Engage to Jabberwock

By: Derek Yu

On: March 13th, 2007

Jabberwock

Engage to Jabberwock is a freeware hybrid shmup from Japanese developer Platine Dispositif. In the game you roam a large, single dungeon in 2d, blasting enemies with various magic spells and collecting items. To describe it as “Bullet Hell Zelda” (Bullet Hellda?) wouldn’t be inaccurate.

Make sure to go to the option menu and change your input to “Keyboard” before you play (the default is “Joystick”). Change the key configuration, also!

Note: For some reason you can’t download the game from PD’s website, so go to Inverted Castle for the Jabberwock hook-up (along with a bunch of other PD games)!

Ahem: By the way, feel free to check out our Doujin Shmups feature for more info about shmups, shmupping, and “gettin’ yo’ shmup on.”

  • Xander

    It’s an awesome game but it took a while to configure the controls right, and now inexplicably when I continue I can only move around. I’ve lost the ability to shoot anything, so that’s going to be a fun one to try and fix. Other than that though it’s pretty damn fun, any other PD games going freeware? I loved the trial for the isometeric game a while back.

  • e

    I had the same trouble when loading. Instead of loading your game right away start a new game and then exit to the main menu. When you load your game this time everything works normally.

    I really like this game’s sense of style and totally recommend it. I’m sure though if you had a joypad it would be way better than with the keyboard controls.

  • Xander

    Thanks for the help! I managed to get 100% complete after having a lecture cancelled this morning (at 9:30AM), unlocking the ‘Demonic Mission Mode’… which is just, ridiculous. 7/78 so far I think, it’s gonna be a long night!

  • Derek

    How the hell do you beat that one-eyed guy on the left side of the map? He’s fuckin’ HARD!!!

  • Xander

    Something that either isn’t explained, or explained in Japanese, is that you can actually use your beam attack to counter the bosses blue beam attacks, causing yours to get a huge increase in power for a short amount of time. Although, I don’t know if you need something special for it since aside from the Leap Shoes and Magic Shell I have no idea what any of the other items I collected did. (The amulet thing? What’s an Arc Grimoire do?)

    But yeah, the bosses are bastards… I think I cheated a little by saving my bombs for them and blowing the absolute heck out of them. There is a finite number of bombs though, so no Metal Slug dying to restock your supply. For me ‘Doppel’ was the worst, especially when she’s getting desperate.