Thank you Headup for sending us a review code!

All was peaceful in the Great Arc En Ciel Kingdom, so much so that the devil was bored with the lack of bloodshed, pestilence and suffering. To make things more interesting, the devil cast the curse of Eternal Night which unleashed monsters across the world. In response, the humans enlisted the helped of a wizard champion to break the curse. To counter their efforts, the devil called upon Pumpkin Jack to defeat the wizard, and if he succeeds his misdeeds will be atoned for and he can proceed to the afterlife.

Pumpkin Jack’s soul resides in his jack-o-lantern head and he has the ability to detach it and access areas that his regular sized body won’t fit into. Jack also has a crow friend that guides him and can attack enemies from a distance. In the beginning, Jack can use a shovel to attack, but later in the game he’ll unlock better weapons including a sword, spear, shotgun, scythe, and the ability to attack foes with multiple crows.

In total, there are six levels and many of them ending with a boss battle. The bosses are typically big and intimidating. You’ll often have to use the environment against them while dodging their numerous attacks. Timing is key to launching and dodging attacks.

Defeating enemies and bosses is only a small fraction of the gameplay. Pumpkin Jack features some puzzles, but relies heavily on platform jumps and other fast moving gameplay action. The puzzles are not too tricky, there’s a Simon-based one where you have to keep track of the musical pattern and repeat it. The melody was complex enough that I had to jot down where the notes played from and refer back to it.

On numerous occasions Jack will have to cross rivers with the help of a Charon inspired ferrymen. The ferry ride is anything but relaxing. Jack will have to hop ships, fend off enemies, and traverse berries and get back onto the ship in time before it sails away for good. Thankfully, this game is generous when it comes to check points and save spots. Jack will also have the opportunity to ride in a mine cart, or a racing ghost horse.

Each level has twenty crow skulls to locate. Some of the skulls will appear after defeating a horde of enemies, however, most of them will have to be located by searching off the beaten path for them. A few of the skulls will be needed to unlock gates to progress the game, but the majority of them can be used to purchase different outfits for Jack to wear. You can always replay a level to locate any missed skulls from your previous playthrough. If you don’t care about perfection, you can beat Pumpkin Jack in about six hours.

Outside of Pumpkin Jack working for the devil, this game is pretty tame. Pumpkin Jack is not a good guy and everybody knows not to trust him. Many of the enemies are undead and use magical attacks on Jack. Violence is cartoon-like in nature and there is no blood. There are a couple of scenes featuring alcohol on a table that enemy soldiers are sitting at. Language is pretty mild with the word h*ll being used as an expression and not referring to the destination.

Pumpkin Jack has minimal voice acting with grunts that reminds me of Beavis from Beavis and Butthead. The game dialogue shows up as text boxes on the bottom of the screen. These messages usually have helpful tips and are easy to miss if you’re not paying attention.

Graphically, Pumpkin Jack looks pretty good and is powered by the Unreal 4 engine. I like how the different levels have various themes to them. For example, there’s a North Pole level that pays tribute to Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas movie. Pumpkin Jack will have to defeat Santa Claus a couple of times there.

Pumpkin Jack’s asking price of $29.99 is a little steep for a six-hour game. However, I have seen it on sale on Steam for as little as $5.99 and it’s well worth picking up if you enjoy platformer games.