Genre: Platformer
Developer: TreeFortress Games
Publisher: TreeFortress Games

In the early days of VGA DOS games, there was a significant contingent of game designers that just drew whatever colorful imagery came to mind. Now, take a look back at some Jazz Jackrabbit screenshots, and compare them to JumpJet Rex... except not only does Rex have better art in general, but it's also 16:9, and even runs at 4k resolutions if such a screen is available!

JumpJet Rex' music is possibly its most prominent characteristic, and the bag is mixed; some of the songs-- such as the Level 5 tune-- are Noah Kaufman levels of chippy obnoxiousness, while others-- the Level 7 and 17 songs, for instance-- flow more naturally and have lots of ambient drama. The sound effects-- especially the level success one-- hearken back to Rob Hubbard's Mega Drive work; gnarly!

Holding up causes Rex to fly upwards, while tapping the jump button allows for a continuous double jump-like effect. A Freedom Planet-like dash button is depended upon heavily to navigate tight horizontal spots, where continual jumping would be too hazardous. The levels are tiny and well designed, with nice balance and difficulty.

The question that JumpJet Rex has to answer is: why would anyone want to play a time trial-oriented game with super short levels instead of a conventional platformer? This reviewer isn't sure that the game's response satisfies; it's well-designed and has a great aesthetic, but the formula just isn't that engaging.