Job the Leprechaun (Switch)

While there aren’t many games that would be a good fit to play on St. Patrick’s Day, the luck of the Irish must have been with me this year, as I just so happened to have a game all about a leprechaun on hand. While it’s not directly celebrating the holiday, the hero and the abundance of clovers he needs to collect certainly make it one of the better fits for a day with very few tie-in games.

You aren’t really given much context within the game for why Job the leprechaun is on his adventure, and even if you go looking at its digital store page to find that context, the other material simply says that a girl leprechaun named Eri needs rescued. Still, it’s not hard to assume the strong-jawed witch who you fight in the game’s two boss battles is the one responsible for her kidnapping. Job the Leprechaun does feature plenty of in-game messages to read, these usually appearing in response to a new gameplay mechanic or when you stand next to a sign, but most things are fairly intuitive to someone familiar with platformers and it’s a bit odd in retrospect none of these tried to give you a small story thread to contextualize your actions better.

Job the Leprechaun seems to be angling for an arcade-like design, the gameplay focused on quick play to the point almost every level has a timer. Most stages feature a flat 60 second timer, the player dying immediately once it has run out, and only a few of the larger levels pack hourglass items that can add more time to the clock. This timer is actually one of the game’s greater strengths, mainly because it works well with the level concepts. Rather than being a platformer about getting to the end of a level alive, Job must collect all the clovers in a stage to make the exit door appear that he then needs to reach in time. Most of Job the Leprechaun’s levels take on a boxy shape that condenses the action down into an area that can be navigated in that amount of time without stressing the player out, the right actions still necessary to achieve victory but with some degree of leniency so you aren’t struggling to reach the goal.

The bite-sized levels are easy to figure out at a glance but often require proper interaction with their ingredients to avoid wasting time. There are some stages where moving platforms move a bit too slow for an otherwise fast paced game, but for the most part the level design has plenty of decent jumping challenges where a drop doesn’t have to be punished with death to make it a proper threat. Even if you do lose a level because you get sloppy or move too slowly, it’s pretty easy to learn from your mistakes and make much better time next time and move much smarter when you dive back in, and since Job the Leprechaun has both continues and opportunities to earn extra lives, the occasional death isn’t too disheartening.

Job’s method of attack isn’t quite the best fit for this game though. There are plenty of dangerous enemies marching around the stages who will kill you the second they touch you, your means of taking them out being your large green magic hat that you flip forward in a light smack. The range on this attack is low and it takes a tiny bit of time to use it repeatedly, meaning there can be moments where you are a little off and end up the one being hit because the enemy slipped in between hat swipes. This isn’t too much of an issue once you understand the limitations of this attack and many foes can simply be ignored, but some baddies like the vertically flying bats and the angry red caterpillars will fire upon Job so often they must be dealt with. You might not be able to close in on these projectile-firing foes, but your hat is able to deflect their shots if you time the smack right, this mechanic useful in keeping your character safe but sometimes very slow in dealing with the constantly moving bats. Sometimes though you might have an extra tool to help you take out enemies, break obstacles, and even collect clovers. Job is able to hit special plants to send a ball rolling off to destroy whatever is in its path. What is apparently meant to be an elf can also help, the unusual creature having large trumpet like ears that will fire shots if you smack him.

There are other little mechanics at play to make sure that the levels don’t just need to rely on placing platforms and enemies in different spots to stay interesting. A happy smiling cow named Catalina can be bounced off of to reach higher areas, trees can hide important items like clovers or even a pot of gold that grants Job brief invincibility, and there are plenty of ladders used to traverse levels that are often taller than they are wide. Some stages feature some clearer gimmicks like needing to use the rolling balls to grab clovers you couldn’t otherwise be able to reach or having to survive a volley of bat fire as you wait for platforms to move into the right position, but most of the game presents simple layouts with simple challenges derived from enemy placement and the timer. A few unique levels exist such as a bonus level where you can earn extra lives by collecting as many clovers as possible, this stage taking on the form of a continuous horizontal run where you play as Catalina instead of Job. All she can do is jump and hitting the so-called forest demons only results in a loss of some of your collected clovers, but this level is perhaps stranger than it seems because it’s the only one of its type. Similarly, there are only two boss battles, but the witch isn’t a very difficult foe even when she’s got little devils teleporting in to help her the second time. The first battle did have an odd glitch trigger once where she jumped right out of the arena and couldn’t be killed, but even if this had been where a player lost their last life and continue to something out of their control, it wouldn’t hurt too much to start from the beginning because Job the Leprechaun is a very short game.

After a lush green world to start with that might be called Leprechaun Town despite its lack of buildings and a second world where werewolfs and zombies walk about a graveyard at night, Job the Leprechaun wraps up rather suddenly. The enforced speed of the regular levels makes it seem strange in retrospect that you completed nearly forty stages, and while that need to be quick is what makes the plain level design more interesting than the sum of its parts, it also means Job the Leprechaun rushes to an end where it doesn’t feel like you’ve played a full game. While there are definitely some very easy levels along the way, most of the stages are well crafted but not to the degree that they could really make the game exceptional if relied on as its only highlights. Had these stages been the opener to a longer game they’d fit right into something that could be great as more ideas were introduced, but Job the Leprechaun sits back and deems itself complete after it showed that its gameplay ideas could work even though it’s not going to try and take them any further. A game does not need to be long to be good, but Job the Leprechaun feels like it was cut short because its stride was so short-lived.

THE VERDICT: Job the Leprechaun’s compact platforming levels pair well with its focus on collecting clovers in a tight time limit, but its over far too quickly because of that reliance on small 60 second stages. It does dabble in the potential of its enemy designs and other minor mechanics, but before its really had the chance to establish itself it’s lowered the curtain and told the player they’ve won. The unfortunate shortness doesn’t hurt what you played, but it feels like Job the Leprechaun was building to something better and we instead only got the plain and simple stages that would have prepped the player for a much deeper experience.

And so, I give Job the Leprechaun for Nintendo Switch…

An OKAY rating. Besides the low range of the hat and the glitch encountered, Job the Leprechaun does have a decent handle on itself that gives me faith it could have been more if it had continued with its rollout of new concepts, but instead it feels its small set of serviceable stages will do the job. The push to be quick gives the boxy levels an interesting layer that ensures the game is somewhat enjoyable, and even at its simplest, you don’t have much time to dwell on the easier moments. However, Job the Leprechaun would have definitely benefited from a longer experience where it could continue to test the boundaries of its clover-collecting concept. Its low price is likely to help combat criticisms about its length, but it’s a game that could have charged more if it had decided to be more, the game continuing to show new ideas that mix together decently and could continue to evolve if they were given the room to intermingle more or interact with other new mechanics.

Job the Leprechaun seems to be going for an arcade-like appeal with its pixelated graphics and simple speedy design, and coupled with a jaunty backing track it does at least entertain somewhat with the ideas used to mimic retro gameplay. However, it quits before it can truly get ahead, meaning you’re left with a serviceable game to play on St. Patrick’s Day but one whose short length is too egregious to ignore.