Mighty Jill Off

Before you start reading, this game includes BDSM content, meaning it's not suitable for all audiences. ♥

These days, the game Mighty Jill Off has blown up in niche twitter spaces. I've visited some of Anna Anthropy's work before, but never got around to play this silly and kinky homage to Mighty Bomb Jack until now. I keep telling myself I'm not a big fan of platform games, and then have the most fun time of my life when playing one... especially when it's as good as this one. 

MJO's argument is as convoluted as your average platformer: not much (KEYWORD AVERAGE!! I'm absolutely generalizing - I'm not forgetting about wonders like Hollow Knight, for example...!). You play as Jill, a sub that gets kicked off a tower after licking her dom's (who is canonically trans!) boot. And of course, you have to help her climb back up to get back to her and let the process repeat itself. As Camus once said, one must imagine Sisyphus being a submissive lesbian, or something like that. This plot works perfectly and is automatically endearing, which I'd like to applaud considering how tough it is to make a simple thing do the trick or stand out. 

You can play it in one sitting, the graphics are old-school, and so are the controls (moving, jumping, and hovering by smashing the 'jump' button. R.I.P to my left hand's tendons :p) and music. We must face a variety of challenges I'd say don't get repetitive despite facing three types of classic enemies only.

It's not an easy platformer, which doesn't mean it's not fun, which, at the same time, doesn't mean it's not aggravating...

It's not hard to tell that the Master and Slave theme in the game doesn't only refer to the story. I'm sure most, if not all of us have called a gaming experience "masochistic": sometimes we could be referring to games we didn't like and dropped, yet, in most cases, we're probably talking about titles we've beat and actually enjoyed. Mighty Jill Off  doesn't feel entirely punishing for no reason. Everything is doable and just the right amount of exasperating for it to be stimulating, for us to feel the dev's benevolence despite how frustrated we might be, and to make us want to keep going, just like in any proper Sadist/Masochist dynamic. This could sound too far-fetched, but knowing the creator (and looking at what we're playing), I'd say it's fair to take this smart and playful metaphor into consideration.

On another note, the character design is veeery good! Even if we don't see an unpixelated Jill or the queen all that much, the illustrations featuring them at both the beginning and end of the adventure really let you appreciate their looks (on top of being gorgeous!!) The shape language is top here! So is the clothing/gear!

Additionally, it's always great when older stuff gets a sudden wave of recognition. How amazing is it to read through a 2008 game's itch.io page and not only find comments posted a couple hours ago, but seeing that some are answers from Anna herself? It excites me to think about how enjoyable things will always remain enjoyable. Fills me up with joy for old and new fans, and creators.

Bye-bye! And happy pride month! (๑>؂•̀๑)