Guest article by Wing See Li.
Figure
1: The main game logo of Kewpie-Jazzy.
Do you want to know what’s the next thing
that want me to curse up a storm (in other words, swearing) besides Brexit?
It’s Kewpie-Jazzy. The mere mention of the game title makes me want to
resort to using profanity.
Ugh… this is Flappy Bird all over
again when it comes to unoriginality, the lack of original ideas and
creativity, the laziness (copying and pasting assets wise) and the obvious,
constant copyright infringement. Not to mention, me continuously ranting about
how much I loathe it with every fibre of my being. I can go on.
I’ve seen worse games in my lifetime but Kewpie-Jazzy
really takes the cake.
Another thing to hate about this horrid game aside from
the spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes that are giving me an eyesore is
the questionable lighting. The lights are so obnoxiously bright; they might possibly
cause seizures to gamers.
To make matters worse, Dokycamp couldn’t tell the difference between high
definition and the colours being unbearably bright. This is enough evidence for
the Kickstarter campaign and the game itself to raise red flags.
There’s nothing wrong with drawing inspiration from a
different game but there is a fine line between a game being influenced from a
different game and a game that’s being a rip-off or a cheap knock-off of
something else. Initially, I appreciate Dokycamp for attempting to revive the
3D platforming genre but not like this.
They must learn that lazily making illegal use of ideas
and pilfering assets from sources such as the Unreal Engine 4 Marketplace or
games (whether they are past, recent or upcoming games) will get them nowhere
in life, let alone in the video game industry. Thus, it’s considered to be a copyright
infringement and it’s against the law; they’ll land themselves in a court as
they’ll end up with a swarm of lawsuits on their tails or they’ll receive
criminal records. But it’s not like they care or do anything about any possible
consequences.
Take the developing team of Skylar &
Plux: Adventure on Clover Island by Right Nice Games, for instance; at
least they can design their own assets, backgrounds, characters etc from
scratch.
Figure
2: On the left side of Kewpie and Jazzy are Yooka-Laylee
assets stolen from the Unreal Engine 4 Marketplace.
The background of Dokycamp is just as sketchy
as the members of the game developing team themselves. There is little to no
information about them other than their previous works consist of exceedingly
obscure games and a fanmade game called Sonic Souls. All the more reason
for people to not fund their game.
Figure
3: Close your eyes and who do you see? Timon from Disney’s The
Lion King.
At first glance, the game looks promising but I soon
realised the layout of the Kickstarter campaign is almost an exact
duplicate of Yooka-Laylee’s Kickstarter campaign according to a post
uploaded by one of the members from the Yooka-Laylee Bat Ship Crazy Facebook
group and this is what sparked my deep hatred for Kewpie-Jazzy. Not only
that, but the pie chart and the backer rewards scheme are alike. The likeness
is uncanny. This is the kind of feeling I shouldn’t be experiencing when it
comes to my second favourite video game genre. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is
how you DON’T do a Kickstarter campaign.
Figure
4: The spelling, grammar and punctuation errors are a
desperate cry for help!
It is understandable that English isn’t the developing
team’s first language but this is no excuse for not finding a proof reader.
Hence this is one of the main reasons why it’s hard or impossible for me to
take their Kickstarter campaign seriously. Sometimes I wonder if they actually
can’t be bothered.
And please don’t get me started on Dokycamp possibly
nicking the animal-like running ability from Clive ‘N’ Wrench, according
to some of the gameplay videos. Heck, even Kewpie runs identically to Clive the
Rabbit from Clive ‘N’ Wrench. If that’s not uninspiring, I don’t know
what is.
Dokycamp may have claimed that having a female (feline)
character as the main protagonist will bring something new to the table but
Right Nice Games (the developing team behind Skylar & Plux: Adventure on
Clover Island) have already beaten them to the punch.
As a long-time fanatic of the 3D platforming genre
featuring mascots or buddy-duos since Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64
back in 1997, Kewpie-Jazzy really sickens me to the pit of my stomach
and it’s a complete disgrace to 3D platformers/collect-a-thons and platforming
fans everywhere.
The fact Dokycamp blocked me on Twitter goes to show they
can’t take constructive criticism and they’re clearly butthurt about my harsh,
negative comments. This led me to believe they are oversensitive and they get
upset over every little thing. That’s another vital thing to take heed of. They
need to grow up and learn to accept constructive criticism lest they desire to
never improve on their spelling, grammar and punctuation as well as their
technical, modelling, lighting, animation, editing etc abilities. At the
moment, their skills are amateur at best. If they can’t take constructive
criticism, they definitely can’t take pointers either. Therefore, they keep
denying they have a lot of things to improve on and they constantly never admit
what they’re doing wrong like for example when I told them to change the
lighting or tone down the brightness, they assumed said lighting is high
definition, which I beg to differ.
Concerning the storyline, the plot is extremely bare-bones
and similar to the gameplay, it isn’t groundbreaking. Kewpie is living
peacefully with her pirate parrot friend, Jazzy, on their home island. All is
right with the world and all is well, that is until the evil conjuror, Captain
Cutlass suddenly interrupted their calm and quiet lifestyles and stole
everything except the clothes on their backs. So, Kewpie and Jazzy take it upon
themselves to set out in order to collect all of the gold, recover the
citizens’ stolen belongings and take down the nefarious magician, Captain
Cutlass, once and for all. Together as one, they can save the world from
financial ruin.
Along the way, Kewpie and Jazzy will encounter new
playable sidekicks such as an octopus and a monkey, which let the players to
switch between them and players have the opportunity to unlock new outfits for
Kewpie to wear.
Figure
5: Characters from top to bottom – the pirate parrot, Jazzy,
and the main protagonist, Kewpie.
As depicted in the screenshot above, Kewpie
the pink-coloured cat and Jazzy the Parrot are noticeably crudely modelled.
They looked as if they are modelled for a PlayStation 2 or a Nintendo Gamecube
game. The same I would say about the supporting, minor characters such as
Poptopus the purple-hued or fuchsia-tinted Octopus and DJembe (the so-called,
Timon look-alike meerkat or should I say, Timon from Disney’s The Lion King?).
Heck, I’ve seen characters, levels, islands and worlds from other game
franchises that are better looking than the stuff I’ve witnessed in Kewpie-Jazzy.
And this is coming from someone who doesn’t care about the graphics and how the
levels, islands and worlds looked aesthetically, majority of the time.
I know I shouldn’t judge a game before its
release date or by its game trailer or I shouldn’t judge a game series by its
gameplay (in the Ratchet & Clank series’ case) but Kewpie-Jazzy
is an exception and it deserves to be harshly criticised in a pessimistic
way.
As it stands, I just don’t see this
pathetically pitiful, sad excuse of a “promising” platformer to be funded as
far as its current amount of money is concerned. In fact, I have a feeling it’s
doomed from the start. Therefore, its Kickstarter campaign went downhill before
it even started. I’m surprised Kickstarter haven’t taken it down from their
website yet.
In my opinion, Kewpie-Jazzy is more of
a rip-off, cash-in or a cash cow rather than a legit, glorified 3D platforming
game in an attempt to scam its audience, possible, future Kickstarter backers
and other people.
On a related note, Dokycamp have recently
released a trailer for their forthcoming Kickstarter game, Evolution.
Judging by the trailer, it looks like it’s crudely and unprofessionally done
and the game itself is a blatant rip-off of Spore. Seriously, how
unoriginal can they be? I know I shouldn’t jump to conclusions but do you blame
me? It’s difficult or rather… impossible to trust the same developer behind Kewpie-Jazzy
with my money. If Evolution eventually launches on Kickstarter, here’s
an advice for you: Never, EVER pledge money to that obvious plagiarised
game. Both of these games developed by Dokycamp are raising more red flags just
as much as they’re raising more questions.
If you want to play TRUE labours of love in terms
of upcoming 2D and 3D retro-inspired, indie platformers/collect-a-thons then
look no further. I highly recommend you Yooka-Laylee, Shantae: Half
Genie Hero, Skylar & Plux: Adventure on Clover Island, Clive
‘N’ Wrench, Rad Rodgers, A Hat In Time, Lobodestroyoyo,
Beard Blade and Fox ‘N’ Forests, to name a few. I’d recommend Griff
the Winged Lion too but it’s unfortunately sharing the same fate as Kewpie-Jazzy,
sans the apparent plagiarising.
All I ask of you is avoid Kewpie-Jazzy and Evolution
like the plague just like your life depends on it and heaven forbid, DON’T
pledge money to them on Kickstarter whatsoever under no circumstances! You can
thank me later.
By Wing See Li.
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