Preview: Neko Ghost, Jump!

Neko Ghost, Jump! clearly looks like a cute little game, but cuteness alone doesn’t make a great game. Developer Burgos Games is busy making this new puzzle-platformer that offers multiple dimensions. A Kickstarter campaign raised no less than $20.000. The game is still in progress, but a prologue and demo are available on Steam already. The prologue, which includes the first complete biome, received some positive feedback already. Later came the demo, which is also free to play. If you want a more recent update on the game, I suggest you try out this rather than the prologue. There’s no official release date yet, most likely because the developers don’t want to rush the full game, which I can definitely understand. I am fortunate enough to have an early look at Neko Ghost, Jump! so far so let me share my thoughts with you so far.

What is Neko Ghost, Jump!?

This is obviously a very adorable looking little game that offers some fun gameplay, that’s for sure. Not only can you switch between a 2D and 3D view, you can also turn into your ghost when you have to enter combat. There’s puzzles to solve, coins to collect, and enemies to defeat. There’s also a bit of a story, of course. Everything takes place in Nekoworld, where the Neko people live in peace. However, the peace is disturbed when Space Dog Pirates invade the planet on Nekoman’s wedding day. They abduct all of Nekoman’s friends and family. Now what? You guessed it, you have to play as Nekoman and save everyone’s asses. It’s a bit of a basic story, but it works.

Fun gameplay so far

So there are eight biomes to explore (so far five are playable and three are under construction), each containing five levels. Each level has three objectives (or Paws): beating the speedrun, collecting all coins, and defeating all enemies. The last one is the easiest, while the first one is sometimes really difficult. You’ll need to earn a certain amount of Paws before being able to get to the next level. Like, when I wanted to advance to the last level of the first biome, I was one Paw short and had to replay a level of choice and get a Paw somewhere. I didn’t see this coming but liked this addition a lot! It may not sound like a lot, but it’s not an easy game, let me tell you. The switching between the 2D and 3D view, combined with switching between your physical and ghost form, is difficult and takes some getting used to. It’s fun, of course, but you’ll probably end up clicking the wrong button a lot as I did. So the gameplay itself is fun yet sometimes challenging. If you need a little more help, there is an Assist Mode available, which will offer checkpoints at every level, and you can even turn on invulnerability or lower the game speed. You can make Neko Ghost, Jump! as easy or as difficult as you please.

Other nice features this game offers, are the leaderboard and customization options. The former is interesting when you already finished the game but want to get a better score, so this is great for replay value. The latter is something not everyone will probably take a look at, but it’s fun. You can customize your Nekoman by spending the coins you gathered in-game, and buy things like hats, facial expressions, accessories, and the color of your fur.

Some feedback still

Now, there are still some things that could use improvement. For starters, the controls felt a bit uneasy to use at times. By this I mean that jumps didn’t sit right with me and I felt like I had no control of my Nekoman when jumping. If possible, I would also love to see more customization options because right now, they are limited and there’s barely anything I really liked for my character. This is definitely not a must to make it a great time (which it already is), but it’d just be a nice addition.

Short conclusion

Neko Ghost, Jump is a really fun, yet difficult game. I really, really sucked at it, but still had a good time nevertheless! I see quite some potential in this game and am excited to see the full version when it’s released!