(Originally posted April 1st, 2018)
Well, it was a hectic day, however, I still found the time to play this awesome game that came out last year. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) is a delightful video game that seems to dissect video games as a medium, and is a surprisingly hilarious time, for a video game. Featuring the voice talents of Dwayne Johnson as Spencer/Dr. Smolder Bravestone, Jack Black as Bethany/Professor Shelly Oberon, Kevin Hart as Fridge/Franklin "Mouse" Finbar, Karen Gillan as Martha/Ruby Roundhouse, Nick Jonas as Alex/Jefferson "Seaplane" McDonough and Bobby Cannavale as Professor Russell Van Pelt.
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| Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) |
I was a huge fan of the Robin Williams Jumanji movie as a kid, and I watched it a lot. So, when I heard they were making a game that was going to sort of follow on from the movie, I was a little sceptical, as was the majority of the internet. Thankfully, this game delivers, and is not only a great game in and of itself, but is a glorious love letter to the movie that's not afraid to update things for the modern era. The game looks beautiful, and the graphics are far beyond what I expected. It runs at a solid 60-fps, I could barely see the polygons and there were very few moments of debilitating lag. The animals especially were a joy to look at, though I could have used more of them in the game, but we'll get to that later.
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| Jumanji (1995) |
For a video game, I was surprised by how often the script had me laughing my ass off. A lot of that comes down to the voice actors, who I believe used their likenesses to make it more believable. Comedy highlights were Kevin Hart and Jack Black, though Karen Gillan and Dwayne Johnson certainly brought their A-game for the comedic moments. More than that, though, it was interesting to see how many jokes poked fun at video games themselves, almost like the game was self-aware that it was a game. Also, it may be seen as poor game design, but I love how thoroughly useless Kevin Hart's character was, and I don't think I used his archaeology or palaeontology skills once. He was useful to get info about the animals, but that was about it. It was clear that he was the character that you give your little sister to play as while you play the game for real, and that's what I did. Never looked back.
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| Kevin Hart as Franklin "Mouse" Finbar, Karen Gillan as Ruby Roundhouse, Jack Black as Professor Shelley Oberon and Dwayne Johnson as Dr. Smolder Bravestone |
It was interesting how we got to see the 'players' before they get sucked into 'the game'. This is clearly a send-up to the movie where Alan Parrish gets stuck in the game for an extended period of time, and setting this game in the context of players getting stuck in a video game version of Jumanji was a genius idea. The game became less about the story of the game and more about the story of the characters you were controlling who were playing the characters in the game. You really get sucked into their stories, as well, and the characters are really well-rounded and believable. I believe there are people like this in the real world, and it's small touches like that which made this game feel so real, as if it was a real sequel to the movie, instead of just being a game. I related to Spencer so much, and I felt as though someone just took me and put me in this game, though not while he had Dwayne Johnson's body.
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| Alex Wolff as Spencer Gilpin |
Even though the game was more about the characters instead of the story, it did make the actual story seem kind of weak by comparison. The villain barely did anything, and it was clear that he was just the foil to get the characters on their quest. Which is fine and everything, I mean, it is a video game, after all. But it made it feel like all the enemies were just people with guns. When I play a Jumanji game, I want to go up against the raging wildlife, the harsh conditions, not people with guns. This goes back to what I was saying earlier when I said that I wish there were more animals in the game. You could have kept the gem stuff, but made the plot that the gem got dislodged by a freak weather effect, and all the animals were overly aggressive while it was missing. Nothing changes, except you get more awesome animals as opposed to recycled human enemies. True, you don't get the awesome dance fight levels, but they could have compensated for that some other way. Or just have Ruby Roundhouse dance fight against a pack of crocodiles, that would have been fun. I don't know, I just felt as though the wider variety of enemies, levels and boss battles would really have helped this game from getting a little stale, even though it wasn't that big a deal since the human characters you play as and their stories are the focus.
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| Bobby Cannavale as Russel Van Pelt |
In the end, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) is an awesome addition to the Jumanji universe, and I'm so happy I got the chance to play it today. On this day. April 1st. ... Yeah. 8.5/10
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