Similar to the motion pictures it is drawing from, Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch is aware of precisely what it’s. It’s stuffed with crude humor aimed squarely at followers of the originals—and the demographic that sees itself represented in its stars, myself included—and to that finish, Chronic Blunt Punch’s humorousness breathed life into quite a lot of my latest demo. Related to that unabashed humorousness, that is blissful to be a basic beat-em-up.
I went hands-on with a near-final model of the newest JSB recreation and was given all however free reign to run wild via New Jersey as the unlikely heroes. Enjoying solo, I used to be roughly instructed that I might hit a degree that was too troublesome to strive with out getting a recreation over. However, as if I might been hit by a power blunt punch, I misplaced observe of time.
Whereas I can not precisely inform how far I made it into the closing recreation, I cleared a number of ranges and a meaty 45-minute chunk of the important story, chuckling at the animations, character designs, and set dressing alongside the approach. I wound up overstaying my scheduled appointment and by no means truly hit that difficulty-induced recreation over. This is likely to be the greatest (and, actually solely) deviation from the toothy beat-em-ups of yore.
Chronic Blunt Punch would not really feel designed to gobble quarters fairly the approach its ancestors did. That is for higher and for worse. On one hand, I felt rewarded for my understanding of primary beat-em-up combos and use of each Jay and Silent Bob’s distinct movesets and I landed them to satisfying impact. On the different hand, these combos had been restricted to round 4 or 5 per stoner. So, faraway from a few of the more difficult data checks you would possibly anticipate from an arcade brawler, issues felt fairly easy and, frankly, simple.
It nonetheless has one or two quirks I believe may’ve been left in the previous, although. I summoned an help from Clerks’ Dante (he’s not even supposed to be right here at present!), and his assault simply utterly whiffed, regardless of what felt like a cautious lineup of my assault, as a result of it inexplicably fired off in the wrong way. However this did not really feel like a lack of expertise or talent, I might deployed Dante as a combo finisher a handful of instances in prior ranges with out difficulty.
Similar to the beat-’em-up classics that impressed it, Chronic Blunt Punch nonetheless has a free sufficient fight system that I may sometimes innovate, particularly after using a launcher and experimenting with how finest to slap an enemy out of the air.
For me, that is simply the proper sort of meat-and-potatoes design to maintain me hooked for a day or two, particularly with a buddy.
Its humorousness largely saved me chuckling, too. There have been some factors the place I may sort of inform this recreation had been in improvement for 10 years, specifically thanks to some outdated caricatures I encountered, like beanie-sporting millennial dads hitting cartoonish vapes, barbers with massive beards and handlebar moustaches, and zombie-like, phone-obsessed, center school-aged Zoomers (most of us are actually in our 20s). Nonetheless, most of its jokes, largely delivered via visible gags by way of detailed animations and parody commercials, obtained a smile out of me.
Even the outdated stuff normally got here with one thing cheeky. Knocking out a brand new dad with Jay’s large bo—sorry, water pipe—resulted in a humorous animation the place the dad will get knocked on his again and his child farts in his face. These animations weren’t simply low cost autos for gutter humor, both. Every animation landed with spectacular element, many stuffed with references to the basic beat-’em-ups and preventing video games that Chronic Blunt Punch is modeled after, like Jay instantly rising legally distinct, totally-not-adamantium blades from his fingers for one in all his supers.
The restricted glimpses of written dialogue I noticed hit the nail on the head, too. One particularly goofy interlude throughout the park stage involving an almost-naked outdated man in a high hat and a man in simply tighty whities and a superhero masks arguing about the finest approach to cook dinner a raccoon almost introduced me to tears.
Bashing Zoomers and Hockey Punks as the red-eyed Forrest Gumps of Kevin Smith’s View Askewniverse was so enjoyable that I misplaced observe of time. Developer Interabang Leisure is not attempting to reinvent the wheel with Chronic Blunt Punch, and nor ought to they! If my first session with Jay and Silent Bob’s newest journey is any indication, that is going to be an easy, arcade-y brawler that delivers precisely what it is supposed to with out lacking a beat. Fortunately, you will not have to wait lengthy in case you’re keen to throw fingers in the streets of North Jersey, as a result of Chronic Blunt Punch is due out on April twentieth.