Republished on Wednesday, twenty second June, 2022: We’re bringing this evaluate again from the archives following Leaping Flash!’s inclusion in All PS Plus Video games. The unique textual content follows.
Initially printed on Sunday, 4th November, 2018: The 16-bit console wars have been cruel. Through the early idea stage of the PlayStation console, Sony took half in an ill-fated collaboration with Nintendo to create a CD-ROM add-on for the SNES. In September 1995, Leaping Flash! was a PS1 launch title, and it is the kind of recreation that makes you surprise what would have occurred if Nintendo hadn’t engaged in its notorious double dealing. Printed by Sony however created by slightly recognized developer referred to as Precise Inc., Leaping Flash! feels visually just like the pure continuation of video games from the Tremendous Famicom period, however introduced by means of 32-bit polygon worlds.
Considered from a first-person perspective, the gameplay in Leaping Flash! nonetheless feels contemporary in the present day. You pilot and management a big robotic rabbit, unsurprisingly named Robbit, throughout 18 phases which are unfold over six worlds. Every stage is a floating island, and there’s a light-headed sense of exhilaration and verticality as Robbit triple jumps upwards, ascending platforms and looking out to gather 4 hidden carrot-shaped jetpods. Robbit reaches the dizzying heights of Tremendous Mario Sunshine’s rocket nozzle, however with a better sense of management, as a result of with every leap Robbit seems downward, permitting you to guage the place to land based mostly upon his shadow.
As a really early PS1 recreation, Leaping Flash! is not graphically flawless. The sport has primary fashions, and a close-up inspection of environmental textures demonstrates rugged pixelation, plus the framerate is not at all times easy. Nonetheless, there may be an abundance of character in its artwork model and within the theme it presents for every world, even when it re-establishes generic concepts for environments. Chances are you’ll anticipate a lava based mostly stage, however its frying pan egg trampoline will shock you. Elsewhere, the way in which the blustery wind redirects Robbit mid-air, whereas traversing clear gem platforms, seems fanciful within the icy blue snowflake stage. The developer shows copious quantities of creativeness, so you will not have the ability to guess what’s coming subsequent, whether or not it is floating throughout scorching air balloons beside a fairy story citadel, or using a wavy rainbow conveyor belt previous a Ferris wheel, throughout a purple pastel skyline.
Particular credit score have to be given to the musical work of Takeo Miratsu, as the way in which he has matched becoming tunes to every graphical theme amplifies the character of the sport. The primary stage’s visuals and audio attracts flattering parallels with Klonoa, and completely set the temper for blue skies, with picket fenced windmills and cottages. Miratsu journeys his compositions from historic Egyptian sounding ideas to jaunty jingles. He units an underwater maze part of world 4-2 to creepy music, echoing it with a Jaws impressed coronary heart beat to orchestrate prowling sharks by means of a sunken pirate ship.
You will shortly uncover your favorite monitor, however world 5-1 is especially memorable. It has a conventional theme for a metropolis setting in East Asia, which recollects Konami’s sturdy audio work on The Legend of the Mystical Ninja. Generally a core tune is repeated in its following stage, nevertheless it’s reinvigorated with a sooner and better pitched melody. Even the stage choose display screen, with wah-wah pedal guitar licks, and the sport over display screen’s taunting laughter on the participant’s ineptitude, have been included with aptitude and creativity.
The story in Leaping Flash! is as quirky as its presentation. It locations the participant accountable for pest management for the Galactic Municipal Council, so you need to climb into the cockpit of Robbit to cease a mad scientist referred to as Baron Aloha from attacking six floating worlds. Due to this fact, the third stage in every world is a battle in opposition to a weird boss, because the Baron follows in Dr. Robotnik’s footsteps and is simply as ingenious at creating dastardly enemy contraptions. These distinctive encounters embody a hearth respiration dragon, a claw firing scorpion, and a missile hurling shell tank. In a while you may confront a remodeling dice robotic, and most uncommon of all, a clown genie who pops his head and arms out of rotating tea cups. There are seven bosses in complete, since you should additionally face a doppelgänger of Robbit, earlier than confronting Baron Aloha face-to-face. When you beat every world, you’re handled to a brief amusing cut-scene, the place the Baron’s defeated minions drown their sorrows and cling their heads in disgrace.
Gameplay predominantly consists of reaching probably the most advantageous excessive level in a stage, and scouring the atmosphere to pinpoint the place of 4 jetpods, or a tough to succeed in exit pad. On this respect, it is just like a Tony Hawk skateboarding recreation, though easier controls for Robbit’s triple jumps make traversing every Leaping Flash! stage surprisingly accessible, even when the inclusion of a map would have been a welcome complement to the in-game radar. As a launch PS1 recreation, the controls are practical, though the shortage of a DualShock controller in 1995 implies that you progress with the d-pad and use the R1 button as a digital camera to look up-and-down. Additionally, you possibly can press down on the d-pad for a fast turnaround, however it might have been useful if Robbit may flip 180° extra effectively throughout boss fights.
Worlds 2-2 and 4-2 provide a change of favor to the gameplay, as they’re set in maze-like corridors, and really feel barely like a Japanese arcade tackle a DOOM first-person shooter. It is notable that a few of the builders of Leaping Flash! additionally labored on shoot-’em-ups, together with an earlier Precise Inc. side-scrolling shooter on Sharp X68000 referred to as Naious. Additionally, Shigeo Maruyama was Govt Producer for each Leaping Flash! and the 1995 PSone shmup Philosoma. Due to this fact, in Leaping Flash! you collect particular objects that improve your firepower with rockets, cherry bombs, tornado assaults, and laser spewing Roman candles. You may maintain three particular objects at one time, and though Robbit can bounce on enemy heads like a conventional platform recreation, there may be an added concentrate on taking pictures on this title. There are further power-ups dotted across the atmosphere and dropped by thwarted enemies, which permit for invincibility, or freeze the stage’s time restrict and reward you with extra lives. Study every stage completely and chances are you’ll uncover a hidden ring, which transports Robbit to a bonus stage the place you need to burst the entire balloons for an additional life.
Leaping Flash! is a brief recreation, which inspires the participant to maintain shifting to remain forward of every stage’s ten minute time restrict. You’ll probably full it in roughly two hours in your first try, however the arcade pacing of this platform title ensures that it’s enjoyable to return to phases for trying a pace run. Robbit begins every world with three lives, which he loses when his power bar reaches zero, after he plummets off the sting of a stage, or when the time restrict runs out. There are limitless continues, and when you attain a stage you possibly can load it from a save slot to replay it everytime you need by way of the menu choose display screen, however you need to nonetheless beat every world utilizing your allotted variety of lives. Due to this fact, if your whole lives are misplaced within the third stage of a world, you will want to return to that world’s first stage over again.
Precise Inc. has added some longevity to Leaping Flash! by together with a variety of engaging secrets and techniques to find. While you first beat the primary 18 phases within the recreation, you unlock an Further mode, the place you need to play by means of the entire phases once more with a considerably tighter time restrict and rearranged jetpod placement. It is price mastering the sport and trying to finish it with out utilizing any continues, particularly with a hidden Tremendous mode that empowers Robbit with humongous jumps, double the scale of his triple leap, sooner working motion, and a dive-bomb assault.
There usually are not many video games that current the motion from a first-person perspective, however focus upon the platforming style for gameplay. Even alongside the motion journey of Mirror’s Edge, or a puzzle platformer like Quantum Conundrum, Leaping Flash! manages to really feel distinctive, 18 years after its launch. The ultimate essential platforming stage, world 6-1, is about excessive up on precarious scaffolding in outer house, and it is the ever current hazard of giant leaps and aiming to land on slim walkways that feels most satisfying on this recreation. It is phases like this the place the extent design retains Leaping Flash!’s gameplay contemporary, with a tighter stage of problem, which act for instance of how it might be welcome if there was ever a glimmer of hope for an HD replace to Leaping Flash!’s platforming template.
Conclusion
As a first-person platforming recreation, with large triple-jumps, and boss battle shoot-’em-up phases, enjoying Leaping Flash! seems like burrowing down the rabbit gap into a particular and unconventional gameplay expertise. The masterful music compositions by Takeo Miratsu match the colorful and vivid visible themes of every of the six worlds completely, making certain that the presentation in Precise Inc.’s 1995 recreation has aged gracefully. Arguably on account of its place among the many PS1’s launch, the primary flaw in Leaping Flash! is its brief completion time. Nonetheless, controlling Robbit feels accessible for such a skyrocketing protagonist, so you’ll hop proper again into every of the 18 phases to dig up secret modes, or to vault your manner in direction of reaching a flashier time assault pace run.
