Getting Stronger

You can't die, but you will suffer. Getting Stronger is a $3.99 precision platformer from developer Jestercraft, released 27 March 2026. This review draws on the game's full 12-review sample and the developer's public pre-launch announcements.

A Jump King-inspired charge jump

This review checked the developer's own launch announcement, which confirms the core mechanic directly: a jumping system "inspired by the Jump King," where holding the jump button charges momentum, whether grounded or mid-air, and releasing launches the character upward. A detailed Simplified Chinese-language reviewer described the resulting play pattern as brutal and merciless, noting the character can't truly die but feels every failure intensely, requiring players to flexibly combine grounded and airborne charges to survive the game's harsher sections. That precision-first design draws a direct line this review's sample repeatedly acknowledges, with one reviewer summing it up as simply "hardcore platforming with great feel."

Super Meat Boy energy, filtered through Jump King's patience

Several reviewers explicitly place Getting Stronger alongside genre touchstones. One self-identified "massive Super Meat Boy fan" wrote the game "hits hard," directing a pointed complaint at a specific level: "Dear level 6, I hope nothing good ever comes to your way," while still calling the difficulty something to love. Another reviewer described the tone as "both chill and frustrating at the same time," a description that captures the tension between the game's slower, more deliberate charge-jump pacing and the sharper, faster failure loop typically associated with Super Meat Boy.

A darker story than the genre usually bothers with

This review checked the developer's own pre-launch announcement, which frames the game's hook plainly: a "weird and dark story" about rescuing a girlfriend, delivered across cutscenes in this first release's Chapter 1 storyline, alongside multiple collectible masks. This review's sample credits that narrative layer directly as a reason to push through repeated failure, with one reviewer writing "I love the dark theme of this game and the story is really catching," adding that not knowing how the story ends is what kept them from giving up during rough stretches. Another wrote plainly that learning more about the story was what motivated continued play, separate from the mechanical challenge itself.

A short first chapter leaves players wanting more

This review's sample includes multiple reviewers who specifically wanted the game to be longer. One called it "the best game so far from the 24 games series," referring to what appears to be a broader project from the developer, adding they "would've played longer if there were more levels." An independent curator review included in the sample offered a more measured take, describing the broader project's other entries as "nothing special" and "just concepts," but singling out Getting Stronger's inclusion of a real story as a genuine novelty that could support a sequel, and concluding that "at this price point, it is well worth it" with a 7 out of 10 score.

One specific, reported bug

That same curator review flagged a concrete issue: the player character sometimes sticks to wall surfaces it should instead be sliding down, an inconsistency the reviewer said the game's short length made tolerable but that "shouldn't happen" regardless. This review found no other reports of the same specific issue elsewhere in the sample, and no developer acknowledgment of it in the available partner-events history.

Limited accessibility, no post-launch update history

This review checked the store's accessibility feature-flag block directly and found four of nineteen tracked flags true: camera comfort, background volume controls, a keyboard-only control option, and save-anytime support. This review also checked the developer's public partner-events feed and found only two posts, both dated immediately before the 27 March release, with no patch notes or updates logged since, a relevant gap given the wall-sticking bug reported in this review's sample.

Growth systems layered onto pure precision

This review checked a detailed Simplified Chinese-language review that outlined mechanics beyond the core charge jump: buff items scattered through each level increase jumping height and running speed, meaning progress isn't purely a matter of player skill improving over repeated attempts, but also of actively finding upgrades that make the climb more manageable. The developer's own launch announcement separately confirms multiple collectible masks are available to wear, a lighter cosmetic layer sitting alongside the more mechanical buff-hunting. That same reviewer specifically credited the game's atmosphere as a core part of the experience, describing an original soundtrack, hand-drawn art, and high-fidelity ambient sound working together to keep tension high throughout, alongside an automatic save system that removes any risk of losing progress to a crash or accidental exit.

A launch livestream, then quiet

This review checked the developer's pre-launch announcements and found they invited players to a launch-day party livestream on their Twitch channel to celebrate release, a small but concrete sign of active community engagement around the game's debut on 27 March. Against that energetic launch, the six months of silence since on the partner-events feed reads as a real gap, particularly given at least one specific, unresolved bug report in this review's sample and the recurring hope, expressed by several reviewers, for more levels to eventually follow the current Chapter 1 release.

Verdict

Getting Stronger delivers a genuinely satisfying, Jump King-inspired precision-platforming core, wrapped in a surprisingly effective dark rescue story that reviewers across languages say kept them climbing through real frustration. This review's sample is unanimously positive, but consistently frames the current Chapter 1 release as short, with at least one specific unresolved bug and no visible post-launch support since a quiet six-month stretch. At $3.99, it's a solid, low-risk pickup for fans of punishing precision platformers, with a story hook good enough to make a future chapter worth watching for.