Job the Leprechaun Review - Screenshot 1 of 3

Job the Leprechaun is having a hard time. A witch has kidnapped his best friend, Eri, and has taken her far away, past lands filled with knights, zombies, and goblins. So Job's going to save her…eventually. First, he'll grab all the four-leaf clovers he can find, slowly moving through the poorly-defended countryside until he finally stumbles across her and brings her home. Will you help him clobber monsters with a magic hat, fill his pockets with gold and clovers, and maybe bring his friend home (you know, when you get around to it) at the end?

Few of Job the Leprechaun's platforming stages are all that challenging. Given the subject matter, though, it makes sense that the game is more geared towards children. The platforming is pretty basic, and most of the enemies just go about their days wandering the platforms regardless of what you're doing. A few of them fire very slow shots should they see you, but for the most part this one doesn't try all that hard to challenge its players. For first time game players, though, the pace and difficulty are quite comfortable and enough to teach the basics of platforming.

Job the Leprechaun Review - Screenshot 2 of 3

The game's art style is rather simple. Most characters consist of a few basic colours and lines, lacking much detail save for eyes and maybe a weapon. The world itself isn't much better, being filled with some blocky trees and odd platforms that eventually shift from day to night. There's nothing technically wrong with it, as it makes it easy to identify enemies and platforms you need to use to cross pits - it's merely simplistic, failing to impress or draw the eye in any way.

It's easy to fight and jump your way across this weird world. Job is responsive, and his attack (swinging his hat) lasts several frames, damaging enemies for a long period after every button press. As players get better at the game it's easy to swing his hat while running and beat your enemies without slowing down. Jumping is also responsive, letting players breeze across each stage at will and collect clovers without any trouble.

A few weapons and tools have been added to make Job's life easier. There are flowers that can be struck to launch bullets at enemies, bowling balls to roll at them, and pots of gold hidden in trees that can make him invincible. They add a little bit of variety to the gameplay, but given that most enemies put up almost no resistance they don't make many big changes.

Job the Leprechaun Review - Screenshot 3 of 3

One touchy spot is that Job's movements are a little slippery. It's not a big deal most of the time when the game has you attacking and jumping across long platforms; yet it does throw a lot of shorter platforms at you with further progress, and it can be hard to get Job to stop on these tiny ledges. This movement also causes issues with ladders, as he tends to slip through them to either side instead of climbing up. Having some trouble with the ladder wouldn't be bad in most games, but Job the Leprechaun has a short, strict time limit on every stage. Falling through a ladder five or six times can eat up a lot of the clock, agitating players and costing them lives.

The game's thirty-five levels will be over quickly for most players of even moderate skills. Collecting all of the clovers in each stage just isn't challenging, so anyone with more skill than a child should be able to blow through the entire game in less than an hour. That might be all right in a more evocative game, but Job the Leprechaun is pretty basic in sound, art, and gameplay. It's a basic platformer that doesn't aspire to much more than that. There's nothing wrong with that, but in a market loaded with interesting platformers it doesn't do much to stand out from the crowd.

Conclusion

For someone looking for an easy platformer for a child, Job the Leprechaun will do the job. It is a very basic game at its core, though, doing few things to make it stand out to someone looking for a new platformer. It will provide a little entertainment to anyone who picks it up, but hitting zombies with your giant, indistinct leprechaun hat will likely wear thin before long.