Joint Pain is a Pain to Play Through

Joint Pain seems like it could be an interesting game on the surface: play as a viking that has to kill horde after horde of skeletons. Unfortunately, due to its bare mechanics and awful programming, the game is not worth the price tag.

Sound

The music in the game is not a hindrance. It’s one of the few parts of the game that is done pretty well. Aside from the music, the sounds in this game will drive you mad by the time you’ve beaten it. The enemies make cute duck-like sounds the entire time they’re on-screen; initially charming, these enemy sounds start grating by the latter half of your play through.

Graphics

The character design of the viking and the skeletons have a bit of charm. I also like the way the levels themselves look. The graphics and

Gameplay

While the gameplay seemed charming from the screenshots and game description, it proves to be incredibly tedious. It consists of shield bashing an enemy to protect yourself from their attack and do a bit of damage, striking them with your sword to get some more damage in, and then running away from their attack. It’s difficult at first, but by the third level, you have most likely mastered it; by the fourth level, you will be bored of it. The only break you get is from the one-hit-kill hammer power up that, too, gets boring after a while.

This game boils down to skeletons coming out in lines, going down platforms, and trying to attack you. Some levels have interesting environmental hazards, but a lot of the fun of these hazards is ruined by the poorly programmed AI. On some levels, you can just get on a platform higher than the approaching skeletons and watch them fall to their death over and over until you win.

Speaking of poor programming, this game seems like it was not playtested. The enemies will only march left if you are to the left of them or right if you are to the right of them. What this means is that they just march in place if you are directly below them on another platform. I do not know how the creators can justify charging money for a game that has such a glaring flaw.

Conclusion

If this game had more weapon variety and was competently programmed, it could have gotten a seven or an eight. The basic ideas behind it are fine enough, but the execution makes the less-than-an-hour it takes to beat seem like a decade.