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    Stacking (XBLA/PSN)

    No thread for this!? Evne thought it was free for PSN+?!
    Maybe people are too busy playing it.

    Double Fine's latest effort takes you into a strange victorianesque world inhabited by non Russian matryoshka dolls.

    The Blackmore family; Albert, Abigail, Agatha, Archibald and Charlie have had somewhat of a family tradgedy.
    Father has gone away to work hard but never returned so the children have been taken away by a debt collector to do apprenticeships to pay off the family's debts. Only they have been taken away by the Baron to work in all manner of industrial environments, whether it be mining coal or stoking the fires on a luxury cruise ship.

    Charlie sets out to find his family, but has a little trouble as he is the tinest of the dolls in the family.

    The basic jist of the gameplay is to take charlie and to jump inside (Stack) another large doll and use their individual abilities to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles. You can only stack a doll that is exactly one size larger than yourself and you have to do it from behind the character.
    Every Character has it's own ability , some more useful than others . They can range from a the apparently useless small child doll's 'Sugar Rush' which has the doll running around in crazy high speed circles, complete with dazed hyperactive spiraling eyes then eventually rolling around on the floor screaming to a sey female doll's 'Seduce' ability which can make sleazy male dolls follow you leaving their backs facing away from you ready to be stacked into.

    Objectives within the play areas are very clear, on screen prompts tell you when you are near a puzzle. The puzzles I've seen so far visibly inform me that there are 3-5 different methods of solving them, there are collectibles in the form of a work in progress diorama maintained by Levi the Hobo Doll and Achievements/Trophies to act as additional incentive to find all the pre-determined solutions to each puzle.
    The gameplay itself reminds me very much of SpaceStation Silicon Valley / Evo's Space Adventure.

    It's a beautiful game, visually distinct but at the same time similar kind of style to Little Big Planet. It's a joy to watch each character bounce about, lovingly animated to move differently, despite each character being made of only 2 components!
    The music in the game is lovely too, some kind of seemingly classical composition running throughout.
    It's just so charming throughout and the plot/script is cutely amusing too.


    Really looking forward to playing some more (only did the first 2 levels and saved 2 of my brothers/sisters) although I imagine it's short to go from A-B, there is plenty of fun to be had doing the in game achievements and finding all the solutions to the puzzles.


    Charlie!
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    #2
    Originally posted by EvilBoris
    They can range from a the apparently useless small child doll's 'Sugar Rush' which has the doll running around in crazy high speed circles, complete with dazed hyperactive spiraling eyes then eventually rolling around on the floor
    I proper lol'd at that one. That and the Piper. Oh and the Illusionist turning everyone Argyl.

    And definitely the one where the kid throws up cookies. Doing that

    all over the maps was hilarious!



    The only thing about this game is the combination of DoF and the bobbing up and down for the dolls gives me a bit of a headache. It is utterly charming though so I can forgive a bit of fleeting neural pain.

    Comment


      #3
      Its unique, but found the gameplay to be like a badly programmed version of the Lego games, with a bad framerate. Made my head hurt too.

      Comment


        #4
        I've not seen any framerate issues when I've been playing or watching my girlfriend play. Which version you playing?

        Comment


          #5
          Haven't logged in to PSN in ages.

          How much is it?

          Does it have DRM?

          Tah.


          EDIT:


          Originally posted by EvilBoris
          sexy female doll's 'Seduce' ability which can make sleazy male dolls follow you leaving their backs facing away from you ready to be stacked into.
          So it's a game where the female can penetrate the male, eh? What is the games world coming to...
          Last edited by Sketcz; 10-02-2011, 17:45.

          Comment


            #6
            1200 MSP and £8.99 on PSN


            Originally posted by Sketcz View Post
            So it's a game where the female can penetrate the male, eh? What is the games world coming to...
            But the female is the same size as the male, so you have to jump out of herm then jump into him!

            Comment


              #7
              Wanted to knock up a first play thread, but have been too darned busy.

              Lovely game anyway. Not the most taxing, but it's just a really beautiful world to roam around. It's crammed with great art and humour too. I love the silent movie style cut-scenes with the music shifting tone appropriately, and that the levels look like hand-built sets, and that some of the dolls actions are there just for extra lols...and...yeah...It's just great that games like this still get made.

              Comment


                #8
                Loved the trial. Just waiting till i have some money to spare for a 4200 points card, i have a bit of a backlog when it comes to xbla titles. ;P

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                  #9
                  I'm playing it on XBLA at 1080p over HDMI. I'm going to knock it down to 720p later tonight and see if that makes a difference to my old noggin.

                  Agree with crocky-chocky that it's not the most taxing of games and I've read elsewhere you can blitz through it in up to three hours if you wanted to, but honestly I'm having so much fun with the multiple solutions to stuff that I'm quite happy to take my time.

                  I find I start running out of smart ideas on how to solve stuff after the second / third solution so to get them all is might take me a while.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by EvilBoris View Post
                    I've not seen any framerate issues when I've been playing or watching my girlfriend play. Which version you playing?
                    360 (at 720p fyi)

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by EvilBoris View Post
                      1200 MSP and ?8.99 on PSN
                      Cheaper on PSN then! (for a change)

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Perhaps it was more noticable when playing, I only got to hold the pad on the 2nd level.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by englishbob View Post
                          Cheaper on PSN then! (for a change)
                          It was actually free yesterday for PSN+ users, which is pretty cool

                          Comment


                            #14
                            I love the design of this game. Music, art everything about it is a very welcome change to the norm.

                            Shame I can't play it though as it's given me a head ache after the demo. I have no idea why??

                            I feel like I just stepped of a merry go round

                            Comment


                              #15
                              It has that weird vignetting effect that means you can't see the periphery and you have to stare at the bobbing man.

                              Comment

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