2020 has been the year where time has flown by as well as creeped slowly. Luckily, we can get into any game we choose no matter the time or season. Pumpkin Jack by Nicholas Meyssonnier and publisher Headup, have given us a Halloween themed game that lets us reminisce of the time when the PS2 ruled.
In this colorful creepy adventure platformer, you play as the bad guy that just wants to destroy everything good. As the Boredom Kingdom calls upon their wizard to help stop you, the Mythical Pumpkin Lord, the Devil also joins in to help you succeed in your chaos. Along the way, there are multiple characters to meet that have attitudes that might just surprise you.
Pumpkin Jack gives people that grew up on older platformers from the nineties and on, a journey. This game parallels all the fun that was had with all the platformers of the time. Comparably, Pumpkin Jack is like a Jak & Daxter game with a little bit of MediEvil thrown in. This means a lot of jumping, fighting, and puzzling your way through each stage.
The game looks great too and has a great soundtrack. Each level has bright colors, but the environment has different parts of Halloween. So, there is a lot of fun just seeing that by itself. Jack can collect skulls to change outfits from time to time too, but these do not affect his abilities. Weapons however, those can be collected and need to be used precisely when entering different stages. Learn what your weapons do so you can take everyone down including the boss that is inevitably at the end.
Fighting feels like a button masher, but the goal is to master combos, timing, and dodging. Sometimes the jumping and timing feels a bit off at times, but this just seems like more a quality experience to me. You eventually get around this and prepare to deal with the little issues. Although a little redundant at times, Jack fights his way through hordes of enemies without time to really examine the surroundings. Some may find this rather boring, but if you can do any exploring, enjoy it.
At a price of $30USD, the game feels a little short. But there is a lot of fun to be had in the story, puzzles, and funny characters. Also, what kind of a game encourages you to fight the good guys? Pumpkin Jack does. Family friendly and a lot of fun for sure.
8/10
Available on PC, Switch, Xbox and PS4