Jay and Silent Bob – Mall Brawl Review

Developed and published by Interabang Entertainment Jay and Silent Bob – Mall Brawl is a side-scrolling beat-em-up that full of nostalgia. From the initial glance and first impression of playing you wouldn’t be far wrong by saying it’s a reskinned Double Dragon. The graphics, music, controls, and even the enemies send me right back to when I played that game back on the Master System.

The story is loosely based on a sub-story of the film Mallrats with some hints of Clerks and references from other Kevin Smith films. The game starts with you being chased by Lafours – the security guard for the mall – and is after you for ruining the game show. After you evade him by hiding behind the curtains the game starts. You have to fight your way back to the quick stop which is the convenience store that Jay and Silent Bob like to hang out at.

The initial controls will take any old school players of Double Dragon back to the past. One button for punch, one for kick and one for jump, though the combat has been amended slightly in that the characters have some unique combos. Jay has a unique kicking combo, while Silent Bob has a unique punching combo. You can mix and match the punching and kicking and you can grab a stunned enemy, which is a rare occurrence. As with Double Dragon, some enemies carry weapons which you can knock out of their hand and use for yourself. There is a star system in place where you earn stars by performing certain attacks. These stars can then be used to perform special attacks but I never saw anything different. I just know when I perform some of the combos the star disappears so I can only assume it makes the combo stronger but it’s never really explained. When you press start to pause the game you are given different tips and that’s the only place that mentioned what the stars are about but it still didn’t make too much sense.

The enemies and level design are probably the most interesting parts of the game. The game has a bit of an assumption that you are very familiar with Kevin Smith’s work otherwise some of the characters will go over your head. As I mentioned, Lafours the security guard – although not mentioned by name in game – is the boss for the first level. You have the Easter bunny too in the level which is also a reference to Mallrat, but most of the other enemies are from other films like Jay and Silent Bob Strike back, Chasing Amy and Clerks. There are also generic enemies like hockey fans, guys on skateboards and little kids. Although most of the bosses are figures from the movies there was one enemy that made me chuckled and cemented the fact this game leans heavily on Double Dragon.

That enemy is called Adoughbo, and Double Dragon fans may remember the hulking enemies with a massive head called Abobo. Well, Adoughbo is that enemy but with a pretzel for a head which is a reference to the chocolate covered pretzel scene in Mallrats. The game can be played in 2 player mode but only locally. If you do play by yourself then you can switch character during the level which you will need to do quite often to preserve health and because some enemies are easier to fight with either Jay or Bob. The game is relatively short which is what you would expect from a copy of an older game but it is pretty tough. There is a level halfway through which you have to ride on shopping trolleys whilst avoiding objects and that took me a good 10 tries before I got past it. Even if you complete the game there is a twist that you can complete the game again but the levels are much harder for a mild attempt at longevity.

Conclusion

As a big Kevin Smith fan, I was looking forward to reviewing this game as I thought it might be reference heavy. It was, but some were more subtle than others and required you to know about most of his catalogue to get the references. It was an OK playthrough but that was more because I enjoyed the Double Dragon nostalgia feel. This feels halfway between a hard-worked fan-created effort and a cash grab of reskinning an older game.

This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox One console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.