A decade after it was announced, the Jay and Silent Bob beat ’em up is finally coming next month

A beat ’em up starring Jay and Silent Bob finally has a release date, a decade after it was originally announced.

Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch first launched as a crowdfunding campaign on now-defunct site Fig back in February 2016 and earned developer Interabang Entertainment its initial $400,000 goal.

Since that time, however, details on the game have been thin on the ground, with some fans of Kevin Smith’s movie characters worried that it had quietly been cancelled.

Instead, in 2019 the same studio released Jay and Silent Bob: Mall Brawl, an 8-bit retro beat ’em up which was released on PC, consoles and even an NES cartridge.

Now, after nearly a decade without updates beyond sporadic confirmations that it was still in development, Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch finally has a release date.

The game will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC on April 20, a date important to Kevin Smith fans (4/20, a common weed-smoking reference).

Publishing will be handled by Atari and Digital Eclipse, the latter having recently developed the similarly retro-themed beat ’em up Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Revenge.

“Brawl your way through the View Askewniverse as Jay and Silent Bob and unleash a dizzying array of irreverent combos and special moves in this over-the-top beat ‘em up,” the game’s description reads. “You’ll need to harness every ounce of smoke-fueled creativity to get past the throngs of hockey-sick wielding teenage thugs, hipsters, and massive, movie-inspired boss battles.

“Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch combines hand-drawn character renderings and tons of catchphrases in a side-scrolling, tag-team battle. Our heroes embark on an epic adventure from their humble, suburban New Jersey roots to the gates of hell itself.

“No matter if you play solo or two-player couch co-op, you’ll be performing special moves and outrageous combos. Developed with the full blessing, enthusiasm and voice-acting chops of Kevin Smith himself, Chronic Blunt Punch gives players the ultimate, profound, and profane Jay and Silent Bob experience.”

VGC actually went hands-on with the game two years ago at the BitSummit indie festival in Japan, when news of its continued existence was still thin on the ground.

“Naturally, if you’re a fan of Smiths’ movies and his View Askewniverse then you’ll get more out of it, because there are plenty of in-jokes dotted around and various characters from all the films appear (Dante from Clerks is the first support character you collect, for example),” we wrote.

“As a Kevin Smith fan this is a game I’ve been waiting for for a long time. Much longer than I expected, to be fair. But it really does look like this one’s going to pay off in terms of fan service.”