Jump the Track

At first glance, Jump the Track is a comedic visual novel, with vibrant comic-style graphics. And for the most part these first impressions are spot on, but as the game and narrative progressed, it unexpectedly turned more into a reflection of real-life issues that the modern world seemingly loves to throw at us.

You play as Sam, who it seems is struggling with what he wants to do with his life and who he wants to be. Working for Pierre, the local mob leader, Sam scurries around doing the menial tasks that his boss has no time or interest for. When Sam accidentally sets fire to Pierre’s daughter’s favourite teddy, Sam sets off to try and find a replacement before he loses more than just his job. Sam soon realises that this teddy is ultra rare and is incredibly hard to find, but luckily one is the prize for this year’s national tombola. This kicks off a series of events with the end goal of gathering as many tickets as possible before the draw takes place for Sam to be in the best place possible to win and hopefully save his life. Halfway through the game, the narrative takes an unexpected turn, with a much heavier look at the effects of capitalism, millionaires with too much power and an uprising which Sam seems to have somehow managed to be at the forefront of.

This narrative could have suffered from having such polar opposite plot lines running through it, but I must give credit to the writers of the game, as they managed to join both sections cohesively, feeding in little drops in the first section, setting up the second half in a natural way. The writing also was a breath of fresh air, with no extra long periods of text; it kept it to the minimum, keeping it breezy, to the point, and funny but still enough to connect with the characters, their backstories, and the general storyline. Saying this, there were a few instances where I grimaced with the choice of wording, mostly when the police were referred to as “pigs”, a terminology that, as far as I know, died in the ‘90s. There’s also plenty of cursing, so if that’s not your thing, then be prepared or maybe give this one a miss.

Throughout, you drive the narrative by what choices you make at pivotal points in the conversation, and only certain options are made available to you with how well you perform at the game’s biggest hook, the pachinko games. The game centres around little balls or blocks that are laid out in certain patterns, and the aim is to fire a ball in a direction of your choosing to try and clear the board and score as many points as possible. If you are familiar with Peggle then you’ll feel very comfortable here. The main difference though is that some balls or blocks are different colours and they represent different emotions. Clear all the balls of a certain colour and you’ll have that option afterwards to choose from in the conversation. There are four emotions available: lie, diplomacy, fierceness, and seduction. Clear them all and you can guide the narrative wherever you want, but don’t worry if you only grab one or even none, as there will always be a default option available, which in some instances actually gave the best outcome. The way the game is written also means that even if you fail massively, the game doesn’t penalise you; the story carries on, and that is really refreshing and keeps any frustration of failing at bay.

These pachinko boards will also appear when Sam has to do an important action. The goal here is to reach a set score. There are usually red blocks involved which give higher points and green starred blocks that will replace all the missing blocks, giving you more of a chance to reach the target. I’d say these were the ones that gave me the most trouble, thanks to my impatience mostly, but I did enjoy trying to reach the targets set and it was a welcome break from the emotion boards.

Another element in the pachinko sections are powers that you gain as you meet certain characters. There are six in total, including multi balls, magnet balls and slicer balls, just to name a few. This gave an element of strategy, with figuring out which would be best to use depending on the layout of the board. It’s made a tad harder to use these, as you have to hit a special multicoloured block to activate it and you can do this only once per board.

The visuals throughout Jump the Track were amazingly created, with deliciously detailed character models in a hand-drawn comic style. Each oozed individuality through clothing, hairstyles and mannerisms. The mostly static but striking backgrounds throughout were some of my favourite parts of the game, detailing this Earth with much clarity and imagination. It was worth my time when I just stopped and admired the work that went into these while also enjoying the game’s lo-fi soundtrack.

Jump the Track is a short experience, with a playthrough lasting a couple of hours max. But it encourages more playthroughs to see where else you can take the story, and the developers have promised that it goes places if you’re skilful enough during the pachinko sections. I for one, am tempted to attempt another go, not only to improve my pachinko skills but also to see how bonkers the story can actually get.