Jazzpunk Review

There are numerous examples of funny games, but in these, the comedy is somewhat secondary or just one part of an equal equation. Portal is a very funny game, but it’s also an excellent puzzle game where the meat of the gameplay is about making you think rather than making you laugh. Jazzpunk is a funny game, but it stands out from the pack by being a true comedy game. Jazzpunk has no other aim but to make you laugh, its gameplay is all about facilitating jokes, and this is what separates it from other games and also what makes it hard to judge. It’s possible that with something so subjective as humor that Jazzpunk may not work for some, but the dedication to gags combined with the sheer lunacy and creativity on display make this game hard to resist. It may not always tickle your funny bone, but the places the game goes and the things it makes you do are so brilliantly off the wall that you have to experience it.

Jazzpunk - A Sense of Humor

The sole appeal of Jazzpunk is the sense of humor. There is no inherent worth to any of the mechanics of the game outside of how they are used. This is a huge part of Jazzpunk's charm, though; it’s not burdened by convention and is able to just throw things at the wall to see if they stick. The very core of the game is a first-person adventure game. You walk around and interact with things, there is some light puzzle solving, but it’s not a puzzle game. The puzzles are just elaborate jokes where the solution isn’t one you have to work out beforehand, plan out or think out. You just work your way through a level, and by purely interacting with what is around you, it becomes clear what you have to do. In fact, such is the lunacy of Jazzpunk, a lot of the time, you are just poking at the world, and your poking sets into motion a sequence of events that complete your goal. The idea here is just to exist in the world and to interact with it, it is just a way of delivering jokes to you in the form of a video game, and it works excellently.

Another wonderful part of Jazzpunk is how it shoots off into tangents. Minigames pop up with some regularity and place you in completely alien scenarios. Some of these are excellent video game parodies, some are just weird, and all of them are utterly inspired. These minigames often drop you in whole new games (like a Frogger clone) or just make you do something odd like 'degauss' pigeons. These latter styles are brilliant because they give you an item to complete your objective (in this case, a degaussing gun), but it's an item you can also just use in the level. The levels are designed so that using this item in unconventional ways has a great payoff, and once again by just poking around in Jazzpunk, you are treated to some fantastic jokes.

Jazzpunk - Quickfire Pace

This all adds to the frenetic pace of Jazzpunk. It's a game that doesn't rest on its laurels. It’s reminiscent of comedies like ‘Airplane!’ where the jokes don’t wait for you to catch up. They just keep going. They are utterly persistent and really varied. The result of this is that one joke not hitting feels inconsequential as the game has already moved on. However, this isn’t really a crutch that Jazzpunk has to fall back on, as the game is consistently creative and hilarious throughout. There are gags everywhere, some hidden and some overt. The minigames make it, so you are constantly changing what you are doing, and the design of the levels themselves makes for an environment where you keep being surprised and amused. Jazzpunk is a hugely creative game, and it is a joy to just be in this world and play around in it.

There’s a story premise to Jazzpunk, but it’s just an excuse to place you in a world that suits its off-the-wall style of humor. You play secret agent Polyblank in a world where people look like male and female symbols in restrooms. The aesthetic is very reminiscent of Blendo Games’ 30 Flights of Loving (or Gravity Bone). It’s a relatively simple aesthetic, but it oozes style. The presentation is just sublime throughout Jazzpunk, it is styled like a Hunter S. Thompson fever dream of a cold war era spy movie that had a brief fling with a 60s Sci-Fi flick in Japan. It’s weird looking but in a good way. Your job in this weird world is to complete assignments. Your director gives you a goal and hands you some pills, you take the pills and you get a countdown to the start of your objective.

Jazzpunk - Missions

The mission setup is akin to a comedic Hitman game, where instead of having multiple ways to take down a target, you just have multiple jokes you can experience. One key difference is that things will always be the same, and interactions can only go one way. However, there are still plenty of well-hidden secrets that make experimenting with the world worthwhile. The real similarity to Hitman, though, is in the level structure. You are in defined spaces that you can explore, in which completing the main goal isn't really the point. The point is toying around with the area and the sense of discovery. In Hitman, this leads you to work out more creative kills and ways in which things can interact. In Jazzpunk, you just find crazy jokes. Hilarious and well-implemented crazy jokes.

The Verdict

Jazzpunk is a very short game and, due to the nature of humor, not one that carries much replay value. It is, however, fantastic for what it is. By being short, the pace is never allowed to stop, and you never get too much. It's somewhat tiring due to its persistence, and they shove so much into this short time that you do feel fulfilled. There's a lot to see in Jazzpunk, and you do some amazing things. So many moments are hugely memorable, and any lover of the weird or the obscure will find so much joy here. Further on from this, it stands out as a great example of how to make a comedy game. In this regard, it shares its stage with the (admittedly superior) Stanley Parable, but even that game isn't as laser-focused on just making you laugh. Jazzpunk does one thing, but in committing to that one thing, it has an inherent variety. It's funny, it's clever, and it's incredibly creative. Even if not all the humor hits with you, it is an easy game to admire, and for these reasons, it's a must-play.

This review was originally published on 02-25-2014. While care has been taken to update the piece to reflect our modern style guidelines, some of the information may be out of date. We've left pieces like this as they were to reflect the original authors' opinions, and for historical context.