If you’re anything like me, then the characters of Jay and Silent Bob were a staple in your life growing up. From their antics in front of the Quick Stop and RST Video in Leonardo, New Jersey, to their recent escapades in attempting (for the second time) to stop a movie about them being made, their stoner, potty-mouthed behavior often made you giggle and choke back tears as you watched them mature.
Several weeks ago, creator Kevin Smith announced that an NES, Double Dragon-style video game was being released focused around the two characters. Taking place after the scenes from Smith’s second film, Mallrats, the dookie-minded duo are attempting to escape the mall and head back to the Quick Stop.
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The side-scrolling, 8-bit game has all the nostalgia of old school Nintendo. With characters based on Smith’s creations, including the Easter Bunny Jay and Bob assault in Mallrats, plus a Mooby mini-boss and mall security, the game has a number of welcome nods to video game and movie nostalgia.
Sadly, it’s not all fun and games.
One of the things immediately noticeable about the game is the difficulty. Older NES games don’t come with the ease of playing their modern counterparts do. This game follows suit. Especially in single-player mode (it does offer a multiplayer option), the enemies are difficult to fight off. A lot of games where you resort to fisticuffs have only one target you at a time. This one does not. And in scenes where there are some enemies that skateboard back and forth across the screen, hurting you as they pass, it becomes increasingly more frustrating when you start to encounter multiples of that enemy at once.
Sometimes those enemies carry weapons and, unless you are right next to them when you attack, you get pummeled quickly. If you knock an enemy down mid-attack, dead or otherwise, it seems impossible to turn around when another enemy comes up from behind. So the controls are hard to manage as well. The more I played, the more I learned you can move to certain spots to slow the attacks from multiple enemies. All the more frustrating is, in instances like the ninja mini-boss in the second level, if an object is thrown at you, it’s not possible to jump over it, and moving out of its path is almost as fruitless. When facing Mooby, who charges at you like a bull, even a space or two up or down on the screen will still result in being harmed. However, the same can’t be said when Jay or Bob punch or kick at enemies.
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The player is awarded “lives” in the form of Jay or Bob who can be used interchangeably. The characters gain health as they rest for longer periods of time. That seems to do little when facing the final bosses of each level. I’m not sure who the boss of the second level is (a character riding a horse), but they can’t be attacked as they rush you. They mirror your movement up and down the screen, and after a few hits they start to jump when you do, seemingly only able to be harmed as your character flashes in a brief moment of invincibility after being knocked over.
The aesthetic is enjoyable; an 8-bit fighter game straight from the eighties, emulating characters from the nineties. Power ups with Mooby burgers, ice cream, and weapons including a sock full of quarters. It’s fun game overall, however the player should be prepared to cuss as much as Jay leaving a review on MoviePoopShoot.com.
Snoogans.
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