With the spooky season nearing its peak, there’s the need for something Halloween-y, as social distancing has been putting a damper on the festivities. Luckily, Pumpkin Jack has enough promise to fill the gaping void. Developed solely by Nicolas Meyssonnier with Adrien Lucas in charge of porting to the Nintendo Switch and Yohan Jaeger in composing the OST, the game is clearly a labour of love. However, the question remains; is it a trick or a treat?
A Jerk-o-Lantern With a Heart of Gold
Pumpkin Jack begins with a cutscene depicted in a storybook-like fashion. We’re told the tale of the Arc En Ciel Kingdom, a place so ordinary and boring that the Devil himself decides to interfere. By casting the Curse of the Eternal Night, he raises an army of mindless monsters to wreak havoc on the lands. The humans enlist the help of a powerful wizard to put an end to the curse.
Enraged by the humans’ efforts, he sends out the spirit of Jack, as the narrator puts it, “history’s greatest trickster and con artist. By completing the Devil’s quest, Jack would be exempted of his misdeeds and be allowed entry into the afterlife. Shoving Jack’s soul into a (you guessed it) Jack-o-Lantern, Jack crash lands onto the ruins of Arc En Ciel.
Pumpkin Jack’s narrative has slightly more to offer than your average spooky fairytale. While Jack works for the Devil, the villain of this story, Jack isn’t inherently a bad guy. He’s got a reputation as one for sure, but he’s got his morals in order and helps out the occasional NPC or two. In fact, that’s how we get our partner-in-crow to join us. It’s a fairly simple plot to follow and doesn’t get too crazy, but the light-heartedness is definitely not a minus.
The dialogue in the game is pretty amusing, whether that be the protagonist himself with his clever quips or his feathered associates. That being said, however, I would have appreciated a few more NPCs to talk to, as interactions are limited to your flight-capable friends and the occasional merchant or ghostly gondolier.
Pumpkin to Talk About
The game is said to be inspired by the likes of the Medievil series and Jak & Daxter, so fans of theirs will find some similar aspects here and there. In my case, as I’m unfamiliar with both those games, I was instantly taken back to my days playing Kingdom Hearts, particularly the Nightmare Before Christmas-inspired world of Halloween Town, and the N64 Legend of Zelda games.
The controls are fairly simple and reminiscent of the two, with the Y-button for attacks and tapping it in succession will unleash a combo. Your corvid companion can help with the more long-ranged attacks and also strike down bridges to make way for a path. You can also dodge and jump around to dodge attacks and other swinging objects you’ll encounter. Along with that are several weapons you can collect as you defeat the boss of each area, one of the particularly amusing ones being a shotgun. It’s not everyday you see a pumpkin-headed being wield a gun. Enemies are fairly easy to take down, and there’s an abundance of health points, or ‘monster essence’ as the game calls it, at hand. You find these in almost anything by hacking away at objects, including lamp posts.
Aside from its combat, Pumpkin Jack also has some light platforming elements. At times, these can get a bit troublesome as your footing needs to be precise, otherwise you’ll land into a body of water and instantly die. There’s a bunch of other fun aspects such as warped cart rides and mushrooms to bounce off of, but these all make way for some rather linear progression.
Collectibles are in the form of skulls that are scattered around and can be traded for skins, but they don’t offer any advantage. This made it less compelling for me to go out of my way to find them, and I wish they could be sold for some power-ups or bonuses instead. I, later on, discovered secret gramophones were a part of each level, but as far as I’ve gathered, they don’t offer much other than a spooky little jingle and dance number from Jack.
Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice
The graphics I’d say are pretty commendable, especially when you consider the fact that one person put all their effort into crafting the eerie world of Pumpkin Jack. It looks a bit rough around the edges on the Switch’s handheld mode, and assets will occasionally be partially faded, but performance-wise there aren’t any dips in framerate as far as I’ve noticed.
Each level has a slightly different mysterious aesthetic going on for it and its own spooky colour palette. I initially had my doubts about how the theme for the game would be kept fresh throughout, but it holds up alright. There are the occasional issues with lighting here and there, such as when you get too close to a light source the colour schemes will shift, however, it’s nothing that’s detrimental. The picture-book cutscenes through which the story development is recapped is also a nice touch.
The soundtrack for the game is pleasantly Halloween-y, and stays that way throughout. Although, I will admit I was caught off-guard when a spooky version of William Tell Overture started playing at one point. There isn’t voice acting, mostly just grunts and squeaks, which is completely understandable as the Pumpkin Jack pays homage to games of a bygone era.
Creepin’ It Real
The stylish world, witty humour, and sinister soundtrack of Pumpkin Jack are sure to chase away the Halloween blues. While there isn’t much in the way of replay value to the game, it will last you a good 6-7 hours of fun and is the kind that will throw you back to the simpler days of video games. By all means, Pumpkin Jack is definitely more treat than trick.
