162. Kakefu-kun no Jump Tengoku (Vic Tokai, Famicom, 1988)

Kakefu-kun no Jump Tengoku: Speed Jigoku (literally "Kakefu Kun's Jump Heaven: Speed Hell") is a Famicom platformer based on *checks notes* a kid who could impersonate Japanese baseball player Masayuki Kakefu. While that's a pretty odd inspiration for a game, the gameplay is not quite as original, as it's basically an inferior ripoff of Super Mario Bros. That said, I think it's a pretty interesting ripoff of Super Mario Bros. and gives us some insight as to what makes Mario so good by comparison.

Story-wise, Kakefu-kun is some kid in a baseball hat who is helping a sick king find some medicine. Mechanically, the game is a level based platformer that has a lot of momentum in its movement. But the momentum and acceleration are juts not as fine-tuned as Super Mario Bros. Kakefu-kun takes much longer than Mario to reach full speed, and his sprite is so much larger that it is very difficult if not impossible to tell what is coming fast enough to avoid pitfalls or enemies. I can't stress enough how piddly your jump feels if you haven't built up enough momentum.

The game has an enemy throwing mechanic similar to Super Mario Bros. 2, but it is also weird and ropey compared to its inspiration. Levels do tend to have more verticality to them than in Mario games, but the screen has to transition when you reach the top, so you lose control of your character and the flow of the movement goes out the window. If this is what it took to get vertical levels in a Mario game, it wasn't worth it.

There are some cool ideas that Kakefu-kun brings to the table. My favorite small touch is that if you build up enough speed and fail to jump over a water pit, you will just skip across the surface like stone. This was amazing the first time it happened and never lost its appeal in my brief time with the game. Because you have to basically memorize levels in order to beat them, I actually had a fun time once I started using more save states and realizing the game was a trial and error experience. I'm sure a speedrun of this game would look amazing, but the levels just don't feel designed to be accessible to first time players.

3/5, an interesting take on Mario-style momentum that just feels bad most of the time