RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Jay and Silent Bob first appeared in the 1994 grunge film Clerks as eccentric weed dealers. Jay was the sweary, loquacious, long haired slacker, and Silent Bob was the silent, ruminative long haired slacker. They were cult figures in the '90s. Most of my teenage friends thought they were very funny, and Clerks is still a fun time capsule of the early '90s.
But like a lot of '90s phenomena, Jay and Silent Bob quickly contorted into parody. They've spawned at least three standalone films, each more silly than the last. They also reliably feature in every one of Kevin Smith's View Asknewiverse films, from Clerks all the way through to Clerks 3, but also taking in Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma, just to name a handful.
More recently they've started getting their own videogames: Jay and Silent Bob Mall Brawl is a 2020 sidescrolling beat 'em up developed for NES but also ported to PC and consoles. In April, Atari published Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch , which is also a sidescrolling beat 'em up but with a modern comic book presentation. There are also two Jay and Silent Boss phone games, and an in-development VR game, and they both cameoed in Black Ops 6. Talk about selling out!
Now they're back again: Jay and Silent Bob's Joint Venture is a cosy farming sim about running a farm. "Armed with some old tools, a handful of seeds, and a couple of questionable business partners, you'll turn a trashed yard into a thriving weed business," the Steam description reads. "Get your hands dirty doing things the way it used to be done before corporate cannabis moved to town – slinging dank dimes outside the Quick Stop!"
So it's a farming sim about growing weed. You'll get to experiment with growing different varieties of weed, upgrade your home from hovel to pad, interact with "dozens of characters" from Kevin Smith's films, and visit a bunch of places you'll recognise from Clerks: the Mall, RST Video and Jay and Silent Bob's beloved Quick Stop. It also has dumpster diving though, in fairness, so does Stardew Valley.
Joint Venture is developed by Starworks Studios, responsible for the 3D platformer Timeworks and the still forthcoming Boast Guards . It's set to release on Steam some time in 2027.
I guess the question is: is there much hunger for Jay and Silent Bob games? It certainly doesn't look like it. Neither Chronic Blunt Punch or Mall Brawl made much of a dent upon release, at least on Steam. Joint Venture seems to lean a lot on writing, which is maybe what fans of Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse would prefer. I guess we'll find out some time next year.
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