Review: Stacking

Stacking is an adventure game for Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and PC. It was developed by Double Fine Productions.

Our hero, Charlie Blackmore.

The children of the Blackmore family have been forced into slave labor by the evil Baron to pay off the family debts. Only Charlie Blackmore, the smallest of the family, is left due behind to his small size. It is up to Charlie to save his family from the Baron and help put an end to child labor. Also, everyone in the world is a Russian nesting doll, but that’s irrelevant to the backstory or main story.

You control Charlie as he travels to four different areas to rescue members of his family. Each place has one family member that Charlie has to rescue by solving a few puzzles, which somehow frees them.

The game’s main mechanic is Charlie’s ability to stack into dolls bigger than him and use their abilities to solve the puzzles. For example, in one puzzle Charlie has to stack with a woman who farts potpourri, to clear out an area filled with toxic gas and save an ambassador who can free his brother. In another example, Charlie has to stack in a kid carrying spoiled chicken soup to feed to a guard guarding Charlie’s brother. There are several different kinds of dolls walking around in each level, but there is usually only one doll with the power needed to solve a puzzle that you have to find.

Charlie walking around as a judge.

Charlie’s one restriction is that he can only stack into dolls that are slightly bigger than him, and those can only stack into dolls bigger than themselves. So, if Charlie wants to stack into a really big doll, he has to first find a smaller doll and work his way up. But there are plenty of dolls walking around, so this is never an issue.

Puzzles are all about wandering around the level until you find a doll with a power that you think can solve the puzzle. Puzzles have several solutions, but you only need to figure out one of them to beat the level.

It is easy to solve the puzzles. The limited number of unique dolls in each level makes it simple to narrow down which one you should use, and most of the puzzles, like the potpourri one above, have some sort of logical connection between the obstacle and the doll needed, even if they do not make sense from a realistic perspective. Dolls will also give you several clues if you talk to them.

If you play straight through the game, it is unbelievably short. That is why there are a few collection sidequests the game encourages you to play to prolong itself. The game keeps track of how many of the puzzle solutions you figure out and how many unique dolls you find. There are also miniature activates in each level the game gives you, like punching ten dolls with the boxing doll, or tagging ten kid dolls. None of these have substantial rewards, figuring out all the solutions puts portraits up in Charlie’s secret base, finding the unique dolls rewards statues of the dolls, and the mini activities gold plate the dolls. If you are going to play this game and justify spending ten dollars on it, you have to be interested in pointless little side activities like this. At least they are not frustrating.

Charlie, as a pied piper, leading rats and children around a ship.

The setting has a vague 1930s feel to it. At times it also alludes to the idea that all the characters our toys, by occasionally dropping in things that are bigger than nesting dolls, like toys pieces or bananas, but the game does not commit to the idea that it is a giant toy set. It is not the most graphically impressive game, but every level looks different and is interesting to explore.

The story is told through cutscenes made to look like silent films mixed with puppet shows. It is not much of a story, though it does have an odd but humorous anti-child labor message. There are no important characters besides Charlie and the Baron. The dialogue is funny though, especially when Charlie is dealing with people who are related to the puzzle solutions, or people just walking around.

Music is a bunch of simple piano and occasional violin pieces, which fits with the silent movie theme the cutscenes have going.

Stacking is a neat little game. It is not particularly long or difficult, but it is an amusing diversion for ten bucks, provided you care more about exploration and experiencing a game than serious challenge.