I didn’t start playing When I picked up this weekend. I was actually looking for something else, but I lazily searched only half the correct title and found myself staring at Jump rope star! at the top of the results instead. Curious – partly because the “hot rope jump” was one of my favorite mini mines in it Mario party 2 Back in the day – I clicked on it, and was greeted with pictures that looked like something I’d put on my refrigerator if I gave it to a 5-year-old. It was kind of a “no more” moment; I bought it immediately.
As you might expect from the title, Jump rope star! It is a jump rope game to play. It offers a few different modes for single-player and co-op play, the latter of which involves two players sharing a single device. I haven’t encountered many multiplayer games for Playdate, so that alone is great. Chris Corsiga (Soinkters Games) did the game, but the art was designed by a talented 5-year-old, Maya. And it’s adorable. While you’re trying to set new high scores, you can use the crank to control the swing of the jump rope held by a 2D rabbit. And a striped pig (?). Well, I’m not exactly sure what the second character is, but these two are swinging a rope, and the goal is to do so in time with the little jumps that don’t fit so they don’t. You raise it.
Its timing isn’t always consistent and it speeds up as you go, so it starts to get quite difficult after a minute or so. But achieving perfect flips will earn you points in the star meter on the side of the screen, and once it’s filled, you can use that power to temporarily slow down time and get more flips while the girl is in the air. In other modes, things get more complicated. Playing with a friend in two-player fishing mode, for example, one of you will have to press buttons to move the girl around so she can catch falling stars while the other person swings the rope. (It’s very difficult to do on your own, I found out.)
It’s a simple but fun little game, made even better by the fact that you can involve someone else in the silliness. Both adults and children will be able to enjoy it, and there’s a kids mode for a more forgiving playstyle if you don’t want family game night to get too competitive. This strikes me as one of those perfectly Playdate Games – the kind that seem right for the device, and try to make them understand its magic.