Developer: Michael Todd Games
Steam Release: Aug 2013
Hours Played: 4.9
Similar To: Bloody Trapland / Cloudberry Kingdom / Geometry Dash / Run Or Die
Rating: 2/5 Parsnips
ESJ is a fast-paced precision platformer designed in the side-scrolling fashion. In a silhouetted world, with the thumping sound of techno music pounding away and cries of sexual ecstasy ringing in your eyes, you leap and stomp your way to the swirling exit portal at the end of each fairly short level. The drill is straightforward with no mechanics you haven't seen already; even the stomp ability is a kind of dash attack you've seen many times before. You'll get arrows that thrust you upwards, circles that teleport you, homing missiles flying your way and even screen tilting shenanigans but nothing really revolutionary. Apart from its superb soundtrack and all those orgasmic screams, the game seems to mainly pride itself on being very difficult and entirely unforgiving.
Like Super Meat Boy, this is about leaping and colliding to your doom numerous times while having severe time pressure hanging over you in the form of the dreaded screen-chasing mechanic. There are so-called gold times to aim for but these are nigh-on impossible that'll need a serious number of multiple attempts to crack. You also get a leaderboard, that throws you out of the game to an online browser, but is really for serious contenders - and features times that are blatantly impossible to achieve anyway. Mere mortals will be lucky to even make it to the second of the game's four worlds. Worlds 1-3 contains 15 levels while World 4 has five. It's either going to be a journey of getting battered and bruised to reach the furthest level possible or repetitively speed-running the bejesus out of the game for gold times.
Presentation is 16-bit, pixelated and well and truly indie. The menus in particular are plain, minimalist and mobile-like with the font being uneven and of the good old-fashioned Times New Roman variety. Each world has 15 square icons to indicate levels (apart form World 4 which has five) and hovering over these will show your best time and the gold time that you might want to aim for. Navigation around these menus - like most mobile to PC ports - is easier done with the mouse. When finishing a level, the game will throw you directly into the next one without a pause or take you back to the level-select screen which may hinder repetitive speed-running attempts for a level but retains immersion when going for a world time. As mentioned it's the soundtrack that helps to put this game right up there.
Putting the dubiously entitled Hot Sticky Mess DLC and other bonus contents to one side, ESJ features a main campaign. This is split into four worlds with the first three holding 15 levels and the final one having five. The game annoyingly puts you on a continuous run through all levels so you can plow through a world's 15 levels from start to finish if you wish. Level number or titles are not sign-posted in any way during this process and your best time is not shown on the screen either while playing. This lack of information means individual speed-running of levels are done blind without knowing if you've beaten your time or not which is kind of lame. Still, at the level-select screen your best times are shown along with the least amount of deaths you've suffered doing them. A world time is also indicated but leaderboards seem hacked to death.
While Electronic Super Joy undoubtedly brings the joy it promises in short doses, players need to understand that the game is about zero margins of error. You'll need to follow patterns to the same degree as a tough rhythm game. This makes it different to other games of this ilk such as JumpJet Rex, Mos Speedrun 2, Mechanic Escape or A Walk In The Dark where multiple paths and solutions can be explored or where errors are not so easily punished. The problem therefore is that ESJ may have a short shelf-life and lack replayability as players realise that they just haven't got the skill to go any further. While hardcore fans of hard-as-nails platformers will love it, others need to ask if a few (albeit fun) one or two hour sessions followed by a swift uninstall is worth the asking price or if it's a case of waiting for the sale.
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