Jazzpunk is a unique game with a style all its own that feels like a surrealistic 1950s retro spy meets Ren and Stimpy cartoon silliness. You play in a first person perspective, interacting with several things, exploring rich, colorful, living, breathing surrealistic areas. The surrealistic art style blends with the humor really well. The only controls are jump and action buttons with left stick to move, and right stick to look around or keyboard controls to do the same things. You can get items and switch between them. There are plenty of mini games that feel more like diversions to keep you engaged. Its parodies of other games and media, yet it feels distinctly like its own product.

You work for a spy agency that sends you to far away locales with serious objectives, things like infiltrate a USSR building, follow a cowboy in Japan to get his mechanical kidney, infiltrate a criminal's lavish retro penthouse and you'll even be sent on a Polynesian vacation. There are spies, madmen, robots, crazy bums and women around every corner.

The big feature here for me is the interactivity and exploration. You can interact with boxes, newspaper machines, spray pigeon perfume on NPCs to see pigeons carry them away, drink mouthwash only to discover its chlorine, use a master baster on a turkey, freeze a frozen meal in a microwave, scribble lipstick on your face, collect spiders in a jar to throw them at people, break every vase in a shop trying to swat flies. It all feels so interesting and engaging to do what I want to in this crazy world. While NPCs are faceless box people (or robots) with circle heads, NPCs say several things, most of which are hilarious and I don't usually like comedy in games. The eccentric off the wall comedy and parody really hit the mark for me, when most comedy games feel forced.

Jazzpunk parodies several games like Frogger, Wave Race in a fountain of gravy, mini golf with pool cues, virtual tennis, Wedding Quake against a bride, groom and priest, a zombie pizza game, a high score game where you play a cat ripping things to shreds, a game of Twister, finding prizes with a metal detector and so much more. It all kept me playing, even if it all was just easy fun.

It is definitely worth a playthrough, I found myself taking far too many screen shots at the crazy things I'd see. Things in the background, men in cullender hats with wheeled pigs on the background and my radio tooth on the floor. Its never in your face, its all just there for you to find it.

There is no death in the game, even if you plunge off of the fourth floor of your Polynesian hideaway, you still bounce on the ground. With that being said, you can still fail the mini games. Frogger took quite a beating and I lost a lot in Wedding Quake before I realized the rose rocket launcher was win. It is an easy game, again, the point is to explore, interact and laugh.

Is it worth the $15? Maybe and I'm surprised to say that, even if its only 2 or 3 hours to complete. The ending came pretty abruptly and even the credits have their own flare to them. I can imagine its not for everyone and I never thought it would be for me. I am shocked at how much enjoyment I got from Jazzpunk and I might have to play through it again.

I honestly havent played a game like this before. It's kind of an action adventure with one of the strangest settings I've seen in a game. The biggest plus in this game is the humour. The game is one big joke (in a good way ;) ). I've been laughing out loud a few times while playing this game, and this doesnt happen often to me. Does Adult Swim ring a bell? Do you like absurd humour like Robot Chicken? Then you should really check this out.
Oh, and it has one of the coolest intro's I've seen in a game. Who needs cinematics when you can make something like this?

Finished it in about 3.5 hours

There's not much to say else then spoilers, so I leave it at this. It's definately worth checking out!

It's really funny. Like genuinely funny. Not ha ha video game funny.

It's over very quickly though. If you don't enjoy exploring worlds and poking around corners, you will not enjoy this game. If you have a bad sense of humor, you will not enjoy this game. If you make long posts on internet forums about how games aren't about deep mechanics anymore, you will not enjoy this game.

You will enjoy this game if you like movies like Airplane! or Naked Gun and view this in a similar way. A couple of hours with some absurd humor.

she jazz on my punk til I directors cut

i got kissed by a homeless man twice

+ Quirky and over-the-top sound effects
+ Interesting and surreal character models and design choices
+ HIlarious abstract humor; some of it is really quite clever, and I've found myself brought to tears with laughter on several occasions
+ There are myriad extras, minigames, and funny activities scattered around the playable areas
+ Has a sense of charm and humor reminiscient of The Stanley Parable, and should resonate well with fans of the game
+ Littered with clever references
+ Minigames introduce a variety of playstyles and visual effects

- Unforgivably short playtime (1-2 hours), especially for what is otherwise such a unique and underrated title
- Little practical replayability, save for the achievements


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The 1960's were a strange time, atomic paranoia fueled the cold war as the space race allowed mankind to make monumental leaps forward technologically. Global espionage was the tool with which the cold war was fought as agents from both of the world's super powers battled for information and technology. Amidst all of this, counter culture exploded and use of psychedelics became a new past time. Jazzpunk uses this period of time as an aesthetic springboard for it's comedic hijinx and in doing so plays out like an episode of Saturday Night Live with an overarching theme to it's skits.

It would probably be most appropriate to categorize Jazzpunk as an adventure game, as players are placed in the role of Polyblank, a secret agent who is dispatched from an abandoned subway station on various missions by a character known as The Director and each one of these misadventures is kicked off by swallowing a pill. The narrative is flimsy, and each mission plays out almost like a skit. An antagonist is introduced in the later missions and helps provide some closure to the game's events. Jazzpunk focuses more on humor than plot and it makes this the kind of experience that you turn on, tune in and drop out of. It assaults players with non sequiturs and irreverent easter eggs. Players can expect to stumble across a frogger style mini game, wander around in an Evil Dead inspired setting made out of pizza, play mini golf with a James Bond style villain and beat up a passenger car Street Fighter II style. It's a tribute to all things nerdy with plenty of tech based humor and refrences to other games. The Adult Swim style humor, a style that makes it seem like being in an altered state of consciousness is a prerequisite to enjoy, is likely to put off many.

Also potentially off putting is just how easy the puzzles are in Jazzpunk. Most players will find themselves progressing unopposed since most levels are as simple as following the instructions laid out in the objectives screen. There are a handful of side quests but they have no bearing on the proceedings and generally exist to provoke a few laughs. Some of the diversions like Wedding Quake, a wedding themed spoof of the classic arena shooter may hold players attention for a decent amount of time but the whole of Jazzpunk lasts a few hours at most and offers little replayability. Think of Jazzpunk as more of an alternative to watching a comedy film than a game poised to occupy a dozen hours of your life. It could be argued that Jazzpunk is most rewarding when you are avoiding the critical path since interacting with random objects and poking your nose around generally uncovers the best easter eggs and gags.

The aesthetics of Jazzpunk leave a favorable impression. Seemingly modeled after Thirty Flights of Loving, it employs blocky characters with simple animations and cell shaded styling. The funky soundtrack adds to the unique flavor of the game making it feel like nothing else as well as helping sell the off beat humor. The aestetics, soundtrack and gameplay click together like legos, delivering a unique experience that in spite of the fact that it borrows liberally from other works.

Jazzpunk is kind of a nightmare game for reviewers... To describe it in terms of the quality of it's gameplay, visuals and the amount of time players can wring out of it simply misses the point of the game. Potential Jazzpunk players should think of it instead as an interactive comedy experiment. An off beat experiment. While it may not stand out as a great game it is a little experimental indie gem that may have an impact on the humor and style of other titles. Turn on, tune in and drop out.

Update: The director's cut only makes this game more worthwhile. Give it a shot.

Achievements: All possible and easy. May require multiple playthroughs, but the game is quite short so it's not bad to replay. As of yet, there's no achievements associated with the DLC.

+Unique
+Surreal
+Engrossing
+Fun hidden easter eggs

-Quite short(~ 3 hrs)
-Expensive for the length

Jazzpunk is more of an experience than a game. It's almost like a fever dream. Don't read too far into it. It's incredibly weird, yet somehow entertaining to initially witness. Sometimes it's unsettling. Sometimes it's hilarious. Cynical people will write Jazzpunk off as a simple walking simulator, and, well, they're not entirely wrong. When you suspend your cynicism, though, you will find a wholly unique, dreamlike game. I'd recommend it if it's on sale.

what

This game is hilarious. It feels like nothing really makes sense and everything's random but then you start thinking it actually does make sense... or does it? I have no idea! Let's degauss some pigeons and help a frog hack into the Starbux wifi.