Played on: Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X, PC
This is yet another 'cozy' indie game recommended to me by my 'cozy' indie game dealer, Sarah. A few weeks ago, she handed me her Switch, and loaded on that Switch was a little game called Lumbearjack, developed by a small Spanish outfit that I'd never heard of, Final Boss Games.
In hindsight, maybe this game would have been more appropriate to play in April. It's an environment-themed action game with light puzzle elements, revolving around an adorable bear lumberjack named 'Jack' (or, 'Lumbearjack', if you will) being awoken from a nap by his forest friends, only to be informed that Evil Corp. (subtle) is demolishing the forest in order to develop the land for malls and fast food joints. Jack's response? Grab an axe and WRECK ALL THEIR SHIT!!
There's a lovable gonzo humour layered throughout the entirety of Lumbearjack, a modestly-priced game that you can fully complete in just 3-4 hours, including extra content and achievements, where applicable. Even so, I admit that the game is both fun and weirdly cathartic while it lasts. You make your way through each stage using your axe to destroy Evil Corp. buildings, vehicles and tools, which is done by simply mashing a button. As you liberate the land and destroy Evil Corp.'s things, you'll periodically get the option to upgrade your axe, from a larger axe to a MASSIVE chainsaw (isn't the chainsaw technically running on fossil fuels?), thus allowing you to deal even more damage, and eventually rescue all of your animal friends from their imprisonment or distress.
That's really the entire game. There are a handful of simple puzzles to break up the monotony of tasks in certain stages, such as knocking explosives back with a tennis racket to destroy the machines launching them (again, I do love this game's sense of humour), or using a crane to rearrange some crates in order to open a path ahead, but nothing too taxing. Lumbearjack is ultimately a very easy game, one that could even be picked up and played by a pretty young child without much difficulty. I'm actually astonished that Lumbearjack isn't available for smartphones and tablets, because that feels like its natural home, particularly if it were an offering on Apple Arcade. Regardless, I enjoyed playing through Lumbearjack enough on Sarah's Switch to eventually buy my own copy of it for PC, where I blew through the entire thing on my laptop in, again, around three hours.
Outside of one bugged achievement that frustratingly kept me from 100% completion (sadly, Final Boss Games has now disbanded, so this glitched achievement will probably never be fixed), the experience was even more enjoyable on PC. I even grabbed the Xbox Series X version of Lumbearjack afterward (why not? It's cheap.), and while that stubborn bugged achievement was still bugged in the Xbox build (that's the trouble with a developer that no longer exists), I nonetheless found that the high-powered Xbox Series X version of Lumbearjack was ultimately an even smoother and more satisfying way to enjoy the game. Yes, the very first dedicated Xbox Series X game I played through in 2024 was LUMBEARJACK! Boy, Microsoft really needs to do a better job of incentivizing gamers to play on Xbox when they own multiple consoles AND a gaming-ready PC...
In any case, Lumbearjack is a pretty short game, and it can be rather repetitive. The lower price does reflect the game's simple scope, but I really wouldn't expect anything too deep here. The game is quickly played through and mostly forgotten afterward, but while it lasts, it's a pretty amusing time. Lumbearjack's extra content is pretty cute too, simple and undemanding as it is. You have to find humans to slap in each stage, in order to inspire them to shun Evil Corp., plus there's a bear trap hidden in every level that you need to destroy for extra completion. Jack even has a series of costumes you can unlock and swap between as you play, even if they're all strictly cosmetic, and don't affect gameplay. I personally put Jack in a business suit for much of my playthroughs, since I thought that was a funny contrast to the sheer destruction I was wreaking on Evil Corp. throughout the forest.
In the end though, there's not much else to say when it comes to this game. Lumbearjack takes slightly longer to load and runs at a lesser performance clip on Nintendo Switch, but outside of that, there aren't many differences to speak of between the three versions I played. The PC and Xbox Series X versions do include achievements, though like I said, one of them is bugged in the final build of both versions, and that's bound to annoy completionists and achievement hunters, even if the rest of the achievements are very easy to earn. The Switch version of Lumbearjack compensates with the option of native portability, and honestly, as much as the Xbox Series X and PC versions look better and run more smoothly, I might actually recommend the Switch version most here, since that handheld option really seems to complement Lumbearjack being a quick pick-up-and-play distraction.
I got a bit more out of Sarah's previous game recommendations to me this year, Unpacking and Hoa, but Lumbearjack wasn't without its charm. There's an innate appeal in wrecking bad guys' stuff, and while Lumbearjack doesn't do anything too complicated, there is something to be said about doing the simple stuff well.
IF I HAD TO SCORE IT: 7/10
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