Pumpkin Jack Reviews
Pumpkin Jack is a fun and entertaining platform reminiscent of the great classics, with the merit of having been made by a single person. Its visual style, halfway between humorous and spooky, suits it wonderfully, as does its fresh and dynamic gameplay. It can become too easy and repetitive in the long run, but it is still a great option to play at this time.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Pumpkin Jack is janky, but still very enjoyable. It’s the kind of simple and straightforward 3D platformer that’s missing in today’s world. It was a lot better than last year’s MediEvil remake, that’s for damn sure.
Overall this game gives us an excellent experience leaving the players completely immersed in the game, which the single major flaw is simply being too short! With a very solid design, both in terms of graphics and gameplay, it is certainly an excellent title to play not only during Halloween, but all year round! The inspiration in Medievil is tangent, yet in a honorific proper kind a way, which is a good thing for all the fans!
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Pumpkin Jack proves that with good ideas and the right perseverance you get what you hope for. Meysonnier's video game amazes with its varied gameplay and entertaining dialogues. It stands as a title that is not perfect but a must for the little ones and that will give a nice sense of nostalgia for the older ones.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Jack, the king of the Pumpkin field, will accompany us on an exquisitely old-fashioned adventure, modest in ambition and dignified in realization: if you do not expect the true heir of Medievil, nor a 3D platformer finished down to the smallest detail, the work of Nicolas Maysosonnier will entertain you enough with its lively style, its variety of situations and its lively artistic frame.
Review in Italian | Read full review
When you go trick-or-treating, you don't come back 100 percent with candy you love. There's some bleh stuff mixed in, stuff that you put up with to get to the candy you can't wait to eat. That's a perfect analog for Pumpkin Jack. You'll push past parts of it because this mascot platformer has some really great qualities. And, when viewed as a whole, a bucket full of candy ain't so bad.
Pumpkin Jack is a fun and nostalgic title that is perfectly placed to be your Halloween game this year. Highly recommended for any fans of old school platforming adventures, but also worth checking out for the spookier sorts too. It doesn't revolutionise anything, but it also doesn't outstay its welcome, and the fact that it is the work of a solo developer makes it even more impressive. This particular pumpkin deserves to carve out some of your seasonal gaming time.
Pumpkin Jack isn't going to blow your mind here in 2021, but if you're on the market for a few hours of Halloween fun, you can't really go wrong. A game that knows exactly what it wants to be, and delivers with confidence.
Pumpkin Jack has rough edges to it, but it still delivers a fun experience in spite of them.
It's good to be bad in Pumpkin Jack - a nostalgic 3D action platformer set in a wonderfully created spooky burtonesque world.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Pumpkin Jack is a hidden gem that I cannot push enough to players looking for a fun, short platforming adventure to experience. I honestly was not expecting much from this game going into it, but it ended up surprising me in more ways than one. This game brought on so many feelings with the art style, the music, and the incredibly Nightmare Before Christmas-like feeling. It is in my opinion that this developer has a bright future ahead of him from the incredible amount of work put into this game.
Pumpkin Jack is a good first effort from a one-man game-designing army. It’s fun for its short length, it offers a bit of variety with its puzzles and challenges, and the platforming & design is solid.
Pumpkin Jack is a pretty enjoyable and fun game if you want to spend a few hours in a Halloween themed world. It certainly isn’t a masterpiece, but being a game made entirely by a one man band, it is pretty much a great starting point. It has linear and simple levels, a good variety of puzzles, basic fighting mechanics and below average difficulty which make it a perfect starting point for those who want to dive into 3D platform games. Its festive context and colourful places will definitely conquer you for the 5 hour game.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Emblazoned across Pumpkin Jack’s website is the slogan “Medieval meets Jak & Daxter”. If that isn’t an indicator of what’s to follow, I’m not sure what would be. It’s indicative of everything this game stands for, warts and all, and feels very much a take it or leave it approach by the developer. ‘Remember those games from the late 90’s and early 2000’s that we all know and loved? Well, if you think you’ll still love them now, I’ve made a new one.’
A very fun and varied game, but with its short duration and little replayability there is little reason to revisit it.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
In the end, Pumpkin Jack is a game that is flawed but still enjoyable. The platforming is solid if you don't mind the unsteady camera and loads of objects blurring your view. The sections where you can only control your head and the chase sequences add some variety to the adventure, but they feel overused. The combat is basic enough to get the job done. If these things aren't enough to drive you away from the title, and with the game running roughly six hours or so if you're thorough, it is easily digestible for a weekend and worth checking out for those who don't want something too deep.
Pumpkin Jack is a competent Halloween platformer that's too generic, shallow, and short to make it a must-play.
I think Nicolas Meyssonnier's work falls just short of its action-platformer goals. But when you consider its great Halloween-themed visual design, engaging soundtrack, strong personality, creative potential, and its place in today's market, genre fans can still have a gourd time with it.
Ultimately, players' enjoyment of Pumpkin Jack will crux on how nostalgic they are for the 3D action platformers of yesteryear. The makings of a great game are definitely here, with witty dialogue, a wonderful selection of fun mini-games, and some serviceable platforming. But, outside of its clear homages and lofty inspirations, Pumpkin Jack feels like it has nothing new to say and no modern insights to add. It ultimately winds up a jack of all trades but a master of none, offering plenty of ideas rife with potential but never honing in on one long enough to make it stand out.
Pumpkin Jack is a pleasant surprise just in time for Halloween, the overall design is amazing considering it comes from a single developer. The six levels offer enough variety and challenge as to not get repetitive and as this will take about 5-6 hours to complete on the first run players will come back to get all the hidden items for extra skins. However, the gameplay feels slightly dated, visually the quality really drops in handheld mode if playing on the Switch and the camera needs to be a bit more reactive especially as the platforming requires precision at a fast pace.