Jumper!

There is this minigame called Jumper!. I think it has been around for years now in the GameMaker community (which I obviously don't belong to).

Anyway, the game is a true Jump'n'Run (only jumping and running, no fighting) featuring about 50 small levels. The problem about it is that some of the levels are so difficult that the gameplay soon breaks down into a "trial-and-error" orgy of dying and trying again. If you die you start at the beginning of the same level again.

I noticed that fact soon enough, but what I didn't get is how addicting such a bad game can be. Until I finished the game a few days ago.

2517 deaths! If you approximate the number of levels to 50 (AFAIK there are 47), that's about 50 deaths per level. Can you imagine dying more than 100 times in one of the harder levels without giving up? It's because there are so many easy levels at the beginning, and because every level accomplished makes it harder to give up. The old "just that one level" thing. Jumper! has a horrible game design, the controls are inaccurate as you know them from all the GameMaker games and yet it's still addicting.

I'm staying away from this game and any sequels to come now. Download it at Helix Games if you are a masochist.