JUMPWAD
By Ribbiks and Grain of Salt - 7 Maps
Format: MBF
[Download]
Started: October 24th 2025
Finished: October 25th 2025
Status: Complete
Ribbiks you've done it again. First you make me enjoy slaughter, now you make me enjoy platforming (kinda). JUMPWAD is another incredible example of Ribbiks being a fantastic mapper, midi composer, and eldritch master of dehacked shenanigans. Normally, platforming in doom is kinda ass, but through the power of jumping it's made really really fun. And not the weird jump that most sourceports add, no. Ribbiks dehacked together a custom weapon that effectively gives you a jump when fired, which works both on the ground and in the air, which opens up a ton of possibilities for platforming. Jumpwad takes this one new ability and explores the hell out of it for each map, all without being for super masochists only! The first 4 maps are good warmups, slowly getting you used to how it works in various situations, with a handful of small platforming gimmicks to add variety, but the final 3 maps are fantastic. Map 5 adds floating orbs that give you a boost upwards when touched, allowing for much longer horizontal jumps, map 6 involves you using archviles to gain height, and a new archvile-like enemy that gives you a more horizontal boost rather than a vertical one, allowing for really creative situations where you need to line yourself up with them from different angles depending on where you wanna get to, and map 7 acts as the big final test, bringing back the wormwood 3 meteor launchers as obstacles, a fully nonlinear structure and unique ranking system. For what initially seemed like some unapproachable nightmare challenge wad, jumpwad ended up being a super rewarding experience that I'd recommend to basically anyone, even normal doom platforming haters. It does assume some baseline understanding of doom's lack of air control and movement physics, but basically all of jumpwads absolute hardest challenges are totally optional. Ribbiks repurposes enemies and items into 2 types of collectible gems, and maps only require a small chunk of enemy gems in order to exit, with the item ones being completely optional except for bragging rights. Each map also has a super SUPER optional collectible that's not even tracked on the stats screen for absolute completionists. I didn't end up maxing any of the maps, but I did get all the big gems AND the secret flame in map 5, and I suffered through the pain of getting the S rank on map 7. Jumpwad is an absolutely fantastic experience that I'm extremely glad I stumbled across and ended up finishing. If Ribbiks ever decides to make a sequel I'll be right there the second it's out to give it a shot.
Rating - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Favorite Map - Map 5: "It's Cold Up Here"
Least Favorite Map - Map 4: "Unlimited Ice Cream Factory"