Jack Bros. is a game that is part of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, and the first game in the entire franchise to make its way to North America (Europe would have to wait another decade for its first Shin Megami Tensei game). It stars Jack Frost, Jack Lantern and Jack Skelton (who was originally Jack the Ripper) as they try to make their way back to the fairy world before Halloween runs over.

The game plays like a twin stick shooter, with the left D-pad moving and the right D-pad shooting in four directions. It’s very smooth and plays really nicely. Your aim is to make your way through mazes, with each world consisting of multiple floors. There’s a very strict time limit so you’ll need to complete all floors of each world quickly. You also have no health in the game, instead, getting hit will take away precious time.

As there are puzzles to solve and lots of wrong routes – the game likes to play tricks on you, especially late on – you’ll run out of time a lot. Each world is a case of working out things as you go and committing it to memory for your next run. It gets very difficult, but is always enjoyable.

The 3D effects are really night, with the walls of the maze sticking out and the maze below visible underneath. Their depth effects aren’t vital to playing, but are an example of how they can make a game look nice. As the game uses textures, each world still gets a unique look despite only having red and black. Jack Bros is one of the highlights of the Virtual Boy.

Most of the early releases are simple games, but not Jack Bros. After choosing one of three characters you set off to find the keys to escape from 60 levels of dungeons complexes, all peopled by enemies and spiked with traps. Could be a goody.

Super Play #34

Fun

Remake or remaster?

This would make for a great downloadable title. It doesn’t need the 3D so some colour and some depth of field effects for the below mazes would look great.