Child Labor Laws, Matryoshka Dolls and Fart Jokes: A Review of Double Fine’s Stacking

Stacking is an adventure-puzzle game about the youngest child of a family of Industrial Revolution-era chimney sweeps fighting against the upper class. What separates this from other period pieces is every man, woman, child and beast is portrayed by a Russian stacking doll. How that design document was successfully pitched I may never know, but what resulted is one of the most original, entertaining and charming games I’ve ever played — possibly the best yet from developer Double Fine.

The protagonist is Charlie Blackmore, smallest of all dolls and considered unfit for even the most menial of labor. His objective is to rescue his family from a tyrannical industrialist, the Baron, and along the way aid others hurt by the Baron’s exploitative policies. The manner in which this plays out is far more entertaining than any historical sociology thesis would otherwise suggest. Charlie has a unique advantage: as the world’s smallest doll, he can stack into any other doll, thereby using whatever unique ability they possess. The abilities can range from single use (opening a door) to multi-purpose (flatulence).

The art style in Stacking is unique and polished — fitting, as it was one of Double Fine's art directors who led the project.

Stacking is exceptionally clever in its themes and story. There is no voice acting, and cutscenes play out like a silent movie. Though none of the dolls have any appendages and facial expressions are minimal, the animation is so superbly realized that it’s never a question of how a character is behaving or feels. Likewise, each doll is so meticulously detailed it’s easy to pick one apart from another even without distinctive silhouettes or physical cues. What is truly exceptional about the experience is how Double Fine takes such serious subject matter, including the plight of the working class and child labor, and handles it in a way that is both humorous and touching. It’s a testament to the design that Charlie can stack into a child doll whose ability is “Black Lung Cough” and an adult with the ability to “Fart,” yet the game never feels depressing or crass. More importantly, these abilities are useful in their own right.

The primary flaw in most adventure games is linearity. The stories and quests are designed in a storybook-style progression, never deviating from the narrative plotted out from the start. Stacking partially avoids this dilemma. Every quest has multiple solutions, every level has several optional quests (called “Hi-Jinks”) and a set of unique dolls for Charlie to find and stack into, some of which are required for quests and some not. For completionists, finishing the game with a ‘100%’ rating requires finding all of the above; finishing the narrative requires just a fraction. Early puzzles may only require one ability to solve but there are more complex ones later on requiring combinations. Despite a couple of the solutions seeming a bit obtuse, moving through the game never became a chore.

In a medium entrenched in annualized sequels and third-person cover-based shooters, Stacking is a game that is truly original — both in the story it tells and the way it tells it. Double Fine deserves praise not only for the creativity on display but how well constructed a display it is. Every stage oozes charm with a well defined art style and musical presence that creates a sense of place better than other titles featuring real locales and more human characters. Stacking is absolutely a game that deserves to be experienced, and may even inspire it’s own uprising against the gaming bourgeoise.

Recommended for:

• Adventure gamers and Double Fine fans who swoon for Tim Schafer
• An inspired, unique and evocative art style
• Marrying an interesting and underused period in gaming (Industrial Revolution) with a cheeky take on the plight of the proletariat

Stacking is published by THQ and developed by Double Fine Productions and is on sale now. It is available on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. The version reviewed was on PSN, but the views from this review are relevant for the XBLA edition. It is available on XBLA for 1200 MS Points and PSN for $15.

Read our policy on reviews here.

While our Top 10 Games of 2009 deserve attention for their overall excellence, we can’t neglect this year’s remaining deluge of fantastic games — titles that just missed the final cut. Be it their charm, gameplay or presentation, our Honorable Mentions were simply hard to forget. We now present part two of a five-part series of Honorable Mentions articles, one from each member of the Silicon Sasquatch staff. Here are Spencer’s picks.

Though our top ten is a sturdy list of the year’s finest titles, we each had some favorites fall through the cracks. Here, then, are my preferred runners-up.

Red Faction: Guerrilla and Brütal Legend

June — Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows | Rocktober — Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Alec Mason (left) wields an ostrich as a sledgehammer while Eddie Riggs holds his beloved guitar, Clementine

Brütal Legend and Red Faction: Guerrilla are shoo-ins, the former being a flawed but ultimately fun strategy/adventure title, the latter a shallow but supremely enjoyable shooter with great physics and solid multiplayer. Both are worth playing, especially considering they’ll probably hit the $20-30 price range soon.

Gratuitous Space Battles

November — Windows

The name really does say it all.

While Left 4 Dead and its sequel were setting the standard for zombie apocalypse simulations, Tripwire was busy ignoring them both while releasing Killing Floor. Where the former titles are teamwork-oriented and story-driven in their portrayal of the infection, the latter is a gore-filled zombstomp – less about getting from point A to point B and more about taking down as many zeds as possible in post-apocalypse Britain.  Freaky English voodoo-thrash-electronica accompanies the action flawlessly.

Team Fortress 2

October 2007 — Windows (also available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as part of The Orange Box — but unfortunately without the Windows version’s updates)

The latest update pits the Blue Soldier against his best pal, the Red Demoman

Team Fortress 2 nets my final spot; yes, I’m quite aware it came out two years ago, but Valve’s regular updates are packed full with something for everyone; maps, hats, weapons, and even achievements for the recovering gamerscore-junkie. Valve’s commitment to TF2 makes it the best team multiplayer experience on the PC, as it has been for two years running.

Mmm, Backlog-y

What legends of game-playing intrigue do we, the stewards of Silicon Sasquatch, bring you this week?

There’s more of the same (Titan Quest) with a nice lime twist of newness (Borderlands); there’s the late-to-the-party-but-enjoying-it-anyway epic (Brütal Legend); and then there’s the dreaded blackness of managing grad school responsibilities (Portland State University — rated “M” for mature).

There ain't no rest for the wicked

Nick:

If you’d asked me two months ago whether I was excited for Borderlands, I’d have scoffed. Sure, Gearbox made a couple Half-Life expansions I enjoyed and delivered a real overlooked gem of a game in Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, but they haven’t come up with many surprises in the past few years.

As PAX 2009 was drawing to a close, I wandered over to the Gearbox booth to get a ten-minute hands-on demonstration with Borderlands. In that brief span of time, my apathy transformed into elation — this was the first-person shooter/ role-playing game hybrid I’d been yearning for all these years. I walked away from the booth convinced the game would be worth owning, and I waited out the next month and a half as patiently as I could.

Now that it’s here, I’m pleased to say Borderlands is everything I had hoped it would be. It’s full of wit, style, and finely tuned action-RPG mechanics that, while a bit unoriginal, are executed with quality. It’s almost enough to wash the sour taste of the disastrous Hellgate: London out of my mouth.

You know something's really interesting when people are opting to not stare at the giant wings of the demonic Eddie Riggs

Doug:

Along with playing “Oh god I’m halfway through my first term of grad school,” I’ve spent time alternating between shaking my fist at and being thankful for the Europeans who got Forza 3 this week — it’s validating my pre-order decision many times over. Foreign coverage hasn’t influenced me this much since Gran Turismo 4.

Also, I played a bit more NCAA 10 and Brütal Legend. But, mostly, I’m trying to survive my classes.

Lucky you — here's a bonus Borderlands screenshot

Aaron:

I’m still playing Titan Quest. Yeah, I know. Best $5 I’ve ever spent though — on a videogame.

But this week’s titles of actual interest didn’t find their way into my disc drive until the tail end: Brütal Legend and Borderlands. Slowly, but surely, I’m scratching away the surface layers of each game with dilligence and child-like excitement. What’s going on, 2009? You’ve produced almost too many surprisingly great games so far.

Should I accept each game’s hype without taking that grain of salt everyone always warns me about?

Yes, I think it’ll be OK.

There’s not much else to say yet, unfortunately. Installing Windows 7 took away some of my PC gaming time this week due to reinstalling and optimizing, so finishing TQ and getting to know Champions Online were put on the back burner.

You’ll have to excuse me, but it’s time to go giggle at Brütal Legend and cause severe eyestrain from grinding away in Borderlands.

Tim Schafer (left) watches as Jack Black does something with a ridiculous expression on his face. Jack Black is a funny man.

What’s in a name? In the case of Brütal Legend, a whole hell of a lot.

• Jack Black stars as Eddie Riggs, the world’s best roadie who’s transported to a dimension of awesome metal-inspired brutality.
• Rob Halford, Lita Ford, Lemmy Kilmister, Ozzy Osbourne and…Tim Curry all have been tapped to lend their voice talents to the game. From what’s been shown so far, each looks to be perfectly at home in his or her element.
• Tim Schafer is the game’s creator; his previous credits include Full Throttle, Monkey Island, Grim Fandango and Psychonauts.

Schafer’s games all have an expected pedigree of quality when it comes to establishing setting, story and characters — in that regard, Brütal Legend won’t disappoint. But what about the game’s design? How well is it implemented?

After romping through the demo four times, there’s little doubt that the game itself does an admirable job of wrapping all this larger-than-life, metal-soaked goodness into a tasty little love burrito.

Double Fine has missed no opportunity to adorn Brütal Legend with all kinds of small details that should make the game all the more enjoyable in the long term. For example, I’ve played through the demo four times now, and each time I started the demo I heard a new singer belting out a sustained “Double Fiiiiiiiine!” at the developer’s logo screen before the title screen. It’s one of those little details that will stand out to players as they return to the game over and over. One day it’s Lita Ford’s forceful yell; next it’s Rob Halford’s Painkiller-pitched scream; another time, it’s Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train-inspired version.

And while it’d be a shame to spoil it for anybody, the title screen deserves recognition as being perhaps the most inspired main menu ever.

Like any Tim Schafer game, Brütal Legend is filled to the brim with witty, inspired dialog. While the game appears to follow Psychonauts’ lead in featuring lots of cutscenes — which are admittedly hilarious — a great deal of the game’s conversations also play out in real-time while the player is actively engaged in hacking, slashing and shredding. It makes for a more seamless transition between active and passive segments, and the humor permeates throughout the game with ease.

It may not boast all the bells and whistles of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves’ pristine, lush visuals, but Brütal Legend more than compensates with its brilliant sense of style. Charming, exaggerated characters spring to life and define themselves with expressive animation and excellent sound and voice work. Though only a couple scenes were visible in the demo, each was appropriately overblown and impressive. Schafer has said that the game’s art design is meant to bring fantastical album covers to life; based on initial impressions, it looks as though Double Fine has had no difficulties in living up to its goal.

While the demo left me even more eagerly anticipating the game’s October 13 release date, a couple of critical aspects of the game were absent from the preview:

1. The Open World: Brütal Legend promises a massive, metal album-inspired world to explore with myriad tasks to perform. The demo only includes a portion of the very linear introductory sequence, so it remains to be seen how cohesive and enjoyable the full game’s exploration segments will be.
2. Massive Battles: Later in the game  and while playing online in multiplayer, Eddie will command minions in epic rock show battles in a cross between the game’s basic hack-and-slash combat and the strategy elements of Pikmin. Combat feels solid but a little simplistic while just playing as Eddie, so it’s likely the game’s long-term enjoyment will hinge on how well the game’s large-scale battles play out.

They’re legitimate concerns, but they shouldn’t be enough to dissuade anyone from playing the game. What Double Fine has presented in just a short demonstration is more than enough laugh-out-loud humor, satisfying combat, top-tier writing and — well, inspirado — to guarantee an enjoyable time for anyone who’s not afraid of a little bit of everything your parents warned you about.

No? Hm. Well, here, check out Stephen Colbert’s exclusive preview of Microsoft’s Project Natal:

They always look.

Nick:

The stars have aligned. Not only will this year mark the release of games by Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman — three veterans of the Golden Age of Adventure Gaming — but it will herald the resurrection of Monkey Island, the game that brought the art of insult swordfighting to the masses.

In celebration of the upcoming remake of The Secret of Monkey Island and Telltale’s first season of Tales of Monkey Island, I dove back into my collection of LucasArts adventure games. First up: The Curse of Monkey Island on Mega-Monkey mode, to truly test my puzzle-solving prowess (and alliterative aspirations, apparently.)  Once I’ve killed Dread Pirate LeChuck again…again, I’m planning on paying a few of my favorites a visit: Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle and The Dig, most likely. And to cap it all off? I’ll be returning to the colorful streets of El Marrow in Grim Fandango. (Fact: Grim Fandango is the best game ever made. Honest! Look it up somewhere.)

And lest I forget the current generation of gaming, I oughta mention I’ve been plugging away at InFamous (50% completion rate and still excellent) and Red Faction: Guerrilla. Talk about an underdog of a game; Guerrilla’s only been out for a couple weeks and its price has already been slashed from $60 to $40.

Lemme give you some advice: No matter what opinion you may have of Saints Row or the older Red Faction games, toss it right out the window. Red Faction is relentlessly satisfying both online and off. Don’t be shocked if it ends up at the top of my list for Best Games of 2009.

Still the best at what he does.

Aaron:

Purchasing the Xbox 360 version of XMOWUE (that’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Uncaged Edition — which makes for an awful acronym) for $37 dollars at Target was the best gaming decision I’ve made this week. I’ve patiently waited for a sale on the game since its release, and I’m glad I finally got a chance to scoop it up.

The game is absolutely ridiculous, disgustingly gory and extremely family friendly (not really). Now I’ve never really read any of Wolverine’s comic series — give me Batman or Spider-Man anyday — but I can tell Raven Software lovingly nailed the feel of being Wolverine. It’s brutal, but also beautiful in a demented sort of way.

I’ll also admit within this allotted virtual space that I’ve become addicted to The Sims 3.

The last time I played any Sims title was way back in 2002 when the first game’s vacation expansion came out. After that I quietly put away the voyeuristic notion of controlling virtual people in favor of more conventional gaming experiences. Plus, I was annoyed with the hundreds of expansion packs EA and Maxis kept releasing (honestly that’s written with just a tinge of hyperbole). Even so I’m back for the third game, and it’s as crack-like as I remember. I have to stop sometime soon though, otherwise it’ll become my new World of Warcraft.

Which, by the way, keeps telling me to play it. I need help.

With Bill Clinton and the Fresh Prince in the rosters, NBA Jam really is the quintessential '90s sports game.

Doug:

Still working on games like Fallout 3, FIFA 09, and others, but have brought out some oldies this week as well as taking in some brand-spanking-new demos.

Kicking it old school: Been taking in some SNES games thanks to the power of emulation, specifically NBA Jam: Tournament Edition and International Superstar Soccer, the precursor to the Pro Evo Soccer series we know now. Gotta love some 16-bit goodness every now and then, but I’m still kind of tweaked that I can’t get the cheat codes for NBA Jam to work. Ah well.

Two big sports game demos dropped this week, though: NCAA Football 10 and The Bigs 2. I put damn near 120 hours in to NCAA 09, and am still kind of looking forward to 10, but man…I was not very impressed with the demo upon playing it for the first time. In fact, you could say I’m kind of down on the game. It just didn’t feel right — I had wanted the game to feel different, to make some improvements, but it still feels odd now that they’re here.

The other demo was The Bigs 2, 2k Sports’ take on arcade baseball. I only ever played the demo of the first one, but it was well liked by a lot of people, including 1up.com’s Sports Anomaly podcast. Well, the demo is incredibly good — fairly easy to pick up, a ton of fun to play, great mechanics, and it doesn’t feel unfair like a lot of arcade sports games can. I would definitely love to get my hands on the full game when it comes out soon.