CJ's Elephant Antics

Codemasters

Industry	Video game publishing
Founded	1986
Headquarters	United Kingdom
Products	CJ's Elephant Antics, DJ Puff's Volcanic Adventure, Stuntman Seymour

CJ's Elephant Antics is a platform game created by Genesis initially for the Commodore 64, with subsequent adaptations for the Amiga, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, and Nintendo Entertainment System. Genesis managed all conversions except for the ZX Spectrum edition, which was developed by Big Red Software. Released by Codemasters in 1991, the NES version followed in 1992 as part of the unlicensed compilation titled Quattro Arcade. The player assumes the role of Columbus Jumbo, a young elephant on a quest to return to Africa.

Plot

After being captured in Africa for placement in a zoo, CJ seizes an opportunity to escape when his cage is accidentally opened during turbulent flight over France. From there, he embarks on a journey back to his homeland on foot.

Gameplay

Players can make CJ jump, shoot an unlimited supply of peanuts as projectiles, and toss a finite number of bombs. Using an umbrella allows him to descend more slowly from great heights. The title offers a cooperative two-player mode where screen movement centers on player one; if player two falls behind off-screen, they lose a life, necessitating coordinated progress.

The game contains four distinct stages—France, Switzerland, Egypt, and Africa—each culminating in a boss encounter. Between levels, there is a bonus round featuring bike riding that requires dodging obstacles and collecting balloons; however, this bonus segment is omitted in the Spectrum and NES versions.

Reception

The 8-bit editions garnered favorable critiques: Zzap!64 awarded 94%, Raze gave 93%, Your Sinclair rated it 85%, and Crash assigned 81%. In Crash magazine’s rankings, CJ's Elephant Antics placed #55 among the top 100 ZX Spectrum games and secured #34 in their reader-voted top 50 list. Reviews for the Amiga and Atari ST versions were more varied, with scores ranging from 83% by Amiga Force down to 63% from Amiga Power.

Sequels

The original title spawned two sequels: CJ in the USA, released across most home computer platforms, and CJ Elephant Fugitive for the Game Gear. Two other projects—CJ in Space and CJ's Island Antics—were cancelled. While Codemasters outsourced CJ's Island Antics, CJ in Space never saw commercial distribution. Notably, a fourth related game was distributed in Germany as a cover-mounted title named Jimbo for the C64 via CP Verlag’s digital magazine.

Codemasters also produced comparable platform games such as DJ Puff's Volcanic Adventure and Stuntman Seymour, which critics observed shared gameplay characteristics with the CJ franchise.