Disclaimer: Jack N' Jill DX is game I received from developer Rohan Narang, Publisher Ratalaika Games, and Twitter person IndieGamerGirl as part of the #IndieXmas2018 event to help get the word out on indie games developed for various systems and platforms. The stipulation upon receiving the game free of charge was to talk about the game, with no promise of further compensation for either a good or a bad review. Simply talk about the game. And that is what we are here to do.
The first thing that struck me about Jack N' Jill DX developed by Rohan Karang, was that the monochrome color palette closely resembles that of the original Game Boy, but the graphics and art design are clean and sharp. So do not go thinking that the visual aesthetic also includes the chugginess of Super Mario Land or Castlevania: The Adventure. The music is also similar in tone to Game Boy era music, but takes advantage of the ability to have more than a few fingers worth of tones.
The basic premise of the game is a fairly simple one. You play a blob, either Jack or Jill (with Jill wearing a bow, but otherwise, both characters play the same as the other), and you press the A button to start running, and then press A again to jump over obstacles, collecting coins along the way until you reach your counterpart waiting at the end of the stage. I feel like it is a decent mix of the runner-on-rails model of BIT.TRIP.RUNNER with the platforming and goal of reaching your partner in Super Meat Boy. The controls are not quite as tight and accurate as Super Meat Boy (or nowhere near as manic), but I do not think that JNJ:DX is trying to be another Super Meat Boy, but instead its own game that feels influenced than anything else.
Before I get to the music in the game, from composer Nicole Marie T, I want to talk about the one sound issue that almost sounds too much Game Boy era sound effects. In the third world, ice blocks are introduced that break after you run/scurry across them. As you go across them, they break apart with a rather loud banging noise that sounds probably very close to if you hit an ice block with a sledge hammer and processed that sound through the audio chip in a Game Boy. Let me give you an example below.
I think an equally effective tinkly-splish-shattering sound rather than this meaty bang would have been less harsh on the ear drums and the inner ear.
As for the music now, that is a completely different matter. Nicole Marie T. has written some music that not only fits perfectly with the visual aesthetic, but it also fits in well with Game Boy music in general, but it not as harsh as a lot of Game Boy music was forced to be. The title music is a perfect example of the catchiness as well as the tone for the rest of the game.
This opening track is perfectly suited to bring the player into the world of Jack N' Jill and the music for the individual worlds as well. One possible criticism, although not necessarily on the part of Nicole Marie T., is that each world is made up of 20 levels. The same song plays throughout the world and only changes when you make it to the next world. Sometimes by the 10th level out of 20, you might start aching for a new song to play, especially if the levels are becoming more increasingly difficult (looking right at you World 5-1!). However, just like BIT.TRIP.RUNNER, when your character dies and you are taken back to the beginning of the level, the music continues and does not stop. Again, this continuation of the music, for me at least, keeps me in the game and coupled with the near instantaneous restarting of the level does not let the player dwell on the characters death while they wait another five seconds to try the level again.
Presently, I am on World 5-1 which is 57% of the way through the game and I can definitely see myself finishing the game, especially over while on the two hour flight down to SoCal this weekend. There is a lot of content to this indie title including being able to buy (with in-game earned currency) different colors to play the game in as well as cosmetic items such as hats and hair for either Jack or Jill. There are also challenges which are essentially Achievements (for the Switch version at least), but do not pop up in-game when you earn them. There is also apparently a Mirror Mode which I presume is the entire game, but played in stages where the world is mirrored. So maybe there are an additional 140 levels after the first 140 levels? That could be interesting.
So that is really it for Jack N' Jill DX, or at least all that I really want to say. There is some more to the game but coming across it on your own is a lot more interesting than me telling you that in each world, a new skill or game mechanic is introduced, but done in such a way that the learning curve is not at all steep. See how boring that was. So go play the game for yourself if you like.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
P.S. You can check our Twitter feed where I talk a bit more off the cuff (maybe?) about Jack N' Jill DX as well as talk about other games that have been featured on IndieXmas2018.
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