Jackal
Nintendo Entertainment System
Nostalgia Factor:
I remember the first time I ever played Jackal. It was the late 80s. I was at my grandparents’ house, and all my uncles were gone for the day. I snuck into their room to play their NES while they were gone, since they never let me play when they were home. One of the titles I played was Jackal. I had never heard of Jackal before, but I thought that the cover art looked cool, so I gave it a shot.
I spent a good amount of time with this game. Despite having never heard of it before, and despite not being a fan of anything that wasn’t a 2D platformer, I really liked Jackal. I played the game over and over again, making it a little bit further with each attempt. Unfortunately, my uncles came home and I had to quickly turn off the game and run out of the room before they knew I was in there using their video game system, or I would risk getting hit and/or beat up.
Although I had a fun time with Jackal, the opportunity never came for me to play it again. 20 some years passed before I found a copy of the game at a used video game store. I immediately remembered that one fun day back in the 80s that I had with Jackal, and I bought it. I did play through the game and finish it, but then it went back on the shelf for another ten years before I decided to play it again for this review. So that’s where we are now.
Story:
I don’t have an instruction manual for this game, so I can’t say I really know anything about its story. Honestly, I don’t think it’s important.
You play as a couple of dudes in a tank, who drive around and blow shit up and rescue your captured comrades from the enemy. At the end of the game, you destroy the enemy base and the game ends.
A very deep storyline, to be sure.
Gameplay:
Jackal takes place from a top-down perspective. You are in control of a tank, which you can use to move up, down, left, and right. One of the buttons fires your machine gun, but for some odd design reason it can only fire up - or “north” if you so prefer. You also can toss grenades out of your tank, and luckily you can throw these in any direction you want.
Your main goal is to drive north, destroying any enemies that appear on the screen. Main enemies include foot soldiers, tanks, and gun and missile turrets. You’ll encounter other enemies, such as helicopters that fly overhead and submarines that pop out of the water and shoot at you. There are six stages, and each stage ends in its own unique boss fight.
As you progress through the game, you will destroy enemy prisons and collect the POWs that come running out. Some of these POWs are flashing, and when you collect one of them it upgrades your hand grenade attack. One upgrade turns it into a missile that is much faster than your grenade, and a second upgrade turns it into a bomb that explodes in all four directions and damages anything that it touches. When you have collected all of a stage’s POWs, you then drop them off at a helicopter pad, where they board a helicopter and escape to freedom.
One hit kills you and makes you lose your weapon upgrades, so you have to be very careful as you play. This is a relatively difficult game. Bullets are going to come pouring in from every direction, and you are going to find yourself constantly playing defense to avoid getting hit. You get three or four lives and a limited number of continues. If you lose all your lives and continues, you get sent all the way back to the beginning of the game and have to start over again. On my first attempt for this review, I made it all the way to the game’s final boss before I lost all my lives and continues and had to start over again. Ouch. But hey I did it on my second attempt!
Graphics:
The game looks decent. It pales in comparison to other Konami games like Contra, but I would not say that it looks bad at all. Just very… simple. Lots of browns and greens. Not a whole lot of detail put into things. But hey this came out in 1986. What more can you really expect? I find its look charming. I would never say that this is a beautiful game, but I wouldn’t say it is ugly either. It’s just… okay looking.
Sound:
I like the game’s music and sound effects. They’re a notch above the game’s graphics. They bring to mind classic titles like Ninja Gaiden and Contra.
I do have to give an extra shout out to the little jingle that plays when you pass a level. It serves as both a congratulation for passing the level and a way to get you pumped up for the next stage. Really, how could this adorable little jingle not get you psyched to play some more Jackal?
Overall:
I was 99% sure that I would still like this game when I popped it in, and my suspicions proved to be true. This is just such a fun, underrated NES classic. How have more people not played Jackal? How has there never been a sequel for this game? I don’t know, but I want answers, dang it.
Jackal takes probably an hour to beat. I didn’t pay any attention to the clock as I played, so it might even be shorter than that, depending on how many times you die and have to restart from the beginning. But it’s a damn fine hour, if I do say so myself. This is such a fun game. I don’t know how you could not like it. It’s fun, it’s quaint, it’s charming. It oozes classic NES 80s charm. Also, there is no denying that picking up the little green POWs and dropping them off at the helipad is incredibly satisfying for some reason.
Jackal is not only fun, but also very user friendly. You can jump right into this game and get the hang of it in mere minutes. It starts out easy enough, but the game is no cakewalk. It becomes quite challenging the deeper into it you get. But it is a fun, fair challenge. Never did I feel cheated or feel like I died because of an unfair game mechanic.
I haven’t even mentioned Jackal’s simultaneous multiplayer component. I didn’t play this game with a second player, but I can imagine it would be quite fun playing with a friend as well. Maybe I’ll play this game with a pal someday and re-review it for this blog. I bet it’s a blast.
So those are my thoughts on the game. I like it. You should play it. What else is there to say? Jackal is not a perfect game, but it does what it sets out to do, and it does it well. If I had to make a list of my favorite NES games of all time, Jackal might surprise some people with a very high placement. It is really fun. Trust me.
Final Score:
A
If you liked my review of Jackal, check out some of my other NES reviews:
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