Pumpkin Jack Análisis – Xbox Zone

Pumpkin Jack This is the typical headline that most analysts hesitate. And I would like to explain it in a way that is not misunderstood.

It’s a 3D action platform adventure intoxicated by the classic spirit of 32 and 64 bit time. It is very inspired by the platforms of the time, so we can feel nostalgia with every step we take. Of course, current technology allows us to enjoy better finishes, lighting and playability than those of the titles of yesteryear.

Pumpkin Jack It’s a poor game, understand that as being average. It’s a normal, decent game that works well but doesn’t excel at anything other than sound. playability, which could live up to the headlines of the genre. But what if I told you that it is created and developed by one person? At this point, things change and the product increases in value. And even more when in the writing of Areaxbox we agree that this Pumpkin Jack surpasses (by little, yes) the fame Medievil, title in which he is clearly inspired.

Pumpkin Jack is made by one person

The author is called Nicolas meyssonnier. He is 23 years old and lives in France. AT end of 2017 started working on it Pumpkin Jack and left his job in early 2019 to work full time on the project. He worked most of the time alone, in the vicinity of the Unreal Engine 4, Blender Yes Photoshop. However, he was working with Yohan Jager to provide an original soundtrack and with Adrien lucas for user interface and portability to consoles.

As we can see, it’s a game with some brutal work behind it, although it’s not brilliant in objective terms, dares to play in the big league.

Jack becomes the center of the conflict between humans and monsters

In the Kingdom of boredom, all things lived in peaceful coexistence, from humans to cute rabbits. The world was free from war, hunger, fear… And it was boring. So boring. So boring that even the devil himself he felt terribly jaded.

So the devil devised a plan to torment these pitiful, comfortable, boring humans. He dreamed of bloodshed, broken lives, fire, brimstone, etc. Unleash the curse of eternal night, a powerful spell that has awakened bloodthirsty monsters across the kingdom.

The humans, however, enjoyed their boring little lives and weren’t going to sit idly by while the monsters destroyed the kingdom. So they called a masterful magician, the only wizard powerful enough to end the curse.

The enraged devil retaliated by invoking the soul of Jack (our protagonist) on the skin of a pumpkin and sent him to the kingdom with a clear mission: to find and destroy the mighty wizard.

It is curious that this story, entertaining a priori, lack of interest some as soon as we start playing. When we take control, the last thing that interests us is how the story unfolds since what we want is to move forward, jump, explore and kill. He has a perfectly obvious narrative and that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

With Medievil and Jack & Dexter as a flag

Directly, in the Official page of Pumpkin Jack, the game is sold like this: Feel the nostalgia for old platform games like “Jak and Daxter“Y”Medievil“As current technology brings a spooky and terrifying new universe to life.

And the inspiration in both titles is clear. At first glance, it is impossible not to realize it, Medievil, take this parameter from Halloween Dark, with dark scenes and enemies from beyond the grave. However, while it may seem the same to us, its playable form is not quite the same. In Pumpkin Jack we give him a lot more importance for platforms than for combat. This is its star element. The jumps between platforms are very well measured and Jack’s control is generally pretty neat.

More things to jump and jump

Also, in this title we will find a a greater variety of situations this will make the playable experience more entertaining. At times we will travel by wagon through an abandoned mine, we will run on the back of a large ghostly steed, or we will even use only our pumpkin heads for solve puzzles

. Literally, we will only use our head since, at certain times, our protagonist detaches himself from his body and we will continue to manipulate the pumpkin (with the legs) that we will use to solve puzzles, move platforms, detonate bombs to open doors, etc. These are, without a doubt, moments that serve to break the monotony of platforms and which bring the title to life. However, on many occasions these moments are not fully implemented and can slow the pace down a bit.

As for the fights, nothing remarkable. It’s not that they’re bad but the moments hack and slash they don’t matter as much as the platform component. When there are several enemies, often we will not know where the blows are raining us because the impacts on the character are not very well identified. Without a doubt, the most interesting are the bosses that await us at the end of each level and which, on certain occasions, will be an interesting challenge.

Correct technical section but not brilliant

As we have already commented previously, Pumpkin Jack It is a work by one author, therefore, it has a very limited budget and it shows technically. But once again we come back to the same thing: having been made by only one person, it has very good results.

Graphics, in general, are quite simple but the atmosphere that Nicolas Meyssonnier creates with so little is overwhelming

. It’s pure Halloween. The stages are not very big but they are very well designed and have surprising lighting. Jack, on the other hand, has quite acceptable animations compared to enemies, which are sparse and just functional.

In the sound section, the special effects don’t exactly shine but their music does stand out. He has one soundtrack very in tune with the theme of the title and, without realizing it, a little song will stick to us by listening to it several times. In addition, the dubbing (in English) is not bad and is translated into Spanish, a very nice detail to be a India sunbathe India.

Good job sir Meyssonnier

To the more seasoned users and platform lovers this title will convince you from the first moment, to remember these long awaited titles of yesteryear. The game is very thin in terms of the protagonist’s movements and has enough playable variety that you don’t get too tired. In addition, it lasts between 6 and 7 hours and is not heavy.

But, in our opinion, tuning may be the key It is more important that it motivates you, as a consumer, to choose to buy this title and not another. If you are a lover of darkness, spells and eternal night, this is your game, without a doubt. Fervent fans of Halloween and the platform will not be able to escape the charm of this work.

Now if you are not a fan of this aesthetic then you should run away and try other things as this game might end up saturating you and not pleasing you. Like we said, being such a low budget job we cannot search for triple A production values, not even the double A. If you are not a lover of this setting and looking for something “bigger”, I think there are exhibitors like this who are objectively superior.