the beginning of the enemy hive. You must fight your way throughout the labyrinth and collect experience that can be used to upgrade your equipment, fortify your bases against alien attacks, or attack alien bases. As you make your way through the alien hive, you will come across weird crawling enemies and some flying enemies that will shoot projectiles. While there really wasn’t a wide assortment of foes, the massive onslaught that can appear always had me engaged with what was going on screen and my finger on the trigger. Would it really be an action platformer without spraying bullets everywhere?
Once deeper into the hive, there are challenge rooms that will reward you a nice bonus for the rest of the level. However, there is only one chance at the bonus. If you happen to die, you are kicked and locked out of the room. These were a nice change of pace and were a little more platforming focused compared to the normal hive. They weren’t anything special, but mixing up the action and platforming certainly doesn’t hurt.
“Would it really be an action platformer without spraying bullets everywhere?”
After traversing through the enemy hive, you will finally come across the boss, which I found to be the standout part of the game. Each boss mixes the action and platforming together very well and created the highlights of my playthrough. Some of them felt very Metroid-like, if that makes sense.
Hive Jump Wii U Review
For example, the first boss I defeated wasn’t a gargantuan of an enemy, but instead a slightly large bigger creature that would pace back and forth in the middle of the room. Every now and then it would smash the ground and stalactites would fall from the ceiling, charge me if I got too close, or spawn more enemies to help defend itself. I would juggle these three options while simultaneously jumping over the enemy to shoot at its weak spot on its backside. It was a challenging, yet rewarding boss fight that really stood out.
Hive Jump Review Movie
Hive Jump is certainly not the next best roguelike on the market. Many of the levels blend together too much and makes everything feel way too familiar. There is a lack of diverse enemies to change up your playstyle and you will run into the same ones over and over again. Many of the weapons just felt like a waste and I ultimately just used the fully automatic machine gun for most of my playthrough. However, despite these shortcomings, Hive Jump does provide tight platforming, satisfying combat mechanics, and memorable boss fights that will leave most fans of the action shoot ’em up genre satisfied. If this title happens to go on sale and you are looking for a fun and action-packed platformer, I would reccommend Hive Jump.