About A Game: Ten Made Jack (PSX)

The Japanese PSX library has an almost infinite repertoire of weird and interesting games I’ve never heard about, and I’m trying to make some inroads into digging out at least some of them. One of them that I did stream a while ago is Ten Made Jack: Odoroki Mamenoki Daitoubou!! (天までジャック オドロキマメノキ大登亡 !!, I gather it’s something like “Jack towards Heaven: Surprise Beanstalk Escape”), published by Enix and developed by Exrays and Vantam Edutainment Factory.

The game’s story is vaguely based on Jack and the Beanstalk, with the intro cutscene showing Jack’s mother sending him out to sell their cow. Jack meets a merchant who will trade him some beans for the cow, but immediately after the trade, the cow drops dead and the merchant feels cheated. Panicking, Jack drops his beans, which sprout into a giant beanstalk, and his only way of escaping the merchant is to climb the newly grown beanstalk.

After these cutscenes, we’re dropped into what is basically a 2.5d platformer, but with some twists. The main platforms spiral upwards towards the goal around the big beanstalk, with some branching off in other directions. But you’re not limited to 2d movement along the platforms, and can jump off to the front and back, in order to hop onto the stalk and climb it directly, or to hop into the open air and fall down, as a shortcut to lower platforms or otherwise inaccessible areas. Climbing is limited by a stamina meter, as is “swimming” in the air to slow your fall.

The goal of every stage is to collect at least one flower, and then reach the goal, which is usually at the top of the stage. The second collectible of each stage are pea pods (or “beans” I suppose), which increase your stamina. Collecting all pea pods unlocks the third flower, and the number of flowers collected influences which ending you get.

Jack can attack by throwing his head, and when paralysing an enemy like that, can then pick it up and throw it as an attack. When Jack takes damage he usually only becomes stunned for a bit, although some enemies can push him off the platform, and a few enemies can cause an instant game over when they catch him.

Stages also feature a unique special enemy that sometimes only appears in the later part of the stage. These enemies cannot be defeated, and chase after Jack, or try to get to the goal before him. Some of these can be incredibly annoying because they basically harass you any time they get the chance. The special enemy in the first stage tries to pull your head off, and if you don’t button-mash fast enough to defend yourself, will throw your head to a lower platform where you’ll have to pick it back up.

Pretty much each one of the 12 stages is unique and original, with its own gimmicks, enemies and visual style. Starting out with just the regular beanstalk, Jack will reach a jungle, the castle of the giant from the original story, a jungle where you race a monkey, a kind of race track, a fiery inferno, and finally the edge of space.

I did enjoy playing this game quite a bit, but it can also be very aggravating a lot of the time. Some enemies are pretty much made to harass and annoy you constantly. Difficulty also gets quite high in the later stages.

There are three different ending cutscenes after finishing the last stage, depending on how many flowers you have collected. As far as I understand, the difference in the ending is mainly in what happens to your home town.

Regarding the language barrier, I’d say it’s entirely possible to play through this game without reading any of the text. Sadly you’ll miss much of the strange story, but the instructions given aren’t that vital and it’s easy enough to figure out how to play and what to do.

Here’s my stream with a 100% playthrough of the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTH_TTjdgjE

Also here’s the “worst” ending which I didn’t get in my stream.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTVg5cgmKHI