Stacking: PC Games, Review

First reviewed Double Fine’s puzzle adventure  Stacking  on the Xbox. I enjoyed the simple novelty of the puzzles. Your character is the littlest Russian Doll, and instead of having an inventory, he has the ability to possess progressively larger dolls with appropriate and/or comical abilities. So it had that Victorian Motroyshka aesthetic, and the script was typically lovable for a team that seems to be built out of adorable pink voxels. I scored it 9/10.

That might have been generous. You see, I had hated Double Fine’s previous game,  Costume Quest , for its insistence on repetitive and uninspiring combat. And I scored that game a possibly harsh 5/10, with every point gained by the game’s gorgeously unpatronising pre-teen dialogue. I worry to this day that 9/10 for Stacking was an attempt to apologise to Tim Schafer, in the hope that he’d allow me to somehow transform into a cat and pad around on his big tummy.

In retrospect, I think Stacking  is an 8/10 .It’s a brilliant, but pretty shallow premise, that substitutes breadth for depth: the puzzles aren’t hard, but there are a number of solutions for each one, making every replay a little more squintingly obscure, and potentially satisfying. Those mechanics will need beefing up if any sequel is ever planned but for this one short game, it’s a system explored with no
fatigue or heel-dragging. Knowing not to overstay your welcome is a courtesy that should be codified into DeBrett’s Manual of Game Developer Etiquette.

8/10

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