Upon starting Mr. Run and Jump, I am greeted by neon-style visuals on the title screen, only to be immediately thrown back 45 years in time – long before I was born, let alone held a controller for the first time. Initiating a new game, the introductory level looks and plays like an original Atari 2600 game. The thing is, Mr. Run and Jump began as a homebrew Atari 2600 game and can be purchased for that console on a cartridge, marking the first official Atari cartridge since 1990. The version I’m playing on my PlayStation 5, however, transforms into a neon-style, modern platformer upon completing this introductory stage.
While the visuals remain simple, the chosen style reminisces of old 2D platformers but with a modern neon spin, a welcome upgrade. Colors take a central role, with each of the available six worlds themed around one color. The plot, admittedly almost nonexistent, revolves around two things only: Your dog Leap running away from you and having to defeat a Void threatening to devour everything, leaving behind a colorless wasteland. This game doesn’t need more than that, as its plot is not meant to be a hook; it’s just there because something needs to be there.
The focus of Mr. Run and Jump is its gameplay. While seemingly simple at first, with initial stages not demanding more than jumping or rolling and avoiding occasional spikes, it quickly reveals its true depth and complexity. With only two buttons, it allows for many different movements that can (and later must) be strung together to create complex sequences of moves. Long roll-jumping, double-jumping, wall jumping, dashing – the shattered orbs scattered throughout a level often serve as an indicator of the optimal sequence of moves for clearing a specific section.
Furthermore, this mechanical depth allows the player to clear a specific section in multiple ways, adding a puzzle element to the main gameplay mechanics. Some screens, however, have specific solutions, such as forcing you to hold your double jump until the very end of the screen. While the difficulty curve is steep and already rather high from the start, the level design becomes gradually more complex, with each of the six realms introducing more enemies and hazards. Besides static spikes, most other hazards move in set patterns that need to be observed before proceeding carefully, making most platforming sections not only precise but also timing based. Extending enemies, leaping frogs, crushing blocks, or fast-moving birds, initially in isolation and later mixed and matched, are only a few of the hazards that will try to keep you away from Leap.
Now, the controls in Mr. Run and Jump are very precise, and they must be, as some screens do feel ridiculous at first, requiring both good timing and precise movement to clear. Due to this required precision, minor yet important issues become noticeable, making certain situations unnecessarily frustrating. First, there are the at times questionable hitboxes; the character’s and a hazard’s silhouette can sometimes overlap very slightly, while other times you’ll see Mr. Run and Jump die with the impression that no contact was made with anything hazardous.
These, maybe subjective, inconsistencies made me curse occasionally and resulted in many resets, especially during time trials when I was forced to keep up a high pace. This forced high pace was also the reason for a second source of frustration. It is indeed elegant to keep the movement actions restricted to two buttons only. However, I often needed to roll-jump immediately after landing for pace and as not to lose the timed cycles, but the same button used for rolling while grounded is used for dashing while in mid-air… And thus, pressing the button a fraction of a second too early resulted in me dashing into my death, forcing a reset.
A further source of frustration was the positioning of the final checkpoint. Getting too close to it immediately ends the level. It happened to me – luckily only two or three times – that I was sucked into the ending portal by accident before I could grab the final collectible, thus needing to play through the entire level and collect everything a second time. This is unnecessary and easily preventable. Additionally, I finished all levels thinking that there is no way of checking mid-level how many fragments have been collected, as there is no place to look up controls… Only to figure out while practicing time trials that it is indeed possible to briefly show a summary of gathered collectibles by pressing one single button. It would have been very helpful to know this from the start, but it was never communicated by the game that I could easily display those numbers.
While on the topic of collectibles, it is a good time to talk about the different challenges naturally present in Mr. Run and Jump. Level progression is gated by orbs, with later levels requiring an increasing number of orbs before they can be played. There are three types of orbs:
Shattered Orbs: These can be earned by collecting all shattered fragments within a level, and all fragments must be collected within the same run through the level. Shattered fragments are rarely hidden, but often placed away from the intended path, forcing you to interact with hazards that can be avoided entirely otherwise. This adds to the challenge of beating each screen, as shattered fragments only count as collected after a screen transition.
Challenge Orbs: Each level contains three challenge orbs to collect. During regular levels, these orbs are within side rooms with clearly marked entries. During Void levels, the challenge orbs are in plain sight but still difficult to obtain due to the time pressure of the chasing deadly Void. Challenge orb side-rooms are often significantly more difficult than any screen of the regular level, requiring good timing and extreme precision, with some side-rooms even asking the player to make their way to the challenge orb… and then back through the deadly hazards, while other rooms offer safe backtracking options.
Time-Trial Orbs: Beating a level for the first time unlocks a time trial for that level. Beating the set time unlocks a Time-Trial orb, which can either be silver, gold, or platinum. Most levels have very lenient times even for a platinum orb, but there are a few exceptions. Notably Blue 2-1 features an extremely tight platinum time, and some levels in the Red Realm are no walk in the park either.
After having completed Mr. Run and Jump to 100%, I can say that this is not a game for everyone. While it features accessibility options that, for example, enable more frequent checkpoints when having trouble with a specific section, these only serve to lower the required frustration tolerance a little bit, and doesn’t help at all with Challenge Orbs and time trials. This is a game for players who enjoy precision-based gameplay, don’t mind dying and learning from their mistakes, and like to challenge themselves. Mr. Run and Jump doesn’t often feel unfair, but it consistently feels challenging and demands perseverance from the player. Personally, I never used the accessibility options as they are entirely optional, and I wanted to experience the game at its purest. However, other players might find these options necessary when they start losing motivation.
I’ll finish this review touching upon a few minor points. The music and sound design are fine. They are no strong point but serviceable for sure. The main tune playing in the menu screen is recognizable and maybe a bit pushy, but music is otherwise rather somber and stays in the background during the actual levels, making it possible to focus on the platforming entirely. Certain enemies also make distinctive sounds when moving, which can be used as an indicator of when to progress safely.
Overall, Mr. Run and Jump is a great game for anyone who enjoys a precise game, offering a challenge even to platforming connoisseurs. It asks for a high level of frustration tolerance and can be enjoyed if you have fun in failing, learning, and improving, especially if you enjoy speedrunning challenges. If you are looking for a casual, stress-free experience, maybe stay away from this one. Otherwise, there is genuinely a lot to enjoy in this ode to the platforming games of old.
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