Pumpkin Jack Review – This Is Halloween, Everybody Make a Scene

I’m fortunate to have played Pumpkin Jack at the perfect time during the Halloween season. I’m also particularly nostalgic for those colourful 3D platformer/action-adventure titles of the late nineties, where many of us either started or restarted our own gaming journeys. It’s this genre’s charming simplicity that calls to me from time to time when one needs a reminder that games are supposed to be uncomplicated fun, rather than punishing time-sinks with trophies tacked on.

Introduction

Pumpkin Jack was developed by Nicolas Meyssonnier and published by Headup Games. It was released for both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in 2021. The game is ‘cross-buy’, meaning digital purchases of either version will include the other at no extra cost. The game combines familiar retro elements of classic 3D platform games and action-adventure games with hack-and-slash gameplay.

Story

Playing as the legendary demonic Pumpkin King of Halloween lore, the character is fleshed out with an alternative back-story which places Jack in the role of an anti-hero of sorts, as he stabs, burns and blasts his way through the devil’s army of undead monsters in order to find and defeat a wizard which is also putting up a fierce resistance against the demon horde, making Jack both a friend and foe to humanity.

Once upon a time in the great Arc En Ciel Kingdom, the land lived in peace and harmony, however out of sheer desperation for violence and bloodshed, the devil himself summons the Curse of Eternal Night to spread darkness and unleash mindless hordes of monsters to bring chaos and destruction to the once peaceful lands. Now living in constant fear, the villagers ask the help of a powerful Wizard who promises to end the Devil’s curse and bring harmony back to the kingdom.

Upon hearing of their champion’s quest, the devil makes a deal with the legendary cursed trickster, Pumpkin Jack, to pardon his past sins and release him from the underworld, in exchange for Jack finding and slaying the Wizard, thus maintaining the curse. Armed with a small assortment of weapons and allies, the pumpkin-headed trickster travels the cursed kingdom searching for the powerful sorcerer.

Gameplay

Together with his two companions, an owl and a crow, the player guides Pumpkin Jack through various environments containing puzzles, traps and platforms while slaying any and all who stand in his way. Jack can engage in melee combat using various weapons, including a shovel, scythe, and a magic sword. The extra weapons can add a little variety to combat, yet each combo-dodge-combo encounter plays out more or less the same way.

Being unable to target your foes, nor being able to stun them, larger groups of enemies can soon overwhelm in a brawl which can lead to some unpleasant difficulty spikes. Although there is a designated dodge button, the dodge itself does not feel properly implemented and flows sluggishly in combat. This can be something of an annoyance, particularly when you’re looking for a brief respite from the fiddly platforming sections.

The death mechanic really isn’t going to resonate well with all players. Although I cracked the occasional smile at the witty death counter quotes, they soon ran out and became both repetitive and patronising. The implementation of the death counter didn’t feel especially welcome, like an attempt to mock the player for their performance, which serves no use to anyone.

Graphics/Sound

There’s a very welcome Halloweeny aesthetic throughout Pumpkin Jack that immediately screams “Tim Burton” at me, and that’s pretty much what most hoped for in a game with this theme. Pumpkin Jack certainly excels with its ambiance. There’s a consistently dark setting regardless of the level, lit mostly with foggy secondary colours, with ghostly oranges, greens and purples.

Arguably, the biggest success that comes from Pumpkin Jack is the implementation of the music. There are some superb tracks to keep you bobbing your head in the middle of boss fights, being especially catchy without breaking the atmosphere. The other aspects of sound design could use a boost though, with very little in the way of recorded lines of dialogue or realistic sound effects.

Replayability/Trophies

Every level has 20 crow skulls to acquire, and one gramophone which unlocks a dancing sequence with Jack. Most of these collectibles are placed in plain sight, maybe slightly off to one side of linear paths, yet one or two per level are likely to elude you and slip through your fingers. It’s certainly an incentive to explore off the beaten path, though the risk of miss-stepping to an instant death may put you off.

You will have to grab absolutely everything if you want the platinum trophy. It won’t take too long but if you do miss a collectible then we’re back to replaying levels all over again to hunt down what you missed, which can be an annoyance in a game that wasn’t terribly enthralling the first time around.

Conclusion

To be fair, there is some surprising depth and complexity to the character, even if they don’t really go anywhere with it. However, when combined with the pleasing visuals and charming soundtrack which could have very well been orchestrated by Danny Elfman himself, you’ve got a quirky platformer that could easily be seen as a perfect package during its first hour. Unfortunately, that magical presentation can’t mask some awful gameplay elements.

As you search each level to hunt down every last collectible to earn your shiny platinum, you’ll have to contend with frequent fiddly jumping sections, groups of enemies suddenly swarming you and boss battles that require specific strategies to survive. This leads to a constant ‘trial and error’ approach to progression, and more cheap deaths than I’d care to count. It’s a shame.

Despite the strong start and Burton-esque theme, the general level of frustration from the gameplay makes for a game that’s far more difficult than it looks and needs to be. Add to this the repetitive gameplay which is only broken up by annoying vehicle sections, and little diversity in the six gloomy levels which are each often over an hour long, and you’ve got yourself a game with a tonne of potential which sadly loses its fun-factor the longer you play.