Jumping Flash
Developer
Sony Interactive Entertainment, SIE Japan Studio, Exact, Ultra
Publisher
Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
Platform
PS3 / PS Vita / PSP
Release
1995-04-28
Description
Jumping Flash! is a first-person platform video game co-developed by Exact and Ultra and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The first installment in the Jumping Flash! series, it was first released for the PlayStation on 28 April 1995 in Japan, 29 September 1995 in Europe and 1 November 1995 in North America. It was re-released through the PlayStation Network store on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable in 2007.
Presented in a first-person perspective, the game follows a robotic rabbit named "Robbit" as he searches for missing jet pods scattered by the game's astrophysicist antagonist character Baron Aloha. Robbit must explore each section of Crater Planet to retrieve all of the jet pods, stop Aloha and save the world from being destroyed. The game was designed as a technology demonstrator for the PlayStation console and was revealed in early 1994 under the provisional title of "Spring Man". Jumping Flash! utilises much of the game engine used in Geograph Seal, an earlier game by Exact for the Sharp X68000 home computer.
Jumping Flash! has been described as an ancestor of as well as an early showcase for 3D graphics in console gaming. It was generally well received by critics, who praised its graphics and unique 3D platforming gameplay, but it was eventually overshadowed by later 3D platformers of the fifth console generation. Jumping Flash! spawned two sequels: Jumping Flash! 2 and Robbit Mon Dieu. Despite the overwhelmingly positive reviews at the time of release, and even an appearance in Next Generation's "Top 100 Games of All Time" just one year after, the game was described as the third-most underrated video game of all time by Matt Casamassina of IGN in 2007. It also holds the Guinness World Record as the "first platform video game in true 3D".
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