*To note- a review code was supplied by the game’s publisher Ratalaika Games*

I’ve had a tough time with 2D platformers. To be honest, I’m not that good at them and the extreme difficulty of games like Super Meat Boy has me raging in front of my TV.

The Switch is full of fantastic and not so fantastic platformers. However, after playing Meat Boy and other 2D side-scrolling platformers, I’d kind of gotten burnt out on the genre (that’s why I’ve not played Celeste yet). This changed when I saw Jack N’Jill DX (JNJ) on the Nintendo eshop. Its cute pixel art style made the game look more accessible to platformer players of my level and it’s one button mechanic had me intrigued to see if I could manage to beat the game- I mean, all you have to do is press one button! So I wrote to Ratalaika Games and they kindly supplied me with a code.

The Story

You play as Jack or Jill and have to overcome dangerous hazards and leap gapping gaps to get to your beloved. The story’s simple but gets the job done for explaining why your trying to get through the game’s 140 levels.

The Game

Jack N’ Jill DX is a 2D side-scrolling ‘one button’ platformer, very much in the vain of games like Super Meat Boy. Simply press A and your character (Jack or Jill, Jack for me) will start running to the closet gap or obstacle. Pressing A again will get Jack to jump (hopefully) over the obstacle, it’s really that simple.

Obviously, as the game progresses you’ll have harder obstacles to jump over, meaning your timing will have to be pretty good when pressing A. Plus, there are new mechanics added to the game with each world, so there is constantly something new to add an extra challenge to the gameplay. Personally I liked the running boots as they sped Jack up. The extra speed created a twitchy platforming experience, as you had to think ahead and jump perfectly between obstacles as they came flying towards you.

With the running boots, the game reminded me of Super Meat Boy. However, what I enjoyed most about JNJ was that the game was much more forgiving. This meant you didn’t have to be pixel perfect for every single jump. There was usually a wide landing zone to land on and never just a single block. Therefore, if your timing was slightly off with a jump, it usually meant you’d land safely anyway. For me, this made JNJ challenging but not frustrating. I never once got angry playing the game because I knew every death was my mistake and that on the next run I could make the jump. In comparison to SMB, I remember having periods of compete despair as there was some levels I was stuck on for hours, with no idea how I could get to the end. I know some people love this type of challenge, but I’m definitely not one of them!

This game is so fun! Don’t forget to enter the competition and you could win a copy of Jack N’Jill DX on #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/dbGTDF1ocP — Switch Indie Fix (@switchindiefix) October 3, 2018

Furthermore, I think the design of the game went a long way to make it challenging and fun. Each level was designed perfectly to have Jack jumping, flying and running backwards and forwards to find Jill. I especially liked how the designer Rohan Narang used eroding blocks to open up new parts of a level. JNJ is at its best when you are going fast and there was nothing cooler in the game than running over eroding blocks, then hitting a wall and bouncing back towards where the eroding block were, now find spikes there instead. Again, the twitchyness of the game was fantastic and it continuously tested my reactions as I’d have to quickly jump over the spikes! It was so clear to see how much thought and love Narang put into JNJ’s design, making most levels a pleasure to play through.

Finally, throughout the game you will collect coins (lots of them). The coins can be used in exchange for different colour palettes to play the game in and can also unlock mini games, which is pretty neat!

Art and Music

The art style of JNJ is very simple but I think very cool. Its black and white pixel art is reminiscent of the original Game Boy and Jack’s round, marshmallow like design reminds me of Kirby back on the Game Boy. Alongside this, the cute design of the enemies and even some of the obstacles further harkens back to the retro Nintendo era, making me think that the Nintendo Switch is the perfect place to play JNJ.

The music was enjoyable but there wasn’t that many tracks in the game. Though I did like it, it soon became a little repetitive and I don’t think it added much to the experience of the game. Therefore, I had no problem playing with the sound off on the train on the way to work.

Problems

Like I said above, I enjoyed JNJ the most when I was going fast, as the game put pressure on me to think and react. However, during worlds 4 and specifically 5, the game adds two new mechanics that I think slowed it down to a snail’s pace. In world 5 this was the clouds. The problem I had with the clouds is that they totally stop any momentum Jack had. The clouds are basically moving platforms, which when Jack lands on them he stops. Then you have to wait until the cloud moves across the screen to the next cloud so you can jump across.

I thought this mechanic slowed the game down so much! Furthermore, it made the levels last much longer. So instead of having a really fast level that took 30 seconds to complete, you now had really slow levels that took over a minute to complete. This was annoying when you died and had to restart the level from the beginning. This is because you then had to wait all over again for the cloud to move to you, then for the cloud you were on to move to the next cloud and so on. What I found enjoyable about making mistakes in the game was that when you died, you quickly respawned and were quickly back to the part of the level where you died. However, with the clouds it seemed to take forever!

I think Narang knew this too as he started to add checkpoints so you didn’t have to start from the beginning of the level and to be fair, by world 6 the tempo picks up again. Nevertheless, world 5 felt like such a long drawn out experience compared to what came before it and after it.

Summary

To conclude, I think Jack N’ Jill DX is a fun and challenging platformer that is easily accessible to players new to the genre. It’s mechanics are easy to understand and it is way more forgiving than other games in the genre like Super Meat Boy. If you’re a hardcore fan of 2D side-scrolling platformers then I don’t think you need to play Jack N’ Jill DX, but for people who like a challenge and don’t like throwing their controllers at the TV screen, it’s good. The levels are mostly fast, forcing you to react quickly, however I thought there was a slump in one world about half way through the game, which made the game’s pacing feel slow and cumbersome.

Should you buy this game? Yes if you’re new to the genre or like games that are challenging but not hard. No if you’re a more experienced player of the 2D side-scrolling platformer genre.

All in all, I give Jack N’ Jill DX by Rohan Narang and Rataliaka Games my rating of

Are you a fan of harder platformers or do you like playing easier ones? Let me know over on the Switch Indie Fix Discord server or hit me up on Twitter or Instagram.

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