“I feel better when I am surrounded, not by humans, but by trees.”
―
When I was a little girl, edutainment games were all the rage on PC. I was raised on games like Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and Reader Rabbit. These went along well with The Magic School Bus and other fun shows we’d watch at school when the teacher wanted an easy lesson. I was a little nerd, so I loved it all. What grabbed me most, though, were the games and shows about saving the environment. Captain Planet was my hero. Don’t ask me how many times I played through the obscure Lucasarts game Mortimer and the Riddles of the Medallion, where you freed time-frozen animals. FernGully? That was my JAM. Nothing captured my attention so much as saving the world by saving the green spaces.
And then I grew up and all those edutainment games I loved stopped being “cool” and “fun.” I got too old for them.
And then I grew up some more and said, “Pbbt. I play what I want.”
So here I am, age 36, playing and reviewing a game that by all rights should appeal to kids a third of my age, and I loved it.
Let’s talk about LumbearJack.
You are Jack, a humble lumber bear and, it seems, a very deep hibernator. While you were sleeping, the evil human corporation, Evil Works (what a name), has somehow managed to throw and build a whole lot of junk in your forest without you noticing. Pollution everywhere! It’s up to Jack to pick up his ax and restore his forest to its original green state. He’ll do this stage by stage, solving puzzles and using the garbage to upgrade his ax to break more stuff. At the end, your work is evaluated by whether you’ve removed every bit of trash, machinery, and buildings…and if you’ve taught the humans in the level a lesson they won’t soon forget.
Wait, are you suggesting Jack uses violence? I thought this was a kids’ game!
Don’t worry, it’s as kid-friendly as it can be. Despite being a bear, our gentle Jack doesn’t hurt anyone. He literally slaps some sense into them, turning the hapless polluters into forest friends, teaching them to enjoy picnics, yoga, and paper airplanes- you know, environmentally friendly activities. Who knew a bear looming over you could impart so much environmental sympathy? Now I get why Smokey the Bear has been so effective.
So we’ve established it’s a kids’ game, but is it something adults could enjoy? If you’re looking for a simple, short game that can be finished in one sitting or taken on in five to ten minute bursts, then LumbearJack might be a game for you. There’s little to no challenge, but sometimes, that’s exactly what an adult gamer needs. After all, who says we have to bang our heads against walls to have fun? There’s also a fair number of pop culture references (can you count all the Tom Hanks?) to make it more enjoyable for adults. All told, I have no hesitation recommending this to friends of any age.
The 8-bit Review
Gameplay: 9/10
LumbearJack is broken up into twenty stages, each with trash to dispose of, a bear trap to safely remove, and a few people who need to learn better environmental behaviors. However, the monotony of “break stuff, slap people, next stage” is broken up by puzzle stages that require a little extra work before you can proceed and sports-themed stages that have you chucking bombs like golf balls and returning explosives tennis-style to clear paths. Since Jack doesn’t have a health bar, missing a shot doesn’t set you back. (Don’t worry, no humans or animals were harmed in the making of this review.)
Also, one extra point for the fact that the first thing you can do is pet a dog.
Narrative: 8/10
The story of LumbearJack is a simple and fairly predictable one, but that doesn’t make for a bad story. After all, it’s a kids’ game. We’re not looking for mind-blowing twists here. What this game does exceptionally well is tell its story in a timespan that fits a kids’ attention span. Short, wordless cutscenes quickly and effectively get the point across for your goal at the beginning of the stage and the results at the end. Nothing ever feels like it drags too long, and there’s no preaching or finger-wagging to emphasize the core message of “care about the world”. The writers knew the story they wanted to tell, and they told it exactly as long and directly as they needed to.
Visuals: 8/10
A little bit Donut County mixed with Saturday morning cartoons, LumbearJack is bright and simple, forgoing hard outlines for a cel-shaded style you’d expect in a picture book. Not too bright to be hard on the eyes or visually jumbled, either. Everything stands out clearly, and interactable objects are mostly obvious. There were a few times I didn’t know I could/should destroy an object, but since the stages are small and you can’t miss the transformation from polluted to clean, it’s easy to figure out which areas still need to be cleansed. Then it’s just a matter of smacking.
Audio: 8/10
While LumbearJack lacks variety in the music, you’re not going to get sick of the tunes anytime soon. Casual, jaunty, happy music supports you as you wreck up the machinery wrecking up the place. Nice music to just leave on while doing other things (like writing a review or taking screenshots!). Cutscene music doesn’t really stand out much, but it’s not at all bad.
Replayability: 5/10
As an adult, this is probably a one-and-done run. While you can do the levels as many times as you want, no limits, once you know the things to look for to hit the level goals, finishing with anything less than 100% is unlikely. Your kids, though? They’ll probably play this until you’re sick of the music and consider siding with the bad guys just to make them get off the computer. After all, what kid doesn’t like wanton destruction?
Accessibility: 9/10
In its simplicity, LumbearJack could almost not be more accessible. One button and directional controls are all you need to play the whole game. Unfortunately, there’s no controller or keyboard mapping at this time, which is what keeps this from being a 10/10, but on the PC version, you can swap between controller and keyboard/mouse simply by interacting with your chosen input device. Sometimes these one-button interaction games can be troublesome, getting you stuck in overly long animations you didn’t intend to do or harming people you wanted to talk to. LumbearJack does not have this problem. There’s no such thing as friendly fire, no anger mechanic, no punishment for standing at the wrong angle. At most, you’ll lose a second petting a friend. Your time and intention are generally respected.
While this is a kids’ game, not all kids’ games are kid-friendly, either by being too challenging or too emotionally disturbing. LumbearJack, however, kept these in mind during development. There’s no dialogue. The story pushes along entirely visually, so even the youngest kids can understand what’s happening. For what little reading there is in the options menu and stage titles, though, you can select from a list of thirty different languages, so kids around the world can play the same game. It can be hard to judge what might scare a small child, but there’s no blood, gore, or violence, not even any jump scares. Parents can safely leave their child playing this for a few minutes and know they won’t come back to traumatized sobbing. All in all, this kids’ game is like Baby Bear’s porridge: just right.
Challenge: 7/10
This is a game that is meant for kids. It’s bright, it’s shiny, and it’s easy. Each stage can be completed in around five minutes or less for an experienced gamer, but even as an experienced gamer, you can still spend a little time looking around for the item or puzzle you need to finish filling your recycling bin.
Personal: 8/10
When I played the demo of LumbearJack back in February, I got the feeling that we’d already seen a good chunk of the game in it. It didn’t strike me as a game that would or could have much more to it. I can’t say I was wrong. The demo ended up being about a third of the whole game. And yet, I’m not disappointed. It’s just the right length for what it is, not overstaying its welcome to a point of inducing boredom. Plus, well, you know, the whole “Maggie loves environmental edutainment games” thing.
We would like to thank FinalBoss Games and Armor Games Studios for a copy of LumbearJack for this critique.
Aggregate score: 7.8
Maggie Maxwell spends most of her days buried in her fiction writing, only coming up for air to dive into the escapism of video games, cartoons, or movies. She can usually be found on Twitter as @wanderingquille and @MaxNChachi or streaming on Twitch with her husband, also as MaxNChachi.
