''Jump Rope Challenge'' is a fitness video game developed and published by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

for the

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

. In the game, the player is encouraged to "jump a skipping rope", by performing motions using the Joy-Con controllers, every day a prespecified number of times. The game was developed by a small team to keep active at home during the stay-at-home orders of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. It was released for free on the Switch's

Nintendo eShop The Nintendo eShop is a digital distribution service powered by the Nintendo Network for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, and by a dedicated online infrastructure for the Nintendo Switch. Launched in June 2011 on the Nintendo 3DS, the eShop was en ...

in June 2020. It was originally intended to be removed from the eShop three months subsequent to release, but Nintendo later announced that the game would remain available until further notice.

Gameplay

In ''Jump Rope Challenge'', the player uses Joy-Con controllers in a

basic BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

skipping rope motion in conjunction with jumping up and down to emulate jumping a skipping rope. The in-game screen displays an

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

rabbit character skipping alongside the player, as well as counting the number of jumps the player does. Initially, the game sets the player the task of reaching at least 100 jumps every day, although this goal can be manually increased. The player's total jumps for each day are recorded in a timeline, allowing the player to see how much they have progressed. ''Jump Rope Challenge'' can also be played in

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

with 2 players, each player holding one Joy-Con.

Development and release

During the

developers were to work from home due to stay-at-home orders. Because of the orders, some developers were not able to exercise as much as they would before the pandemic. ''Jump Rope Challenge'' was developed by a small team of developers working at home to be able to keep active in their houses during the pandemic. ''Jump Rope Challenge'' was released over digital distribution on the Nintendo eShop on June 16, 2020, after a surprise announcement from Nintendo on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. The game was released as a free download, and was intended to only be available for a limited time, as Nintendo planned to remove it from the eShop on September 30, 2020. However, on the day, the company announced they would keep it on the store until further notice. Nintendo stated that over 200 million jumps had been performed in the game three days after release, and 2.5 billion after three months. A free update to the game, released on July 1, 2020, adds the ability to double-under as well as new backgrounds and costumes for the rabbit to wear based on

Mario is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creat ...

, Luigi, Princess Peach,

Toad Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. A distinction between frogs and toads is not made in scientif ...

, Bowser, and Wario from ''

Super Mario (also known as and ) is a platform game series created by Nintendo starring their mascot, Mario. It is the central series of the greater Mario (franchise), ''Mario'' franchise. At least one ''Super Mario'' game has been released for every m ...

'', Link from ''

The Legend of Zelda ''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-rele ...

'', Samus Aran from ''

Metroid is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirate (Metroid), Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the powe ...

'',

Isabelle Isabel is a female name of Spanish origin. Isabelle is a name that is similar, but it is of French origin. It originates as the medieval Spanish form of '' Elisabeth'' (ultimately Hebrew ''Elisheva''), Arising in the 12th century, it became popul ...

from '' Animal Crossing'', the Inklings from '' Splatoon'', and the Arcade Bunny from ''

Nintendo Badge Arcade ''Nintendo Badge Arcade'', known in Japanese as , is a freemium application developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS, allowing players to customize the 3DS home menu with badges. The game launched in Japan in December 2014, and worldwide in No ...

''.

Reception

The game was reviewed positively by Ollie Reynolds of '' Nintendo Life'', saying that using the Joy-Con as a skipping rope felt authentic, while also praising the game's visuals and the game being free, though criticizing the game not keeping the player's attention and the sound effects that played on the game's cat background.

References

{{reflist 2020 video games Fitness games Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the video game industry Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development games Nintendo games Nintendo Switch games Nintendo Switch-only games Video games about rabbits and hares Video games developed in Japan Skipping rope

Gameplay

Development and release

Reception

See also

References