Jay and Silent Bob's decade-old beat 'em up is launching on 4/20

Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch is launching on April 20 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. Actors Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, and Trevor Fehrman reunited in a brief promotional video to confirm the release date. They slipped right back into their old Clerks dynamics to deliver the news. The clip ends with a short blooper reel from the shoot.

The game is a 2D side-scrolling beat 'em up developed by Interabang Entertainment. It is being published by Atari alongside Digital Eclipse and The MIX Games. Players control the titular duo through suburban New Jersey. The campaign starts at a Quick Stop grocery store and ends at an underground mystical mall. The combat system allows for solo play with tag-team character swapping. Two-player local co-op is also available for those who prefer to play with a friend.

Ten years of development

Interabang Entertainment originally announced the project and launched a Fig crowdfunding campaign in 2016. The campaign raised over $400,000 from backers. The game then spent years quietly iterating in the background. The developers provided occasional updates to their backers. The project largely stayed out of the spotlight until Atari stepped in to handle publishing duties.

The visual style relies on hand-drawn character animations and comic-book hit effects. The developers clearly spent time studying classic arcade brawlers. The animation frames are detailed and expressive. They avoid the stiff skeletal animation look common in modern budget titles.

Combat involves building up an assist meter to summon other characters from Kevin Smith's film universe. Dante, for example, can be called in to deliver an attack. Sometimes the assist characters completely whiff their attacks and fire in the wrong direction. This feels entirely appropriate for a game based on characters known for their incompetence.

Mechanics and bosses

The core gameplay loop involves chaining basic attacks into larger combos to collect items that power up special moves. Players use those resources to launch video-game-inspired super attacks. They can also transform into Bluntman and Chronic to freeze time and clear the screen. It is a traditional arcade setup with modern quality-of-life adjustments.

The enemy roster draws heavily from the films. Players will fight hockey hooligans, hipsters, and various teenage thugs. The boss encounters scale things up considerably. One early boss is a giant muscular man in a purple suit and tie who takes up a large portion of the screen. Players will need to use their assist characters and tag-team mechanics to manage these larger health pools.

Original voice cast

The voice cast includes Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith reprising their roles. The returning Clerks actors provide additional voice work for their respective characters. The dialogue is fully voiced and leans heavily into the R-rated humor of the source material. The ESRB slapped it with a Mature 17+ rating. This should surprise absolutely no one familiar with these movies.

The game costs $20 and sits firmly in the budget arcade brawler category. Digital pre-orders are currently open across the major console and PC storefronts. Backers from the 2016 campaign have exactly ten days to remember which email address they used to sign up.