JumpStart Music is an Edutainment Game in the JumpStart Series that teaches kids from preschool through third grade about musical concepts like beats, melodies, instruments, and more. The game was originally released in 1998, and then re-released in 2003 by the name JumpStart Advanced 1st Grade: Music.
The game stars Hopsalot, who works as a music teacher. Hopsalot shows off his gramophone to the player, but when he turns it on, the music eventually starts to sound terrible as evil Sournotes come out of the gramophone's horn. Hopsalot looks into the gramophone's horn to inspect it when he suddenly falls into it. This leads him to the Land of Music, a fantasy world where everyone loves playing music. The residents of the Land of Music ask Hopsalot for help defeating Sir Sournote, a villain who is shooting Sournotes all over the Land of Music to ruin the land's harmony. Hopsalot must travel around the Land of Music, capture all the Sournotes, and bring them to the Concert Hall to make them Sweetnotes.
The game primarily takes place on a board game-like map of the Land of Music. The player has Hopsalot walk around and meet the Land of Music's residents, who each have a minigame where they teach Hopsalot (and the player) a music-related concept. At the end of each minigame, the player gets to capture one or more Sournotes by dragging them into a burlap sack held by Hopsalot.
This game contains examples of:
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Heloise Hippo is light pink.
- Anthropomorphic Typography: The Sournotes are the minions of the villainous Sir Sournote. They are red and green musical notes with faces and a twisted appearance. They work their way into sheet music to make the sheet music sound bad. The player's goal is to capture all of the Sournotes to fix the music.
- Covers Always Lie: Played with. While the game's box art
◊ is an accurate reflection of its contents, its title screen is not. It depicts every main character in the JumpStart series, even though Hopsalot is the only one who is featured in the game itself. Also, the screen shows the characters in a generic grassy setting that looks nothing like the game's music-themed world, nor does it show any musical instruments or other similar imagery. - Cutscene Boss: Sir Sournote is defeated in the final cutscene by the Sweetnotes. Hopsalot never really has a confrontation with him.
- Dastardly Whiplash: Sir Sournote, the Big Bad, is a sinister, mustache-twirling man who shoots Sournotes all over the music land.
- A Day in the Limelight: Hopsalot is the protagonist of this game. Interestingly, none of the other recurring JumpStart characters appear in this game at all.
- Dub Name Change: In the Japanese version, Sir Sournote's name is changed to Maō Jakushī (Demon King Jaxie.)
- Falling into the Plot: In the beginning of the game, Hopsalot falls into the Land of Music through a portal inside his gramophone.
- Green and Mean: The Big Bad, Sir Sournote, is a green-skinned man. Sir Sweetnote, who is implied to be Sir Sournote after Heel–Face Brainwashing, has a Caucasian skin tone instead.
- Heel–Face Brainwashing:
- The Conductor magically transforms the evil Sournotes into friendly Sweetnotes.
- In the end, the Sweetnotes surround Sir Sournote with their magical energy, causing him to disappear. Later on, a man named Sir Sweetnote, who looks like a non-villainous version of Sir Sournote, appears in Hopsalot's home world. It's implied that the Sweetnotes magically turned him good, and also teleported him to Hopsalot's home world.
- Huggy, Huggy Hippos: Heloise Hippo is sweet and friendly, and she teaches players about musical beats by drumming on her belly.
- Off-Model: Melody's design looks noticeably different depending on where you see her:
- On her map icon, she's a skinny girl with dark skin and brown hair. She wears a pink long-sleeved shirt with a red skirt, and she has a headdress that resembles a violin.
- In her minigame, her skin and hair are lighter shades of brown. She wears red overalls with no shirt underneath, and her headdress looks like a drum with a cymbal on top. She also has visible lips with lipstick which she lacks on the map icon.
- In the final cutscene, her skin and hair are even lighter, making her look like a white redhead. She keeps the red overalls but now wears a pink cap with a treble clef symbol. She also loses her lips and looks a bit heavier than her previous, skinny appearances.
- Off to See the Wizard: This game's story takes a lot of cues from The Wizard of Oz (1939). Hopsalot gets transported to a fantasy world where he must stop Sir Sournote, a green-skinned villain. On his journey, Hopsalot must follow the Blue Ribbon Road. In the end, Hopsalot returns home by clicking his heels together and chanting "There's no music like sweet music."
