Jugglin' Juggling Juggler VideoGame Juggling Video Game Ball Juggle
Action. Rhythm. Puzzle. Ouch.

© 2003 McGinleysoft   design, graphics, and code by: Jim McGinley   music by: Brendan Lynch
send questions, compliments, and goats to: jimmcginley@rogers.com
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What the heck is "Jugglin'"?
First and foremost, Jugglin' is the greatest videogame ever created. It's called Jugglin' since that's WAY more exciting than Juggling. Download & Play the game already. Further reading will only cause you pain. Jugglin' flexes the left, right and other side of your brain. It's an action game more concerned about timing, multitasking and creativity than hand-eye co-ordination. Unlike real life (and similar videogames), you throw and catch the balls perfectly. With that burden removed, the player can finally focus on solving new, more interesting problems. Beginners will enjoy trying to duplicate existing ball patterns. Experts will realize that's for chumps.

For Google reasons, I'd like to give a shout out to Juggling, Juggler, Videogame, Juggling, Video, Game, Ball and Juggle. C'mon Google, you know I'm Juggling videogame legit - show me some love!



Why make a game about juggling?
Jugglin' digs beneath the glamour to finally expose the seedy underbelly of the juggling beast. Jugglin' is an unflinching interactive portrait of the exhilarating highs and horrific lows common to all jugglers. Jugglin' is neither judgemental nor celebratory of its controversial subject matter. When the cameras go off, Jugglin' turns on.

After playing this videogame, you'll finally understand the deeply disturbing mind of a juggler.


The Competition
As these other videogames clearly demonstrate, competition in the Juggling game arena is fierce. What follows is the complete list of juggling games currently available (ordered most to least feared):

1. easyjuggling.com   2003. Flash. Free. WOW. I discovered the original version mid-2006 and it was amazing. In November 2008, the game was refined further and is looking absolutely fabulous. I'm not sure if it's Easy, since the nature of juggling makes it hard for humans (a problem I've yet to conquer). I tip my hat to this amazing effort.

It's like Jugglin' without all the charm and collision detection. Unlike Jugglin', J-Sim is more true to life (or so I would think - I can't juggle myself). It's probably more true to life than Jugglin', but Jugglin' gets all the babes. Still haven't figured out how to juggle balls in a circle though... which I thought would be required by any real juggling simulator. Apparently it's version 7.0, which scares me. The company that created it (smallsquare) no longer appears to exist - a bad omen for McGinleySoft.

First version known as J-Sim Juggling Simulator
 
 
2. Juggling Puppies!   2006. Flash. FREE. GREAT MUSIC and ... YOU JUGGLE PUPPIES!!! Even by Jugglin' standards this is a strange, strange game. Aside from the puppies, you only have 1 arm and the game is entirely mouse driven. Jugglin' also features a 1 armed juggler - they must be more popular than I thought.
 
3. Juggling Simulator   2004. Java Applet. Free. Played it for 5 minutes. Until I discovered J-Sim, this was the only other game that attempted to mimic juggling. You control 2 hands using the keyboard (6 keys!) and attempt to juggle as many balls as you want. There appears to be a lot more to controlling the hands than in my game, which might be good or bad. Since I didn't fully understand how to control the hands, I couldn't juggle more than 3 balls so I stopped playing. Of course, now I'm wondering how many people have a similar reaction to Jugglin'. Ouch.
 
4. Juggle Mania   2001. Flash. Free. You control a pair of hands with your mouse. Balls are automatically and imperfectly tossed from hand to hand. You keep moving the hands to try to catch the balls, at which point they are automatically and imperfectly tossed again. Moving your hands while a ball is tossed influences the direction the ball take (almost always for the worse). Despite the fact it's like playing breakout with a hole in the middle of your paddle, it's actually quite fun. Be sure to read the concise instructions.
 
5. Juggler   2004. Flash. Free. From the website "This 2004 classic combines juggling with the classic of pong." Not only does that summarize the game perfectly, but it also explains why the game stinks (I do like the no nonsense name though).
 
 
6. The Chinese Juggler   1984. Commodore 64 (which I adore). MAME. 2D. I actually played the original on my C64 many many years ago. What's strange is it has nothing to do with Juggling - it's all about Plate Spinning. And, as we all know, Plate Spinning is for losers. Basically, you grab plates and place them on poles. As the plates slow down, you walk from pole to pole to give them more spin. Overlooking the fact grabbing the plates and spinning the poles is extremely akward, The Chinese Juggler is still be a horrible game (although these reviewers might disagree). Note: Before you try anything smart, my research indicates that the Chinese don't call plate spinning Juggling (you racist).
 
7. Virtual Juggler 3D Gold 2.0   1998, 2005. PC. Free downloadable demo. ~$14.95 US full game. This is easily the most famous Juggling videogame that exists. Proof? You can actually find it using a search engine. Hopefully, for obvious reasons, I must dispute the tagline: "The Only Juggling Video Game on Earth For the PC!" Not only is this game sponsored by the World Juggling Federation (WJF), it's also endorsed by super good famous juggling guy Jason Garfield. After playing this horrible, horrible version of Breakout, you will lose respect for both of them. I was going to diss the game further until I read these comments by the game's creator. Not only does he agree the game is somewhat dumb, but a portion of the goofy proceeds go to CHARITY!!! Bastard.
 
8. Juggle Challenge   2005 (?). Flash. Free. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I humbly introduce our first clone! This game is a ripoff of "Juggle Mania" (or possibly Juggle Mania was the thief). Either ways, this proves the juggling game genre is thriving! At the time of this writing (2006-10-29), 29 people were online and playing Juggle Mania while 6,075 people (fools) were playing other games on the site.
 






















































v1.00 updated 2007-02-04