Developer: NX Games
Publisher: Crescent Moon Games
Platform: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Tested on: PS4
JackQuest: The Tale of the Sword – Review
JackQuest: The Tale of the Sword is a 2D Platformer developed by NX Games and published by Crescent Moon Games, in association with Blowfish Studios. It follows Jack on a quest to save Nara, his girlfriend, from a villainous orc named Korg. JackQuest is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Steam.
Story
The story in JackQuest is relatively simple. You play as a young man named Jack, who is taking Nara, the girl he secretly loves, to a special place in the woods to declare his love to her. Unfortunately, they are interrupted when Korg, a giant orc kidnaps Nara and drags her underground. Jack immediately jumps to the rescue and follows them into the orc’s giant cave. Here, Jack finds a magical talking sword. The sword actually appears to be enchanted with the soul of a fallen warrior named Kuro, and together they must fight their way through the dangerous monster-infested cave to find Nara and ultimately defeat Korg. The story is nothing new, although Kuro adds a fun little touch to to the game, and even small games likes these need somewhat of a plot. The game starts and ends with a short cutscene, but everything in-between is fast-paced, uninterrupted gameplay.
Graphics
The graphics in this game is what you’ve come to except from these Indie-type games, being 16-bit pixelated. This type of style is nothing new, and the cave has a repetitive design and texture. The design of the monsters are simple, from green or blue blobs, a couple of bats, skeletons, to different types of spiders.
Sound
JackQuest has an adventurous soundtrack when exploring through the cave, with an optimistic medieval feeling to it, accompanied by a piano. The soundtrack switches to an upbeat, high tempo track when fighting bosses. All-in-all, there are three tracks, with one covering most of the game. The sounds and effects are adequate, but simple.
Gameplay
As a typical 2D Platformer, the gameplay isn’t spectacularly innovating. After you’ve found Kuro, the magical sword, you can start hacking your way through enemies. Kuro isn’t just a great sword, it also speaks to you and encourages you to kill, it warns you, and it is great at stating the obvious. Kuro can become a bit jealous when you find a bow, hidden deep inside the cave. Across the cave are boulders that give you additional information or boulders that let you save your progress. You can collect blue crystals to use a special, stronger, swinging attack, and red potions to regain lost health. You navigate the cave, defeating monsters to gain coins, and with these coins you can buy one of three items from a merchant, being; health potions, blue crystals for your special move and a torch, with which you can save the game wherever you want by using one in the pause menu. The controls are very accessible. You have your typical slash and jump action, which can become a double-jump as you progress the game and lastly, a special move that deals a lot of damage that can also protect you from incoming attacks.
The level design is good, with different paths to take, doors to open, traps to dodge and monsters to defeat. The Cave is filled with secret areas or areas that are much harder to get to. In these areas there is a good chance to find collectibles, such as blue crystals that give you an additional slot for your special, or giant hearts that increase your maximum hit points. There are a couple of bosses to defeat in JackQuest, such as a giant bouncing blob, a big web-shooting spider and more. By defeating each of them, you’ll gain unique abilities such as boots to double-jump or a handy map with the layout of the cave. The game is ultimately very short and basic, and you are very likely to complete it within two hours, especially with its fast-paced gameplay. JackQuest is accessible for all players, whether you’re new to Platformers, or not. You will have to retry some sections of the game a lot, but once you’ve learned how the traps can be overcome and how to beat the monsters efficiently, you’ll manage.
Conclusion
JackQuest: The Tale of the Sword is a fun little game, but isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, and we’ve also seen much better en much more innovating too. The controls and gameplay are very accessible and the game is somewhat challenging. The story, gameplay, graphics and sound are all good, but nothing extraordinary. The game is only a couple of hours long, unfortunately, and could have benefited from more content. The price is just about right and, without recommending better titles in the format, it makes for a fun evening of basic old-school Platform gaming.
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