Ultra Jump Mania! is an animated web short produced by GLITCH Productions. A pilot for a proposed Spin-Off of Meta Runner, Ultra Jump Mania is set in the titular in-universe platforming game, following the adventures of said game's protagonist, Theo, aka Coconut Boy, alongside his mentor, the Elder Tomato.
The pilot aired on September 4, 2020, and it can be viewed here
.
Tropes describing Ultra Jump Mania:
- Achievements in Ignorance: Theo decides he would rather have lunch than go though the Gauntlet of Trials, and walks off to a nearby convenience store to get it. Said convenience store turns out to be located at the other end of the Gauntlet.
- Adaptational Dumbass: Theo here is much more lazy and easy-going than in Meta Runner. Ultimately justified at the end of the pilot when Theo encounters his Meta Runner counterpart, as being in MD-5’s cartridge, he wouldn’t have the same experience as the other Theo from the cartridge used for TASCorp speedruns, what with MD-5 likely being too occupied with plotting against TASCorp to play with their cartridge at all.
- Adaptational Intelligence: The Theo that we see in Meta Runner carries around an Elder Tomato who only recited snippets of Simpleflip Island's hour long backstory. Here, he has more flexible dialogue, calling his Theo out for his laziness and reacting appropriately to situations.
- Alternate Self: The ending of the pilot reveals that the Theo in this show is a separate entity from the Theo in Meta Runner.
- And the Adventure Continues: Even after Theo defeats the Crab King and gains one of the Fruit Medallions, the Elder Tomato points out that there are still six Medallions to get.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Theo defeats the Crab King by bouncing onto the weak spot on his belly.
- Call-Back: The Elder Tomato once again begins to recite the extremely long backstory of Simpleflip Island, as he did in "Out of Bounds".
- The Cameo:
- The beach-hat wearing Bot Boy from "Out of Bounds" returns in a scene.
- Tari and the other Theo at the end of the episode, who upon seeing the other Theo, glitch out.
- The Chosen One: The Elder Tomato repeatedly states Theo is this.
- Cutting the Knot: Instead of waiting for Beach Bot to finish making the puzzle, Theo hurls his coconut at his head, killing him. The game registers this as a pass and opens the door that was supposed to be opened by the puzzle.
- Dungeon Bypass: By being lazy and visiting the "Tik-E Mart" to get lunch, Theo found himself at the other side of the gauntlet. Because of that, they reached the next puzzle before Beach Bot even finished preparing it.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Downplayed. This is the Crab King's first appearance before appearing in Meta Runner, but he has a good amount of screen time during his fight. Ironically, his appearance here is longer than how he appears in Meta Runner itself.
- Exact Words: "The prophecy never said The Chosen One had to read".
- Faux Horrific: The Elder Tomato threatens to cancel Theo's cable if he didn't go on the quest. For context, the TV Theo "watches" doesn't even seem like it works.
- Flat "What": The Elder Tomato has this reaction when Theo asks him to recite Simpleflip Island's backstory to King Crab, but decides to go with it.
- Giant Enemy Crab: The Crab King.
- Idiot Hero: Theo, despite being the The Chosen One, would rather sit around at his hut all day watching TV. He only goes out to defeat the Crab King after the Elder Tomato threatens to cancel his cable subscription, and even then he has a hard time taking his quest seriously.
- Lazy Bum: Theo would much rather lay around watching TV all day then go out on a quest.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to Meta Runner, which, in comparison has a lot of dark twists and unsettling elements.
- Nap-Inducing Speak: Theo has the Elder Tomato tell the Crab King Simpleflip Island's backstory in order to make him fall asleep and flip over, exposing his weak spot.
- Never the Selves Shall Meet: At the end of the episode, Theo meets Tari with another Theo, and they both glitch out.
- Perspective Flip: The ending of the pilot shows the opening scene of "Game Plan" from the other Theo’s perspective.
- The Reveal: The entire pilot took place in MD-5’s UJM cartridge, and this Theo is the one that Tari and her Theo encountered at the start of "Game Plan".
- Ridiculously Difficult Route: The Gauntlet of Trials. It's so difficult that Theo instead takes the convenience store route. Nobody knows why it's even there in the first place.
- Shout-Out:
- The thumbnail is a reference to the NA box art for the Nintendo 64, while also being a homage to the box art for Banjo-Kazooie.
- The convenience store Theo goes to is named the Tik-E-Mart
- The math books the Bot Boy gives Theo is entitled Cool Math Gamez, which is a shout-out to online broswer game site Cool Math Games, with the title even modeled after their logo. Also, the book was written by Baldi Basicton.
- The Crab King doing the Crab Rave after Theo gets knocked out of the air. The music even changes ever so slightly to where it almost resembles the actual song.
- Given the game's genre and the creators' past work, there are a handful of Super Mario 64 references throughout. In particular, the music playing when the Crab King falls asleep
sounding similar to "Piranha Plant Lullaby" and the defeated Crab King vanishing and releasing the Fruit Medallion much like that how Bowser would release a Power Star after being defeated.
- Stealth Prequel: The pilot turns out to be this to “Game Plan”. The Theo we've been following turns out to be the one Tari and her Theo - the one in Meta Runner - encountered in MD-5's Ultra Jump Mania cartridge at the beginning of that episode, before the game ejected them when it couldn't figure out what to do with two Theos.
- Take a Third Option: At the bridge gate, Theo has the option of waiting for the Bot Boy to finish his puzzle or solving problems in a math book Theo outright states he can't read. Theo opts instead to hit the Bot Boy with his coconut.
- Wham Shot: At the end of the episode, Theo sees Tari and another version of himself. The two promptly glitch out, and the Theo the character that the episode's centered on, just continues with his day.
