Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp Hot

This was a very pleasant surprise indeed, my dears. *Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp* is a brilliant throwback to classic platformers of the eighties and nineties, complete with Master System-inspired visual and tap-tappidy-beep-beep music to go with it. It brings *Decap Attack* in particular to mind. It's a simple game with a simple concept: navigate our over-sized beanie wearing green-faced friend around fifty five single-screen platform levels, collecting cups of coffee (accompanied by sexy slurping sounds), conquering enemies by jumping on their heads and solving nifty puzzles, such as pushing gigantic Battenberg cake slices around to form platforms to reach previously out-of-reach places. I don't like real Battenberg cake, but I most definitely like it in this game! The controls are mega simple - A to jump (double-tap to double jump) and holding down B to restart the level - and hold extremely solid value without the need of unnecessary D-pad item selection use and pick-up-and-throw items, or whatever. SIMPLEZ!

Final score: (8/10)

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xx

Starting life as a homebrew title for R4 owning Ds players, JPBR has all the 8bit/Early 16 bit charm you could ask for. The platforming action is based on a single screen, rather than the scrolling platform adventures that Mario made so popular. Each level being a puzzle asking you to kill all the enemies and collecting cups of coffee with a slurp!

The graphics retain all this retro charm and always through design rather than budget restraints and lack of polish as can be seen in other Indie games.

55 levels await you starting with the very simple tutorial stages to brain bending, double jumping, pad throwing levels. but, like all great games you will say “one more go” to yourself more times than you really should!

I won this game after entering a contest, and I have to say that it's not one of my favorites. I've been playing the levels, and they are pretty easy so far. It seems as though the developer could have used more retail space on the screen to make each level a bit larger. I really don't understand the title of this game and how it relates to the game play. The object of the game seems to be to get rid of the bad guys (sometimes jumping on top of them to kill them) and collecting coffee mugs...to then escape through the exit. I have a hard time trying to figure out what voice is saying throughout the game as well. The sound effects and repetitive music are a bit much for me.

Is a Must-Buy now it is only 80MSP (that's if it wasn't already!)

Great little platformer, that gets better the more you play it - on some levels falling through the floor will make you emerge from the top of the level; and stepping out the level to the left, will make you emerge on the right.

The puzzles can get quite tricky, and include crumbling biccies (cookies) and evil robot enemies!

Great stuff! One of the best on XBLIG :)

Wonderfully fun classic platformer! Solve puzzles, kill robots, duck laser beams & double jump your way to the exit!

And who doesn't like a hero with a coffee addiction?

Looking forward to Johnny Platform's new Christmas themed game!

Johnny Platform’s Biscuit Romp … that has gotta be one of the more ridiculous names I’ve seen in the Xbox Live Indie Games section. Not stupid per say, just ridiculous. Check out the description you get : Play as Johnny Platform himself in this retro-styled platformer! Do death-defying double-jumps and solve puzzles in your quest to defeat the evil robot army… and don’t forget to drink plenty of coffee along the way.

And that does a very good job at describing the game. If you take a look at the screenshots, it is very retro looking (it was originally made for the Nintendo DS for those people who have an R4), not a whole lot to it. Very basic stuff. But in the end, this game is almost like crack. Normally, when I play through a trial version of a game, even if I LIKE the game, the first time I play it I don’t make it through until it kicks me out. Most of the time I quit and move on to something else. This game and Bricks4Ever are the ONLY two games I’ve played through the first time until the time ran out. And for the record, when I do my “trial game impressions”, yes I do play through it a second or third time until it kicks me out just in case I miss something cool the first time. Or if it sucks the first time I play it, I give it another chance just in case I miss something that could make it better.

Now graphically, as you can see from the screenshot. It is VERY obvious there is a retro look going here. Something else that’s obvious is the fact that this game was clearly made with the Nintendo DS dual screens in mind. The graphics are bright, colorful. Have lots of personality. And in this writer’s hunble opinion Johnny Platform himself looks pretty damn cool with the stick arms and legs and stupid lookin’ sock hat kinda thing. The enemies themselves have a very similar look to them, and have a surprising amount of detail hiding in their simplicity. The animation is actually pretty good for what it is. The sound is very basic stuff. You get the Mario Bros-esqe sound when you jump, 8 bit sounding explosions when you jump on an enemy. Slurping sounds when y ou pick up coffee in the game. And a few little voice samples from Johnny himself when he beats a level or dies or something. The music is a similar 8 bit style and fits the game perfectly. I never wanna turn the volume down when I play it just because it reminds me of the days of the original Nintendo and the Sega Master System.

The gameplay is what really sets this game apart. The enemies in the game don’t really pose much of a threat so much as they’re part of the puzzle of the level. All the levels in the game (I believe there are 55 of them) are ALL done on this single screen you see in the screenshots. And your goal is to somehow destroy all the enemies and reach the exit. Famously with games like this, this is a lot easier than it seems. I managed to BREEZE through the first half of this game with almost no problems, having fun all the way through. Then I started getting stuck, and I think right now I’m stuck on level 35 or 36 … wanting to try everything possible before I just give up and hit up Youtube for a solution or something. And a lot of the puzzles are things, once you finally figure them out you think to yourself “Duh, that was so obvious!” The gameplay is what sets this game apart from a lot of the other ones in Xbox Live’s Indie Games section.

Control is a big part of a game like this, and happily the game controls flawlessly. Even with the analog stick, which has always been an awkward thing for me with platformers. But I’ve had no problems with anthing regarding the controls. And there isn’t a whole lot to them. You move around, jump with the A button, and if you want to restart the level you hold down the B button. That’s it.

I HATE most puzzle games like this, but this really hit home with me. It’s a lot of fun, you can spend 10 minutes with it or spend God only knows how long with it and it never gets old. Get in the marketplace, download the trial for this and see what I mean. You’ll probably find yourself wondering if you have the 80 points sitting around in your account to snag this with. Or if you have a Nintendo DS with an R4 you can download the DS version at the official site.

More reviews on Wasted Seconds

Nice level design and game mechanics. At 80pts Biscuit Romp is a must buy. Definitely one of the best on Indie Games.

My one gripe is that you must pass several rounds before the game "saves" your progress with a checkpoint. This will lead to replaying a few levels over again if you make too many mistakes before you reach the next checkpoint.

If you get stuck, press and hold "B" and you will reset the current level without losing a life.

I like the option rotate the picture to get a larger display (you then have to rotate the TV 90 degrees as well, some people do this for vertical scrolling shoot em up games).

This is a fun platformer that is worth the $2.50 price tag. In Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp you are presented with a board or level filled with a certain number of bad guys, coffee mugs, and an exit. I honestly forget what the coffee mugs are for (so many = extra life?) but the point of the game is to jump on all of the robots, opening the exit, and then making it back to that exit to advance to the next level.

It is fun, somewhat challenging, and gives me hope for the indie games platform as a whole. Definitely a must buy.

it gets challenging after the demo expires but that makes it even better.

I love this game, it really has the solid platform feeling I like!

No multiplayer pulls it down...

This is the first game on XNA that I’ve actually purchased; at 200 points it has great value.

Game Play: The game goes easy on you at first, but ramps up the difficulty strait through to the end.

Graphics: The graphics are nothing special, but I find they make the game come together really well.

Sound: This was a selling point for me; I really liked the quirky sounds thrown in by the creator.

This game has some personality to go with its fun gameplay!! While i think the graphics could have been worked on a bit more, for only 2.50$ i was pleased with this game. Its not extremly short and does get to be a bit of a challenge the further you get!! If you like platformers you will like tyhis game.

I really enjoyed playing this during peer review. It had interesting levels and is really worth the 200points.

Very fun little platmormer, well worth the $2.50 price tag. Starts and and sorta stays nice and easy but a little strategy come into play as you get into it. I'm about half way through and enjoying it.