No, I’m not talking about that horrible movie released two years ago or its even worse tie-in video game. The game I’m talking about comes from the same gentleman who brought you the metroidvania game, An Untitled Story. As his official website’s title suggests, Matt makes games–and those games are awesome. To be specific, I’m talking about Jumper. Jumper is the first in a series of excellent platformers released by indie develolper Matt Thorson.

Thorson was also one of two collaborators (the other was Tom Sennett) who worked on Runman: Race Around the World, which our own Geoff Gibson touted for its awesome platforming gameplay. But before Runman, Thorson worked on Jumper. And that’s not just one Jumper game, we’re talking about Jumper, Jumper Two, and Jumper Three. Each Jumper is an improvement on the last, complete with crazier levels, a fuller story, and multiple new features. Best of all? They’re all free. Of course, I encourage you to donate to Matt because–and you’ll realize this after you play through any of the games yourself–he deserves it.

Jumper uses only one mechanic: the double-jump. It sounds simple enough, but once you catch sight of the layouts of the different stages, you’ll be cursing at your screen attempting to figure out why the hell your perfect plan isn’t working. Within the first minute of playing Jumper, I came to two realizations: 1. This is a fucking difficult game. 2. This reminds me so much of Meat Boy. If you don’t believe me, you should play it for yourself. In fact, even if you believe me, you should still play it for yourself. Jumper is painfully hard; I died about 30 some odd times in only one level of the second world. Now, I’m no master of platformers, sure, but I like to consider myself a pretty adept gamer. So in a way, I guess I’m challenging you to make it through Jumper, in case you never have before. If you have, then don’t forget about number two or three.

Thorson gives us this information about the game’s story and the game itself:

“Ogmo is a failed experiment stuck in an abandoned lab, and it is your job to get him out. Your only weapon: the ability to double jump. And double jump you will, as Jumper contains some of the most inspired, hardcore, and incredibly tough-but-fair stage designs ever. Any hardcore 2D platformer fan will love to hate the intense difficulty.”

It turns out Ogmo may be a playable character in Team Meat’s Super Meat Boy. Perhaps my comparison wasn’t unfounded. Certainly, there may be some discussion as to why Meat Boy and Ogmo are so similar to one another, but this is an interesting fact to keep in mind while arguing for either side. In the end, there should be no arguments; they are two awesome platformers. Jumper did, however, come out four years before Meat Boy. In any case, although the news appeared on April 1st, both Matt Thorson and Team Meat promised that it wasn’t a joke. Considering there’s no new information about it, I’m led to believe that Ogmo actually is a playable character in Super Meat Boy.

Anybody who’s a fan of platformers should give Jumper a shot. If you liked Meat Boy and want something to rival its difficulty while keeping a reminiscent style, Jumper is the way to go. This is also true vice-versa. The bottom line? Matt makes games. And they’re awesome.