High risk game turns into a beautiful and fun adventure

User Rating: 8.5 | Stacking PS3
Tim Schafer is in my opinion one of the most imaginative designer/writer we have in the gaming industry. Nowadays, young gamers may not be familiar with his work in the 90s but those games are still lots of fun to play. He's the creator of one of the best point and click adventure saga Monkey island and the critically acclaimed Grim Fandango. Psychonauts, a game that was unfortunately not played by many people was a masterpiece in design. I don't know how Schafer comes up with these worlds but I hope he can continue imagining new ones.

Stacking is no exception! A game presented as a silent film and where characters are russian dolls. As an aspiring game designer, I looked at this game from a designer point of view. The premise is simple, find your kidnapped brothers and sisters and rescue them. To do that, you have to find ways around obstacles by stacking with bigger russian dolls (only one size bigger than you). Each doll has a unique ability that you can use to your advantage. And that's it. The game is a little bit too easy to play. You can replay challenges to find all possible means to an end. That adds to the replay value I guess. But what is special about this game is simply the idea behind it. This game was a pleasant change from all the Shooters, RPGs, strategy games, etc that in the end resemble each other too much for their own good. Stacking is a fresh game, with an innovative presentation that will put a smile on your face.
I think that 15$ for a short game like this is a little bit too much. If they charged 10$ more people would buy the game not worrying if they would like it or not.
But in the end, I think the price doesn't matter because I enjoyed every moment of stacking while it lasted. Thank you Tim for this wonderful tour of your imagination :)