Pumpkin Jack is a 2020 Action-Adventure Platform Game developed by Nicolas Meyssonnier and published by Headup Games, Beep Japan, Hit Point Co. Ltd.
In an era of peace and prosperity, The Devil has decided to stir up trouble among the mortals of the Great Arc En Ciel Kingdom. He casts the Curse of Eternal Night, summoning monsters of all kinds to lay waste all across the kingdom and the world. However, a Wizard has set to work on finding a way to break the Curse of Eternal Night and ending the Devil's fun. The Devil calls upon Stingy Jack and makes a deal with him: if he killed the Wizard before he lifts the curse, Jack will no longer wander the spirit realm and will be allowed passage into the afterlife.
Pumpkin Jack is download-only and can be played on Nintendo Switch, Android, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
This game contains examples of:
- Anachronism Stew:
- Jack derisively calls his crow companion an "emo canary" at one point.
- If Jack finds a gramophone, it will play a beat that Jack with then breakdance to.
- Badass Santa: He's the Wizard's last line of defense in the North, and is able to use his magic to survive Jack blowing his workshop sky high.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The game ends with Jack killing the Wizard and taking the Amulet of Final Ember for himself, turning him into a Physical God. Now the Devil's monstrous horde is free to wreak Hell on Earth and Jack is free to do as he pleases. The End.
- Blob Monster: Gluttony, a gigantic blob of slime with some bones inside that wears a house as armor, wields a giant fork and knife as weapons, and sends smaller blobs to attack Jack. It's completely invincible to Jack's attacks, so he has to go inside it's stomach and trick it into breaking some pillars in there to damage it.
- Bottomless Magazines: The "wand" Jack gets after beating the witch has unlimited ammo.
- Chummy Mummy: The game's vendor is a mummy that sells skins for Jack's character model.
- Good Is Not Nice: The sole redeeming quality of the Wizard is that he is trying to save humanity from the Devil's forces, as he is thoroughly unpleasant otherwise. This trope comes back to bite him when it turns out his spirit isn't pure enough for him to use the Amulet of Final Ember.
- Heel Realization: The Crow asks if he and Jack are the bad guys upon learning Santa Claus is allied with the Wizard.
- Hero Antagonist: The Wizard dedicates himself to ending the Curse of Eternal Night and saving humanity, this being why Jack was sent to kill him in the first place. Granted, he seems to be in it only for recognition and scientific curiosity, so there is some karma when Jack beats him.
- Informed Attribute: Jack is constantly referred to as a legendary trickster and con man, but the only part of him that reflects this is the fact that he's a Deadpan Snarker. Kind of hard to get those kind of qualities across in an action-based platformer.
- Kill It with Fire: His body mostly composed of wood, cloth and pumpkin, Jack is especially vulnerable to fire.
- King Mook: Phantom is a bigger, badder version of the common floating skeleton enemies.
- Minecart Madness: The mine level includes a section where Jack and the Crow ride a minecart to get further into the mines to the wizard.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The Crow has this reaction to Jack killing Santa Claus, but he gets over it pretty quickly.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Despite the fact that the various monsters in the game are the Devil's making and Jack is on a mission on the Devil's behalf, monsters still make-up the majority of enemies. This is explained that the monsters are mindless and soulless, thus all they care about is causing destruction with no sense of loyalty.
- Ominous Owl: Jack's Mission Control is an owl sent by the Devil to keep an eye on him.
- Once per Episode: Each level will include a new weapon and a segment where Jack's head must navigate a lever puzzle.
- Our Liches Are Different: The second boss of the game — Phantom — is a ghostly-skeletal being with lit candles on his shoulders created to guard the Wizard's study in the Abandoned Mine.
- Pumpkin Person: The Devil placed Stingy Jack's soul into a pumpkin, manifesting a humanoid Scary Scarecrow form with a jack o'lantern for a head.
- Pure Is Not Good: The one thing that can unlock the full power of the Amulet of Final Ember is a "pure human spirit." In this case, Jack fits that description because his spirit is free from any real confinement.
- Seven Deadly Sins: At the cemetery, Jack is tasked with unleashing the Seven Deadly Sins from their confinement, Gluttony being the boss of the level.
- Shock and Awe: The Wizard's attacks are all lightning based.
- Shout-Out:
- The hook you get after beating the Scarecrow bares a striking resemblance to a Cooper Family cane.
- The tombstones you have to use to solve a puzzle in the Graveyard level is chocked full of these. The names on the graves refer to a bit of everything, including Archer, Lord of the Rings, South Park, The Office (US), and A Song of Ice and Fire. Some of the graves really have fun with the names too, like "Token The White"note and "LANAAAAAA Snow"note .
- Sinister Scythe: Defeating Dhor earns Jack a glowing-purple scythe made of animal bones.
- Starter Villain: The first boss you encounter is a Scary Scarecrow that the local crows have been living in fear of.
- Stingy Jack: The player character is the legendary figure himself, out to complete a mission for the Devil and finally enter the afterlife.
- We Have Reserves: While the various monsters of the game are the Devil's creations, he doesn't care that Jack has to kill all of the ones in his way to get to the Wizard as they are "practically worthless."
- Villain Protagonist: In life, Stingy Jack was a con artist and trickster. In the game, his mission is to kill the very person trying to undo the Devil's campaign of death and destruction in the kingdom.
