This pixel art RPG is a pretty good indicator of how far the gaming industry has come in the last twenty years. Starring a young boy who’s clearly on the spectrum, it becomes apparent early on that this is a personal passion project, featuring the Texas-based developer’s own brand of warped humour and even incorporating their family members into the storyline. It’s a far cry from the focus-tested, trend chasing, products that publishers put out circa 2005 – where anything quirky or different was immediately shot down.
Presumably, the idea here was to make something that’ll connect with other like-minded folk, with the warped humour and subtle references to autism shining through. In 2026, I feel there’s an audience for that. Perhaps even one bigger than most people realise.
Featuring simple yet bold pixel art visuals, Jimmy and The Pulsating Mass takes its cues from the likes of Earthbound and Undertale, while also being a homage to classic 16-bit RPGs from Square, Capcom and Enix. In fact, it prides itself as being a full RPG experience, with a playtime of 30-40 hours. To say that it’s a slow burner is quite the understatement. The opening ‘grace’ period (intended to teach the basics of the turn-based combat system) lasts around two hours, and it isn’t until around five hours in that the titular world ending mass – which Jimmy will eventually need to confront and destroy – is mentioned, and even then, only in passing.
The story takes place in Jimmy’s dreams, and later his subconsciousness, and as such pretty much anything goes. One of the more defining features is that amongst the dreamworlds, comical animal NPCs and oddball enemies (which include trees with giant feet, clouds morphed into historical figures, vicious gnomes, bagpipe spiders, and more), there are prevalent themes of horror, right down to a murder investigation and the occasional splash of blood.
Jimmy is only 8 years old and described as someone who loves his family and enjoys colouring. He’s accompanied by his older, bully boy, brother Buck. Various other family members play key parts too, with Jimmy’s mum joining the party around four hours in, acting as a support character who can heal and dish out encouragement. Jimmy’s talents include a wild imagination, allowing him to transform into different characters within his dreamworld. This not only grants an ability or two when exploring the top-down viewed locations, including being able to turn into a blob of slime to squeeze through gaps, but also a host of new moves during the turn-based combat system. Sometimes the right move set will make a battle a breeze, especially when faced with undead adversaries. Being able to change into a long-legged bird proved most useful outside of combat, as they can dash and leap over small gaps, covering long distances quickly.
Battles appear at random while exploring, usually every thirty seconds or so. If you’re trying to explore fully (locations feature bonus chests with trinkets) this can be frustrating, and is only really beneficial if you’re grinding for XP or cash. Party members have default attacks – linked to purchasable weapons – and can perform unique abilities using MP, including the ability to stun foes, lash out randomly, or heal the whole party. While enemy sprites aren’t animated – most backdrop elements are static, sadly – there is a text box to inform of incoming attacks and what the enemy might be thinking. If Jimmy falls in battle, you’ll often restart outside of that location. Thankfully, it’s possible to save anywhere and most towns have healing fountains. Skills can be used outside of combat to heal as well, albeit at a cost of MP.
Nevertheless, the difficulty level is steeper than you may expect. Boss fights can occur without little warning, catching you off guard, and some areas have strong enemies that are best avoided. You may find yourself grinding regularly, and that’s in addition to keeping on top of purchasing the best pieces of armour and weaponry available at the time.
It’s the pacing that harms this RPG the most. The developer intended this to be a full length experiance that requires investment. At a time when many indie RPGs are done and dusted in 8-10 hours, that’s commendable. However, we’re left with a storyline that’s stretched thinly. For the most part, Jimmy and his cohorts are ushered from one wacky dreamscape to the next, often with little tangible to latch onto. At one point it seems that the world is in peril due to the bee population dying out, and that we might start to discover more about the titular mass, only to then ditch this idea and throw in an arbitrary UFO escape scene, which somehow, incredibly, leads to a murder mystery at a cabaret club. From there, Jimmy ends up in a haunted mansion and must solve a complex multi-layered puzzle, ferrying bathwater around and mixing it with different compounds. If any ideas were left on the cutting room floor, I’d be very surprised.
Changing style and tone often does help keep things fresh, but at the same time, makes for a disjointed experience. I put ten hours in before penning this review (and with no Xbox achievements to show for it – gasp!) and was still wondering when the storyline threads were going to emerge. Within this time though, I did grow to like our heroes and was constantly wondering what kind of predicament they’d land in next. It also helps that the writing is sharp, if a little paragraph-heavy. Some characters spout pages of dialogue, rather than just a few sentences. Interacting with certain objects can result in peculiarly descriptive text too.
With its comical cast, heartwarming themes of family and inclusion, a surprisingly deep and flexible combat system, and the capacity to surprise through its horror tropes, Jimmy and The Pulsating Mass presents a gooey mix of ideas – some of which gel, and others not so much. Just like our eight-year-old hero, the developers are guilty of letting their imaginations run wild, incorporating all manner of increasingly warped scenarios to plonk the cast into. A leaner, more focused, experience would have been better overall. Despite this, hardened RPG fans would still do well to investigate – this is a fully featured, full length, adventure with a higher difficulty than the cutesy visuals let on. Whether it’ll eventually ‘click’ or not is largely going to be down to personal preferences, making this an outlier within the RPG genre. An abnormally, if you will.
Starseed Games’ Jimmy and The Pulsating Mass is out now on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series, Xbox One and Switch. It first launched on PC in 2018. Published on consoles by Electric Airship.