Game: Jack Quest: The Tale Of The Sword
System: Nintendo Switch
Developer/ Publisher: NX Games / Blowfish Studios
Price: €9.99| $9.99 | £8.99
Age Rating: EU: 3+ | USA: E
Release Date: January 24th, 2019
Also Available On: PS4, PC & Xbox
Review code kindly provided by Blowfish Studios.
The love of Jack’s life has been stolen away by the evil demon, Korg. Dive into his underground lair to hunt him down and be reunited. You are joined by the mysterious sword spirit, Kura, who offers invaluable advice and assistance on your adventure. In this Adventure / Side-Scroller, you use your sword and expanding skills to defeat enemies and explore the giant underground maze collecting new abilities along the way. There are lots of secrets and puzzles to overcome in your quest to save your love.
Simple Sword Slinging Action
The game starts of simple enough, you run and jump through the maze like map. Once you discover Kura, you then have a sword to fend off enemies as well as use a super move if you ever find yourself in a hairy situation. It is simplistic but the game finds new ways to challenge you the deeper you delve. You soon also discover new abilities such as a double-jump and the ability to breathe underwater. You can also increase your health and ability to perform more super moves. You even get another weapon in the form of a bow and arrow that carries its own super move. It’s a little basic, but certainly provides a solid, reliable package in which to overcome the challenges that you will face.
A Brief Tale
The story is pretty simple, run to the end to save the girl. Kura, your sword reveals that he was once human. This you discover as he idly chats to you as you explore. There are signposts and a few neutral NPC’s who also point you in the right direction. It’s minimalistic, but it ties well into the games aesthetic as a quick to play, challenging to beat nature. It can get a little difficult to find your way around the mid-point, but it’s easy enough to travel back and rediscover things you may have missed the first time.
Short But Sweet
The game only took a few hours to complete overall. It encourages you to scour the map so that you may increase your health which can be hard to come by, as well as increase your ability to launch the very useful super attacks. But the package is pretty self-contained, there’s not much left to it. The challenge only ever stays moderate, as even the initially challenging bosses become easier to predict and overcome. If I were to be critical of the game, these would be the details I would pick at. But alas, I still found the game very satisfying to play and it is very solidly built to deliver its very modest take on old-school style adventure games.
To Conclude…
Jack’s Quest is… good! It plays well and offers a satisfying challenge and can be easily enjoyed in parts or in one extended sitting. It is simple, but offers a solid package that is consistent in quality through and through.
