A fresh and clever game that is good for a relaxing venture.
The first thing you experience when you start the game is a cutscene in the style of the old silent movies. You can tell just from the introduction that while the game may be silly, the story expresses concern for a real issue: child labor. From that point on you know you are in for something special. The visuals throughout are really charming, rich, vibrant, yet oddly simple. Each russian doll type has a unique design and expresses it's abilities effectively without ever having to change the look of the doll itself. The sound effects are equally charming, all sounding authentic and appropriate for the situation. You will hear chatter, you will hear the people around you moving and the effects of the enviornment and the sound of you moving is clearly the sound of you tapping a wooden doll on the ground.
The best part of the aesthetics to me was definitely the music. It was very calming, rich and classical at the same time. It also always fit the mood of the moment extremely effectively.
Now for the gameplay. The concept is very simple. You start off as a tiny russian doll, and you stack into a slightly larger one. You can do this multiple times up to a certain maximum size. Each doll has it's own abilities that you can use for fun or to solve puzzles. For example, there is a doll that you can use to 'seduce' male dolls. You can use this ability to progress the game, to complete a silly challenge or just for fun. Speaking of solutions, the way the game progresses is through giving you obstacles and forcing you to figure out how to overcome them. The best part is that practically EVERY obstacle has multiple ways to approach them, so not everybody will complete the game the same way. You get rewarded for coming back to complete each obstacle in every way. You also get rewarded for stacking into every type of unique doll that is in the game and there are even silly challenges in the game called hi-jinks that you can complete which require you to do things like smack people in the face or fly to birds nests.
One of the great things about the game is that there are very few locations where you are truly in danger, so you can figure things out at your pace and do what you like. The game doesn't really warrant a replay in the classical sense, but since each obstacle in the game has multiple solutions, you can either do all the solutions as you progress or come back after you beat the game in order to figure them all out. The game isn't particularly challenging overall, but does have its moments of head scratching.
The two main downfalls of this game are that some of the solutions (only a small handful) feel like a rehash of past solutions with a different coat of paint. The other problem is that it ends too soon. A playthrough shouldn't take more than 2-3 hours, and a 100% run shouldn't take more than 5-6 hours.
Still, with its charming audio and visuals, its silly story but clever story and its extremely fresh and relaxing gameplay...there is no doubt that this one is worth its entry fee.
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Replay/Lasting Value: 7/10
OVERALL: 8.5/10