QCF: The Floor Is Jelly

n paper platformers seem to be the most basic of videogame genres. With very little other than ‘get to A from B by jumping’ at its core design it could be one of the most simplistic game premises ever made. Still the genre has lived strong through new and creative takes on the central ‘jumping’ mechanic. Moreover, games like VVVVVV and Fez have proven that there’s a lot of complex dimensions yet to be explored in this beloved videogame style.

The Floor Is Jelly is another one of these gems. Simple at heart, but complex in nature this minimalist dreamscape may just take a spot amongst those fresh interpretations mentioned above. Or if I dare say, earn a place with the classic platformers of yore too.

You can probably guess the central mechanic that The Floor Is Jelly explores just by looking at its title. Indeed, the floor is bouncy and acts just like that substance, allowing you to reach further heights by exploiting the elastic like platforms scattered about. However that title seems to be a misnomer as practically everything is made of jelly too. The walls and the ceiling are both jelly- not to mention practically everything that doesn’t have spikes on it. The whole world revolves around gaining new heights and bouncing trampoline-style to new platforms. And while you’d think that this would get old fairly quickly, it’s the amount of ways that this mechanic is mixed up and twisted that keep the game from becoming stale or predictable. While a lot of game involves bouncing, The Floor Is Jelly uses that seemingly basic core to explore other elements too, applying this mechanic to various unexplored ideas and creating new ones in the process.

There are different worlds with new types of gameplay that introduce themselves constantly. One world for example could centre on actually revolving the world around you, while straight after you could find yourself in a place where water affects your jumping momentum in a crazy redefining way. There are more puzzle like stages too, where you have to activate switches, and strange gameplay tricks like platforms that only exist when you’re only jumping on them. But what makes these vastly different stages work is the thread of jelly-bouncing gameplay that runs through them. These challenges are there to explore the ways in which you can use the games central premise to your advantage, and all together add up to a game that completely explores everything you could think this game could throw at you. Throughout the adventure you end up using little tricks and tips that really show how thought out the platforming is, and by the end of the game I honestly don’t think there was anything else that could have been further examined without extending the game to needlessly long gameplay lengths.

It would have been acceptable for this game to be bare bones with the amount of fun challenges that are thrown at you, but beneath its minimalist exterior there’s also a deeper atmosphere that pleasantly engulfs you. The simple colour scheme is reminiscent of a more muted LocoRoco, and the world itself leaves a very calming tone to the player. The visuals are very appealing due to its intricate and detailed designs. Minimalism does not denote lack of effort, and that has never been proven more than it is here. There are a couple of distinct critters lurking around in the world, along with alien objects and plant life giving the game an otherworldly feel. Plants sprout when you touch them, and rain flows elegantly. Suffice to say there’s a lot of detail to this minimalist world that is simply a joy to view.

This atmosphere is also improved immensely by the appearance of the masterful Disasterpeace. Like his work on Fez, The Floor Is Jelly sports amazing ambience due to the calming tunes he provides. The worlds seem full of life, but at the same time the music doesn’t overshadow anything. The tones are perfectly linked to the game, being calming and simplistic enough to add to the overall charm. While some videogame soundtracks seem to take the centre stage of the game, The Floor Is Jelly’s OST sits in the background and adds to the subtle ambiance instead. It’s a more laidback soundtrack in composition and implementation, making it perfect for this kind of game.

This creates an abstract world that stops The Floor Is Jelly from just being a thesis on the main gameplay mechanic. However its world also creates one of the games only problems.  For some reason the game has a Metroidvania type feel to its hub world. While you don’t need to collect powers to get further in, there is a subtle hint towards exploration, as pathways will open up and present you with opportunities to wander off to another area. This also opens up the possibility of becoming lost. It almost seems like an impossible juxtaposition considering that the world is so straightforward, but sometimes environments become hard to determine if you’ve been to an area before, and on a handful of occasions I did find myself becoming lost. The levels look great but paired with the fact that the colour patterns can blend in with other levels, it can possibly lead to frustrating bouts of cluelessness.

This extends to some of the games more alien elements. While I adore the games lack of text and explanation, certain objects can become outright confusing when you have no idea what they are. By this I’m focusing on the houses in the game. Scattered in the world are secret buildings which bring you to a computer terminal, an outright dumbfounding screen which makes no sense within the world and only seems to distract from it. I was sure there would be some point to these things but after my time with the game, I was just as clueless to their use as I was upon discovery.

Though this really is nitpicking, a few elements like this stop the game from becoming outright perfect. The final area for example if a frustrating mess. In its final minutes the game starts to emulate a glitching computer world. As cool as this sound however, it disregards all the fun jelly gameplay for an aggravating trek through the different kinds of glitches the developer is obviously fond it. It’s a cool effect but at the same time it’s very disappointing that a game that managed to stay within its central gameplay gimmick so long, abandoned this for a final frustrating level. As stated though, these are unfair nitpicks. While these aspects are a tiny bit frustrating, they take nothing away from the supremely fun gameplay, and calming sweet atmosphere The Floor Is Jelly so masterfully demonstrates.

A word I found myself using throughout this review has been ‘simplistic’. This in some cases can be a curse, but the truth is The Floor Is Jelly takes a core minimalistic gameplay hook, and manages to explore every inch of its possibility in a refreshingly short (but sweet) experience.