Jacksmith is a new building game by FliplineStudios, who has made countless Papa games, that have gone on to be very popular. In this game, your goal is to supply your soldiers with excellent-quality weapons so they can kill a bunch of monsters to aid your journey. I’m personally not a big fan of the food/time management games that have made Flipline one of the best recognized game development studios out there. When I first saw Jacksmith, I thought that I wouldn’t like it and it would be very similar to the Papa’s series, but I was surprised to find that not only was this game different from the grind of Papa series, and had many original concepts, but also that held many of the characteristics of that series, but managed to make it into something exciting and action-packed, which was a nice spin on the genre.

Jacksmith

The game had a good difficulty factor. As long as you could keep producing a good product, with high marks in forging and construction, you could kill most of the enemies. All of the weapons were easy to construct and only took a minute or so from start to finish and into the soldier’s hands. The instruction were easy, clear and could be memorized easily. The real challenge doesn’t kick in until the battles, where you would either receive a secret recipe, by killing all of the enemies, or not. I’m not entirely sure how you can lose in this game, as death only advances your adventure, but certainly if you want to make it to the end of the game with a bit of experience behind you, you’ll want to be producing some good weaponry, find new recipes, and try out different strategies (which all require you to do somewhat well in the game). In the battles, your weapons, that you made are being used with the stats of how well you constructed them. Some of them will be weaker, due to a bad build, while others will be stronger because you made them exceptionally well. I love this factor, because while you don’t need to make good weapons to make it to the battlefield, you’ll need to focus on quality to actually win the battles. This connection is what gives satisfaction, in my opinion, the ability to see your work in use and rewarding you for doing well.

In the game, your goal earn a huge reward for saving a princess that has been kidnapped and along the way you have to supply soldiers with weapons. The gameplay is similar to the Papa series, in the fact that you have to forge/build things for your customers, but Jacksmith does this is a much more entertaining fashion by setting it in a medieval era and having your weapons slay opposing monsters. I really liked how the game introduced all of the different weapons and soldiers. For the first “world” you were exposed to new soldiers types and their weapons for every levels. This was a nice teaching method, as it stressed the forging and construction of each weapon independently. My biggest problem with the Papa series was that I didn’t find the job satisfying and interesting. Jacksmith changes that and has you construction long-swords, double axes, bows and more that can all be customized. This is one of the best parts of the game, the customizability; you could build countless unique weapons that would give you an advantage in the battlefield and simply looked awesome. Finally, the thing that ends every day, the battles. What I liked about the battles, were that you got to see if your weapons are up to par with the strength, or numbers of the enemies. All of the battles were usually only completable with special weapons. This is both challenging and opens new avenues for the players, where they have to find good combinations to take down the enemies.

Jacksmith

One thing that you are always guaranteed with Flipline is high-quality art. Everything was very beautiful, from the weapons, to the soldiers, and the smooth animations. The characters, looked very good and had realistic animation they breathed life into them. The attention to detail is really fantastic, the shading is great. All of the different fighting animations look great. Another part that i enjoyed was making the weapons and seeing them transform before me from ores, to a basic weapon, to one that is decorated. This gives the user the ability to change how the weapon looks and gives them more control, which I love. Also, all of the different menus looked really great and all of the space was utilized wisely.

All in all, Jacksmith is one of my favorite games by Flipline, just behind Cactus McCoy, but of course,the two are very different and I love both of them for different reasons. If you thought that the Papa series was decent, but didn’t really fully capture a lot of excitement, or even if you were a big fan of the series, then you’ll want to give this game a chance as it covers many of the aspects of the Papa series, but instead, what I consider to be in a much more exciting atmosphere. In recap, the game had a good difficulty system in my opinion, and it was all based on how well you prepared and how well you made the different items – nothing was left to chance and in the end, all of the big decision came while crafting the weapons. The gameplay was incredible. I was a bit worried that it would be like the Papa series, where you make a simple object, you get paid and then it endlessly repeats, but in Jacksmith, you aren’t making simple things anymore, but you place more significance on the thing you make, and their quality, when you now that they are actually going to make a difference in the future. Finally, the artwork was fantastic, as i expected of Flipline. The characters, scenery and weapons all looked great and created a nice mood for the game. Overall, this is one of the best games that I’ve played in a while and applaud Flipline for this great game and adding to the concepts of the Papa series, but also bringing it into a much more action-oriented setting. Be sure to play this game today on Kongregate!

Play Jacksmith on Kongregate!