Jack ‘n’ Hat review

Jack ‘n’ Hat tells the story of Jack, a repairman extraordinaire, and his hat to save Princess of Ririland from the evil clutches of the sinister Dr. Voo Doom; who has also incited a civil war. Thanks to the latest invention of the brilliant Dr. Expo Zicion, Jack’s hat is a boomerang-like weapon that can be used to take out enemies and break crates. In order to save Ririland, our little Jack of all Trades has to travel the planet searching for Energy Crystals in order to reach the moon and put an end to Dr. Voo Doom.

Jack ‘n’ Hat is a 2D action platformer where are jack of all trades will need to go from start to finish and taking out enemies in your path. Enemies can be killed in one of two ways: either by throwing the boomerang hat (which has a short range) or jump on their heads à la Mario. Careful, as some enemies can only be killed by one or other ways as you can’t jump on some and others can be impervious to your hat.

Thankfully, Jack has a health bar consisting of three hearts; getting hit by enemies will remove a single heart whereas obstacles like pits or spikes will result in instant death. Jack can refill his health with specific items that can be picked up and to be used whenever; although you can only carry one at a time.

Each level has three objectives to accomplish; one mandatory and two optional. The main objective is to find the level’s crystal. Most of the time it’s easily findable as it will be found on your way to the level’s finish line. Optional objectives are to find the letters J A C K hidden throughout and destroy a specific quantity of crates.

The main nuisance with Jack ‘n’ Hat is that our little protagonist doesn’t feel as nimble as he should. He controls like as if he weighted 500 lbs which makes certain scenarios, like boss fights or even simply wider gaps, a bit stressful as bosses move quicker than you do and that you’ll come across gaps that you’ll barely make.

The game is designed with beautiful and colorful 16-bits visuals. Each level is uniquely designed with its own theme insuring a decent gameplay variety and avoiding level repetitiveness. Additionally, as you progress, the levels’ difficulty progressively increases so the challenge is fair. The soundtrack is definitely a fun one, although, while chiptune inspired, it doesn’t really match the Super NES/Genesis visuals.

Jack ‘n’ Hat is definitely a fun 2D platformer that offers a fair challenge with each level providing its own challenges and vast level design variety. Jack’s hat is a fun weapon to use and also offers new skills to our protagonist. While it is a fun platformer, each level feels a bit too long which makes the whole game too long for its own good. It’s super fun in short bursts, if you attempt to do it in one sitting, you might burn yourself out. And well it’s a very easy 1000Gs that can be completed in the first 20 minutes.