NES worst jumpers

In Games

So of all the NES Games, what playable character has the worst jumping ability (Now I know if you die from jumping, it's most always your fault. I'm just asking whose jump is hard to control, execute, etc.)

I'd run a poll, but I'm not sure what options to put up there.

- Maybe it's just me, but 99.9% of the time when I die, it's from missing a jump.

. Hitting up on the D-Pad to jump straight up isn't too bad. Now when trying to jump out, using the D-Pad pretty much sucks. It's difficult to jump consistently.

I agree with you on the Trojan one. Difficult with the control pad; not so much difficult with the NES Advantage. Same applies with Rush 'N' Attack.
For me, the absolute worst ones have got to be Wizards & Warriors and Ironsword. At least in the first one, after awhile you get that feather to slow your falling down a bit. In Ironsword, Kuros is just going to do what he wants to. Especially at the very start, when you're trying to go up that mountain face. Another game that starts out hard and gets easy on the second stage. The forest area is just loaded with helper items that aren't there on the first level!

The NES system on the whole seems to be the system where you get killed mostly by bad jumps/getting shoved off a ledge by an enemy. Imagine what would happen to you if you could fall off of ledges in Gauntlet Dark Legacy!

lol, it would pass up Ghost 'n Goblins in difficulty.

Got to agree with that. I dislike pretty much any game that uses up on the d-pad to jump.

I seem to recall in the original Prince of Persia I was doomed to a certain area due to the character's complete lack of jump height. So I would wander off and drink some mandatory water which was poison and die. But for a game I can remember more clearly, I would have to say The jumps are slow, so it seems like you should be able to take advantage of that and go a long distance, but as soon as your allowed lateral movement is spent, gravity suddenly wakes up and hits you like a pillowcase of bricks. There are particular areas in which it is so impossible to judge your jump distance, you end up missing a narrow platform and die. That first forrest area with the small logs you have to jump, and the haunted house, for example, really play on this and horrible things happen to you.

Good call. I remember having to adjust to the jumps. I think the worst was on longer jumps, trying to get as close as possible to the edge to jump. Then you all of a sudden start to fall and he gets a cool look on his face and his body looks stiff.

The first worst jumper that came to my mind was Mike from Startropics. I used to get so mad at that game especially when having to hop from tile to tile, to tile and so on.

My vote goes to pseudo-Mario in Donkey Kong. Dumb sumbitch can't survive a one-inch fall, let alone jump well. Thank Lord'ee them barrels is only a centimeter tall!

Donkey Kong-Mario really sucks. I know, because I went through some trouble in Donkey Kong 64, where you play on the DK machine in a later level.

ZEN and I were talking about that last night as well. ha!

One game I have to mention when it comes to jumping is Strider. Sometimes when you have a ledge that you're trying to jump up to, the collision detection is off and you hit your head on nothing. Also, it's pretty hard to perform the wall jump.

Good call. It's frustrating when you are trying to jump onto a ledge and he acts like he is hitting his head on something, even when nothing is there.

The wall jump isn't to easy either. However, I usually find myself trying to do it somewhere where it isn't necessary.

I've got to mention Dizzy. In any of his games if you jump from any height he will roll on uncontrollable for ages. Can be very frustrating, but it's part of the game and is worth it just to see an egg hurtling down a hill.

Also I agree on Double Dragon. Especially the latter parts of Double Dragon II when it seems to change from a fighting game into a platformer with one wrong move and your dead jumps.

And don't forget about his rival later on, Donkey Kong Jr.., who suffers from the same malady (especially in the arcade version).
Good call on that Double Dragon--I forgot about that stupid a-hole, who consistently falls off ledges with rigor mortis already setting in!

'Trojan' isn't really that bad. The game doesn't force you into making complex platform jumping. A much worst case of the "press up to jump" controls would be 'Karate Kid'.
'Target: Renegade' however, takes it to even higher level of annoyance- to jump, press "UP + a button" (but at least jumping isn't a necessity).

'Strider' is bad. There's a lot of jumping in that game. Not only is the "hitting your head on the invisible ceiling" a problem, but the jump animation makes it hard to tell where you are landing.

'Star Tropics' uses that generic grid-based system to where you can only jump when you are perfectly centered on the square. This is why there seems to be a delay in the character's leap when walking around (he only jumps when on the correct X,Y axis of the sprite blocks). It just makes the control of the entire game feel poor.

'The Mafat Conspiracy' deserves mention. Duke Togo can jump high but not far. The programmers this information, and thus decided to torture gamers with it.

'Cheetahmen II' has bad jumping... and pretty much bad everything else too.

'Castlevania' has a bad jump? Psh... amateurs.