Stacking (PSN/XBLA)
This game took me by surprise. I had heard that Double Fine studios was releasing a new game, but I didn’t take too much note since my experience so far with their games has been that they are funny and have a lot of style, but lack fun gameplay. I was pleased to discover that Stacking brought the humor and style, but also brought an inventive, fun game along with it.
Stacking is not a challenging game - it’s really like living in a child’s fantasy world. Everything has its role, some of them ridiculously silly, and you have to figure out how to solve puzzles given that very simple framework. There is also a very generous help system that doesn’t seem to penalize you at all. The game is all about exploring the gorgeous worlds that are presented and not being afraid to play with all the abilities that the dolls have.
The dolls are gorgeous and the sounds that they make when stacking, unstacking or preforming their actions are wonderful. One of my favorite sounds in the game is of the old-fashioned flash cameras that one of the types of dolls have.
A fun, short romp that is just delightful. It was a refreshing change of pace to play a fun game that is also completely family friendly.
