Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch Review

First announced a decade ago, Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch is aptly releasing on April 20th - a traditional stage by stage beat em up with a hand drawn art style. Set in movie director and writer Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse, the game is a nostalgic return to the worlds many people watched growing up.

Developed by Interabang Entertainment, the studio behind the pixelated brawler, Jay and Silent Bob: Mall Brawl. No stranger to Kevin Smith's world, Interabang have upped the production on Chronic Blunt Punch in every way.

You play as the titular duo of best friends, Jay and Silent Bob, as they embark on a quest from the New Jersey Quick Stop store from Clerks, to the mall and beyond, to stop whoever is wreaking havoc. All whilst encountering many familiar locations and faces from Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse movies. References like the fast food outlet Mooby's, or William from Mallrats, who stares at the Magic Eye picture to try and see a sailboat.

While Interabang includes a few animated cutscenes to setup the story, Jay and Silent Bob's adventure is mostly told through voiceless conversations that feature hand drawn 2D character portraits and the pairs' trademark crude humour, as you travel around the world via a nicely drawn world map. But it is disappointing that the nice 2D portraits aren't voiced when the project has Kevin Smith's blessing; a missed opportunity to not have Jason Mewes give an energetic performance as Jay and Kevin Smith to deliver a few lines of Silent Bob wisdom.

Despite this exclusion, the pair have voiced barks when switching between the characters in the single-player story mode. Yet sound effects do a exemplary job of distinguishing enemy types, such as the phone addicted, segway riding kids, to the return of Dogma's giant poop monsters, and aliens disguised as priests.

As you'd expect from a brawler, the game has a fun, looping score that doesn't ever get irritating. It simply supports the continuous flow of combat during the short playtime of around 4-5 hours.

While Jay and Silent Bob's crude humour and puns will go a long way for those supporters eager to spend more time with Kevin Smith's characters, dedicated beat 'em up players desire a solid foundation of strong combat and evolving gameplay. Interabang get the fundamentals right: there's a light attack to pepper enemies with punches and kicks, heavy attacks to initiate thunderous blows, a swift dodge to avoid deadly assaults, a somewhat ineffective block, and the ability to tag and swap between the two playable characters. 

Beat 'em up veterans will be please to know that Chronic Blunt Punch goes beyond the basic buttons. Powerful combos can be made by mixing light and heavy attacks, an uppercut can propel an enemy skyward for a juggling attack, and most importantly, the pair can dodge towards enemies and strike them to the ground to control any overwhelming crowds.

Although, the combat balance falls apart whenever enemies overcrowd the screen. I found myself stun-locked many times during my playthrough, in a situation where I'd get knocked down and stand, to only be knocked down again without a chance to move. This happened numerous times to the point where I had to abandon a run, and because the game doesn't have lives, checkpoints or continues at bosses, this feels even more frustrating than it needed to be. But when Interabang intentionally designed the game to mimic a challenging retro experience, where a twenty minute run can be destroyed in seconds, it feels unfair to get trapped in these attack loops.

It's obvious the developers wanted to encourage replayability and learning enemy patterns with these difficulty design decisions. But in the modern era and for approachability, adding difficulty options or checkpoints would've been a welcome addition. Although, they do attempt to alleviate some challenge with a vague level up system that momentarily flashes on screen. But they don't explain what it does in the opening tutorial or in the barebones menu which only explains move sets and displays unlockable concept art. I found it hard to comprehend how, or if these upgrades actually made a difference to how my characters battled beyond a new move being unlocked.

Although, the biggest gameplay feature in single-player is tagging to swap characters. This lets you choose when to switch characters, whether managing their health or charging up a particular power up. Strategically choosing who to give the rare food found inside breakable objects to. Making the difficult decision of which character is going to take on the boss at full health. You decide based on who's got a charge special move or assist character ready to use. By beating enemies, Jay and Silent Bob pick up objects to fill up a blue special move meter, and charge the green assist attack meter by simply fighting and taking damage.

Special moves are strong attacks that come in two forms: at half a charged bar, it does a good amount of damage, and with a full charge, an extremely powerful attack where Jay and Silent Bob become their superhero alter-egos, Blunt Man and Chronic.

However, it's the assist characters that can instantly turn a fight in your favour. You can summon Dante and Randal from Clerks to perform strong attacks, or the assist I found most useful to counteract the challenging restart level structure, George Carlin's Cardinal Glick from Dogma, who restores both characters to full health, whether they're alive or dead - a fight changing ability that circumvents the revive function that is almost impossible with enemies still alive.

But it was the hand drawn art that caught my eye when starting the game. Both Jay and Silent Bob benefit from numerous smooth and detailed animations, which emphasises every punch and kick. This carries over to the enemy designs inspired by the View Askewniverse, especially the bosses: a mall security guard who's uniform is holding in his body, two priests that throw dangerous objects to each other and a handful more. 

Bosses often have multiple phases, which can easily be failed with a simple mistake when unfamiliar with their attack patterns. Some bosses feel well designed and fair, but it's when other generic enemies are spawned into the battle that things begin to lose shape. Sometimes it's fine, but when enemies spam attacks and you get stuck it can be incredibly frustrating. Single-player is impacted the most, as your AI partner simply follows you around and doesn't attack or help in any way. Whereas, if you play the included couch co-op, your friend can get you out of such a bind.

This feeling of unfairness continues in another gameplay element found in certain levels, the Mash Time. Where you reach a giant fallen tree, a car that needs breaking or a wall you need to get through. Then, you mash the light attack for what feels like a long time until the path is open. However, later in the game, many enemies spawn to prevent you from opening the path, and one landed hit, interrupts the process. Again, it would've been a pleasant addition if the AI attempted to block the enemies from getting to you, like you can in co-op. It's these small instances that lead to frustration.

It also felt like many of the hand drawn freeze frames and 2D character portraits were in a lower resolution than the actual gameplay portions. It's a little thing, but it did catch my eye. And it's important to note that although the gameplay will satisfy many beat em up players, the unabashedly Jay and Silent Bob humour might not be to everyone's taste. But the story isn't the strongest; it's more about the nostalgia of reliving enjoyable things from the past.

In certain ways, Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch is a solid addition to the modern renaissance of best 'em ups, but the frustrations and lack of gameplay modes hold it back. For fans of Kevin Smith, who like challenging games, there's enough to enjoy a few nostalgic nights revisiting something you remember fondly. But if someone is strictly searching for a great all round beat 'em up, Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch might be too challenging or frustrating when there are more balanced options available.

*Review Code Provided By Publisher