I'm doing a research project on jump arcs in side-scrollers, and want to know about as many of them as possible. Thus, I have come to the Giant Bomb community to draw upon your knowledge.

What constitutes an "interesting or good jump arc" can be literally anything. It could be because of the input; the animation; the gravity; the power-ups; the narrative; anything at all that has anything to do with the jumping, no matter how crazy or esoteric the logic. So whatever kind of jumping you can think of that you think is funny or cool or impressive or interesting or what have you; tell me about that game and I'll definitely look into it.

The only limitation is that I will be sticking to just side-scrollers here, but I may get into 3D jumping later on, so feel free to bring up some of those as well if you really want to.

Thank you.

In Volgarr the Viking his dumb jump is him just spinning his damn sword.

Also, you can't adjust the jump in mid-air, which might be considered interesting.

VVVVVV is interesting because instead of being able to jump, you can only reverse gravity and let yourself fall. So you must traverse pits and other typical platformer obstacles by alternately falling up and falling down.

Interesting topic.

• Mega Man 6 has floating water, which means that you can jump normally, then touch water, which causes your movement to slow down.
• Ecco the Dolphin has a lot of interesting things happening with jumping, but I'll point out the very first thing you have to do in the game: you have to build up enough momentum to make an exceptionally high jump.
• Rogue Legacy: Your characteristics affect your movement (including jumping).
• Downwell: There's lots of things about the jumping in this game, but the real crux of the game is performing large combos by jumping on enemies without touching the ground.
• Most Kirby games: You have a regular jump, you can suck up air and float up into the sky, and you can take abilities from enemies - which can alter your jumps.

Anyway, there's plenty more, do some looking around in the wiki. Good luck.

Mohawk and Headphone Jack - Would have been just a standard jump, but the gravity in the game and the way the character floats around the landscape leads to all sorts of jumping fun.

The Legend of Kage - Jumping this high in a video game was unheard of in 1984, and it made you feel like an awesome ninja.

Gunpoint is all about jumping! And hacking!

You get fancy jump pants and are able to customize your angle of defenstration like a boss.

Ghosts and Goblin's/Ghouls and Ghosts. The size of the jump relevant to the size of the characters, the commitment to the jump once you make it and being able to switch direction and attack during the jump are all super interesting to me.

Shadow Complex may be worth taking a look at, and it's still free on PC if you're willing to install the Epic Games Launcher. Dude can jump about 6 feet straight up and the player can control his trajectory mid-air.

• It was on a recent quicklook where they said otehrwise but I think Bubble Bobble had good jumps for the kind of game it was. Bub and Bob would jump up quick and kinda float down kinda reminiscent of a bubble.
• I really dug the Pogo bounce of Ducktales, you could just hold the button and keep bouncing.
• Bionic Commando used a grapple instead of a pure jump, swinging is a fun way to jump
• NBA Jam if memory serves kinda had a slow motion jumpo so you could
• Yoshi's flutter jump in Mario games is always funny to watch.

I was also going to mention Bionic Commando, but instead I'll say the screw attack from Super Metroid. You just do an infinite amount of jumps that wreck everything you touch.

Oh, and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has that gravity boots powerup, where pressing down, up, jump has you fly straight up into the air. It really changes the game, where it went from a fairly straightforward horizontal game to something that really makes you explore the verticality of the level design.

And finally, Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Once you unlock Hyper Sonic, you can do a dash jump in midair that instantly obliterates everything on screen. You just become a constant screen-killing smart bomb.

I remember Cave Story's jump being a little strange. Maybe it was just floaty or something. I can't quite remember what it was that stuck out to me.

DuckTales and Shovel Knight seem like obvious candidates, what with their whole "bouncing with a pogo-stick-like thing" thing they have going on. Commander Keen also has some of that.

@csl316: I too vote Metroid! But the bomb jumping. Essentially you can place bombs underneath yourself and with some tricky timing can jump really high.

You could also look at the very janky sections of Zelda: Link's Awakening where the game changes perspective and plays as a basic 2d platformer for two screens, even though your movement is still the same.

Really cool topic to think about!

If you wanna have a game that did jumping poorly then the Bubsy 2D games are good examples. Too fast and too high of a jump and a camera that gives you no way of knowing where you would land (or almost where you were at all).

I help host a speedrun show so I've seen a TON of jump mechanics in old platformers. Figured simpler is better so I went with NES games, excusing some of the examples already posted.

Banana Prince - You can press down and jump to plant a beanstalk and then do a big spinning jump off of it

Batman - Winds up to jump, limited air control, very slow terminal velocity, not to mention the wall jumps (also with a wind up)

Blaster Master - The floatiest tank

The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout - Very odd movement in this game, seems to run at 30 fps, very slow terminal velocity

Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers - Your vertical speed immediately stops the frame you let off the jump button, feels very tight

Conquest of the Crystal Palace - Tall jumps with limited horizontal speed, attacking in mid air immediately causes you to start falling, can call in a dog and jump off of him (the dog is fucking cool)

Contra - Floaty jump, very slow horizontal movement, can change direction in mid air but you cannot stop horizontally until you land

Darkwing Duck - Lots of control over your jump height, very sleight pause when jumping/landing that can be avoided with another well timed jump (watch the Tool-Assisted Speedrun avoid the pauses by never stopping jumping)

Dr. Chaos - This jump is all kinds of fucked up I can't even really put my finger on it, especially when you contact enemies

Kabuki Quantum Fighter - 2 jump heights, tap down to interrupt jump and start falling, cannot move horizontally while down is held (can hold down and mash A to freak out)

Kick Master - High jumps, gets more interesting when you level up and unlock new kicks

Krion Conquest - Glitchy. Jump off a platform, pause the game when you're below the platform, hold A and unpause to rejump. Can summon a broom to walk on but if you don't jump way on top of it, it disappears and you fall. Holding select locks your position in a truly bizarre way.

Kung Fu - Committed jumps, don't stop horizontally but you have a weird wind up on your vertical height. Can't actually punch or kick until well into the jump.

Legacy of the Wizard - 5 playable characters with different speeds and jump heights. Parts of the labyrinth are gated by jump heights. Has a similar pause-to-rejump glitch like Krion Conquest. Very big bounce falling from a great height, halts horizontal movement while it happens.

Mighty Bomb Jack - Super high jumps with the ability to float very slowly give you tons of aerial control

Mr. Gimmick - Has a star projectile that bounces off walls which you can ride on. The arc of the star is dependent on how you're moving when you release it. Can preserve increased speed from going down an incline by repeatedly jumping.

Ninja Gaiden - One jump height, limited air control, can attack fast enough to hit ground-level enemies right out of a jump, as well as when landing. Spinslash powerup turns your jump attacks into an invincible spinning ball of death that deals damage every other frame. Climb walls by sticking to them, jumping off and regrabbing.

Panic Restaurant - ..................................I just like the animation, honestly.

Rockin' Kats - Standard jump but you have a punch glove that can propel you off of surfaces (really weird in vertical stages), or grapple onto things and launch yourself at 8 different angles (including backwards).

Rygar - Floaty jumps, awkward jump hitbox, can jump off of enemies to stun them temporarily.

Shadow of the Ninja - Fast jumps, attacking in mid air lurches you forward awkwardly.

The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants - Jump button is also the run button and you accelerate in mid-air. Big awkward jumps.

Strider - The world's most awkward wall jumps (you have to hit the button soooo late!).

Super Mario Bros. - Obvious. But seriously, play around with his jumps. You can't accelerate in mid-air so you can get locked into some very slow jumps, you instantly fall if you grab a mushroom, you can land on top of an enemy even if he's above you as long as you're technically on the 'moving down' part of your jump, and jumping backwards has a weird acceleration to it.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 3 different jump heights, including a very very tall jump, especially since you move forward so slowly. Awkward hitboxes mid jump.

Tiny Toon Adventures - Sliding is faster than running, and if you jump out of a slide you can preserve that increased speed. The catch is you have to release right and the run button, so the fastest method of travel is a down-A input. Plucky's hover ability also preserves that speed and you get tons of height bouncing on enemies, letting you soar across levels.

Wizards and Warriors - Big floaty jumps for a guy in full plate. Slight wind up on take off and landing. Sword hitbox is active while jumping!

Some of these you probably get the jist of simply by reading the description, some you'll want a video for, but there's a couple you'll want to download a ROM and mess around with like Mario, Strider, TMNT, and Rockin' Kats. Hope this helps!

On that note, Decap Attack is pretty bad too; the jumping is frustratingly floaty. It also feels incredibly broken, in that you can often bypass large portions of levels by flailing around over the top of the screen.

This is maybe questionable whether it's jumping or not, but in Donkey Kong Country 3, if you do Kiddie's rolling attack off a platform into water but press the jump button juuuust as you hit the surface, he'll keep rolling and bounce off the water, like a stone skimmed across a lake. He can do this twice, with the second bounce sending him quite high.

I think it's a really interesting mechanic, one that I don't think the game ever requires you to actually use in completion of the critical path and could easily be something you could finish the game without ever knowing about, but it's a cool little trick that gives you access to a few secrets and is just conceptually neat.

Probably worth mentioning 'Splosion Man, who propels himself through the air by exploding.

Bubble Bobble is the place to start IMO. The code is out there if you look for it. The amount you jump is determined by how long you hold the button, and velocity is constant up and down. Meaning there's no gravity or acceleration exactly because it was easier to just set your vertical position to a higher value as long as the button is held down (within the jump height limit.) It's a pretty elegant solution and there being zero momentum, it gives you complete control over your character as they jump. I started making a platformer that ripped off Bubble Bobble's jump code I liked it so much. I never finished and long ago lost the code. You can download what I did complete here to experience the joy of Bubble Bobble jumping for yourself. (Or, y'know, get yourself a copy of Bubble Bobble..)

http://gamejolt.com/games/untitled/30906

Here's another vote for the first Ninja Gaiden, the NES version. To this day no game has jumping that feels as good or is as tight as the jump in that game. It's incredible.

Guacamelee had interesting jumping too, in that you rarely do much traditional jumping. You usually have to add at least one modifier to the jump which is fun at first but gets super tedious later in the game.

And of course my favorite game of all time has good jumping: Uniracers. Definitely one you should check out because it's really different and original.

Finally, the Zelda games post Link's Awakening. For a series known for having no dedicated jump button, you sure do a lot of jumping in those games.

Braid is the king

Also in Fez you can move yourself round while jumping. Pretty neat!

Braid is the king

Also in Fez you can move yourself round while jumping. Pretty neat!

Oh, speaking of which, The original Doom games (mostly Doom 2 though). Those games have 'jumping puzzles' even though there is no jumping. 'Jumping' basically consists of running over gaps between platforms.

This thread is mind bottling.

La Mulana had an interesting jump. If you jump while standing still you can't move left or right until you reach the apex of the jump.