Da New Guys: Day of the Jackass

Wadjet Eye Games has its reputation for making point and click games which are always mind blowing. And with their latest edition Da New Guy:  Day of the Jackass inspired by the classic Da New Guy; they’ve reached a level that undoubtedly firms their position as an outstanding indie developer. This game is based on a comical story where a bunch of professional wrestlers fight their way to become the belt title holder. It’s a game full of ecstatic twists and turns, humorous dialogue and activities, character designs that perfectly suits its surroundings, and is an absolutely worth the try.

The game starts with the most impossible incident that shakes the Wrestle Zone arena. A wrestler called Brain--recognized as the worst brawler in the history of Wrestle Zone, wins the title belt. Even his teammates Defender and Simon couldn’t believe how he pulled it through. All his fellow wrestlers invade his place to rescue the belt from shame, but before anyone could get their hands on the belt, Brain strangely gets kidnapped along with the belt.  Since all the wrestlers were there while Brain was mysteriously kidnapped, they had no clue on who could snatch their precious title belt; as they couldn’t have possibly cared less about Brain. Now it’s up to Brain’s friends, the Defender and Simon to rescue him from the unknown and bring the belt back. However, they didn’t predict the adventure that lie ahead of them; journey that might make the impossible possible.

Da New Guy’s gameplay is divided into two major acts. First comes rescuing Brain from the Kidnapper and then something extraordinary during the second act that truly spices up the story. During the first act, you play as the Defender, while Simon mostly accompanies you during the rescue. At the second act you control all three major characters the Defender, Simon and Brain, and bring an end to their adventure with a cinematic finale. While you are controlling multiple characters, you can switch from one to the other by clicking their icons displayed on the tab. And since it’s a point-and-click game, you already know the rules how everything works in this genre. In case you are new, you can interact with objects by clicking on them or you can combine objects from your inventory/environment and use them according to the cause. As the game is sort of a rescue adventure game, you must explore places and gather clues to progress from one scene to another. As predicted, puzzles are a must in each scenario and you must use your cleverness to pull through. But the puzzles aren’t just solved by playing them, as they are mostly based on situations. And to solve a situation it requires you to investigate each corner of several scenarios and interact with the characters present in them. Solving one will lead you to the next phase, and sometimes solving it one way directs you to solve several others. Rest assured though; you’ll never get bored no matter how many puzzles stand in your way during the rescue.

The amount of humor found in the game is worth mentioning. Each conversation is being delivered in a comical manner and some will definitely make you roll on the floor laughing. The voice acting is delightfully done and the same can be said for the background music. Da New Guy’s visuals deserve some attention too. The game may not have the shiniest graphical fidelity, but the type of detail can be found is praiseworthy. Chris Burton is responsible for all the visual work, and deserves a pat on the back. Even if the game were a little lacking from the visual side compared to what we all are used to now a day, the voice acting has skillfully roofed it. It’s not only the quality of the script but also the voice acting itself has taken the game to a better level. Similar to all the previous point-n-click games by WEG (Gemini Rue, Blackwell: Deception, To the Moon), DNG:  Day of the Jackass has done extremely well with its voice acting as well. In scenarios where there isn’t much character movement involved, such as a pair of eyes talking from the prison cell or a random guy reading the bartender a sassy story from a magazine, the dialogue simply gives it some much needed flavor. Hats off to the voice acting team. They couldn’t have done it any better.

As the game is developed and inspired by the classic Da New Guy, there isn’t much improvement I could recommend. My expectations were high and the game delivered. What I’d like to see more is added gameplay or acts. There are times when the game seemed very easy and predictable. There’s only one default difficulty mode, whereas a couple or at least a level higher difficulty mode can’t hurt. There are achievements and artworks to unlock, if playing through the story isn’t enough for you. Still, unlocking the achievements didn’t really add any extra delight to the gameplay. But it doesn’t change anything to the amount of entertainment this game provides. If there are awards given for the best recent point-n-click games, DMG: Day of the Jackass will undeniably be one of the strongest contenders. This game is worth every penny and doesn’t require a high end PC for playing. So if point-and-click is your thing, give this one a go.

Sarwar Ron, NoobFeed
Twitter | +SarwarRon