This Week In Retro: Jazzpunk (Patreon)

February 7, 2014: Mission: Impeccable

by Diamond Feit

I'm not sure if the timing of my childhood or my Jewish upbringing caused me to grow up in a parody-rich environment, but I feel like I was inundated with satirical takes on pop culture from a young age. I loved MAD Magazine for giving me comedic summaries of movies for adults; "An Officer Ain't No Gentleman" remains the definitive version of Richard Gere's 1982 dramatic film in my mind since I have yet to see the real thing. My father introduced me to the works of Mel Brooks and Woody Allen before I could have possibly understood all of the humor, but I still loved them. When I sat down to watch Spaceballs in 1987, I laughed at scenes mocking Planet of the Apes and Alien despite my ignorance of the source material.

Naturally, "Weird Al" Yankovic immediately cemented his place as one of my favorite performers of all time. Throughout his long career he has written many parodies that closely resemble established songs, only to change the lyrics to make us laugh. Like MAD Magazine, his goofy takes on many hits from the 70s and 80s reached me before I was familiar with his targets, but as I matured and he aimed at contemporary anthems I already knew, my adoration only increased. "Smells Like Nirvana," a parody of Nirvana's breakout single "Smells Like Teen Spirit," suggests that the band sings in gibberish; both teenage-me and Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain approved of the roast.

Parody and satire in the world of video games is a tricky thing to pull off, for no matter how sharp the writing or juicy the quarry, the spoof must also offer enough entertainment value to entice players. This hurdle derails many jocular games seeking to mock poor design choices or stilted dialogue because the end result just isn't fun to sit through. I cannot endure a "bad game" made on purpose because it drags in all the same ways that an actually inept game does.

Hence my delight ten years ago this week when I discovered a parodic video game that fires on all cylinders, a riotous gag-fest that excels in absurdity while offering a steady stream of surprises. Instead of settling for a half-assed derogatory dig at outdated or illogical game conventions, Jazzpunk embraces the surreal nature of the medium and takes players on a trip to an anachronistic world of espionage.

Jazzpunk makes an incredibly strong first impression thanks to its outstanding art direction. From the moment players press Start, they are treated to a dazzling animated sequence loaded with bright colors and shots of retro technology that sets the tone for the game as a whole. I'm no art student but the aesthetic reminds me of the late-era Looney Tunes or Tom & Jerry cartoons when Chuck Jones experimented with psychedelic visuals and atonal music. There's also more than a little Cowboy Bebop or Venture Bros. influence there; one fan found that "Tank!" and the Jazzpunk intro sync up almost perfectly.

Setting-wise, Jazzpunk throws it back to the 60s, when microfilm and punch cards qualified as high-tech since computers filled entire rooms. Yet like its title suggests, Jazzpunk also includes many nods to the cyberpunk genre, as mechanical body parts are common and hackers can access remote databases from various terminal interfaces. Players might plug into a public telephone or open a pizza box and find themselves whisked away to a brand-new environment through the magic of cyberspace.

The protagonist of Jazzpunk, Agent Polyblank, works as a spy entrenched in the Cold War. After accepting his missions in pill form, Polyblank travels the globe to snoop on the Iron Curtain while defending our own confidential information. That narrative, however, plays second fiddle to madcap antics and exploration, as every level lets players roam freely at their own pace.

The first objective of the game urges Polyblank to "infiltrate the Soviet consulate" in an urban center dominated by googie architecture. Yet players have no obligation to enter the building before running wild through the city park, degaussing pigeons and conferring with trenchcoat-wearing allies. Approaching random passerby might kick off a sidequest or it might trigger a one-off wisecrack, but either way players benefit from putting off advancing the story as long as possible.

Even whilst on-mission, players can uncover alternate solutions to basic puzzles. Once inside the aforementioned consulate, Polyblank encounters a locked door with a camera attached. The obvious next step is to steal a scientist's Employee of the Month portrait off the wall and use it to deceive the facial recognition software, but Polyblank can also sit on the copy machine to produce black & white photos of his butt which work just as well. When a camera views either end of the human body as valid for establishing identity, does that qualify as two-factor authentication?

Considering the inherent difficulties in writing funny video games and the additional challenge of trying to parody other works, Jazzpunk gets it right by serving up a dizzying array of jokes for players to stumble upon. Locked doors and pedestrians will spit out a one-liner when approached. Examining a wedding cake at a hotel triggers a hidden Quake-style deathmatch with bridal-themed weapons. Attempting to use a phone or a keypad zooms the camera in close, bringing a cartoonish arm with an extended finger into view; walking away reveals the entire appendage was a prop on a stick.

Playing Jazzpunk in 2014 reminded me of watching Airplane! on TV as a kid. While the two share no thematic elements, they both have similar approaches to comedy: Deliver a non-stop supply of jokes such that even if half of them fail, the remaining half will keep the audience laughing. This abundance of gags also helps with a problem unique to video games, as the player controls their view of the action. It's all too easy to miss a jape in Jazzpunk if you're not looking in the right direction at the right moment, but it doesn't matter because another one will arrive in just a few seconds.

Actually, a better point of comparison for Jazzpunk would be Top Secret!, the 1984 Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker follow-up to Airplane! which bombed at the box office. Instead of satirizing disaster movies—Airplane! borrowed the entire plot of 1957's Zero Wing—Top Secret! mashes together World War II action and Elvis-led musicals to create a bizarre yarn about an American rock-and-roll singer going behind East German lines to rescue a scientist. Fun fact: "Weird Al" Yankovic has gone on record calling Top Secret! "the funniest movie ever made."

Jazzpunk stands out even more a decade after its initial release. Despite an explosion of indie developers in recent times, parody games never took off as a genre. I can only name three off the top of my head: The Looker ruthlessly mocks Jonathan Blow's super-serious puzzle adventure The Witness, while both Never Stop Sneakin' and Unmetal undercut the elaborate narrative of the Metal Gear series with self-aware dialogue and over-the-top villains.

I suspect the overall perception that comedies don't sell anymore is to blame, since the ZAZ approach to moviemaking fell out of fashion long ago. 21st-century executives seem only willing to greenlight large-scale spectacles they can turn into global brands. People loved Ghostbusters for its cast and sense of humor, but now Sony sells it as a venerable science-fiction action franchise. Big studios and publishers also live in fear of audiences not immediately recognizing their products by name, so the prospect of a goofy satire lacking an easy-to-digest, high concept hook has them battening down their wallets.

On that note, I don't know how Jazzpunk performed commercially. The studio behind the project, Necrophone Games, has yet to release a second title. One of the co-creators, Luis Hernandez, remains active on social media, recently sharing behind-the-scenes images of Jazzpunk's development. The other, Jess Brouse, hasn't tweeted in four years; neither man has any more recent credits to their names.

Of course, the validity of art, especially satirical art, has no connection to its financial viability. I know making games requires a lot of time and money but I hope more people take chances on comedy. I play plenty of horror games and adventure games where the hero has to stop a mastermind from exploding the world or demons from overrunning the planet Earth. I welcome more laid-back options that revolve around stock sound effects, non-sequiturs, and dosing cowboys with blowfish venom.

Writer/podcaster/performer Diamond Feit lives in Osaka, Japan but xer work and opinions exist across the internet.