Another day, another obnoxious PS3 system update. Seriously, since when did my PC become a more convenient system to use than a console? It wouldn’t be so bad if they downloaded and installed in the background but oh-no, merely downloading them requires the full attention of my system locking me out until they’re finished. I’ve got patience, I really have, but when you’ve got a measly 1.2mb connection and just want to sign in to the Playstation Network the last thing you want to be doing is waiting ten bloody minutes for an update that seems to make no difference whatsoever. That’s not living, that’s bullshit.
Thank the gods then that the Playstation Store front featured a demo of Double Fine’s Stacking the other day: a sweet soothing elixir for my waiting woes, and one that I wouldn’t have been aware of otherwise.
Stacking is a game about Russian dolls, or more specifically ‘stacking’ into dolls to overcome challenges. The game takes place in a turn of the century Victorian world of chimney sweeps, top hats and steam trains and in it you play as Charlie Blackmore, the smallest member of a family who, barring him and his mother, have gone missing. Charlie is tiny and seemingly inconsequential but this is a story about a small doll making a big difference.
The first level featured in the demo takes place at a train station where Charlie, after receiving help from a hobo named Levi the Hobo, finds that his brother Albert has been kidnapped to mine coal while the coal miners union goes on strike at the station. It’s your job to stop the strike and get the children and your brother out of there.
In order to do this little Charlie has to sneak up behind other dolls slightly larger than himself and stack into them to control and use their abilities, these dolls in turn can be stacked into others. Abilities range from sipping tea and ‘flatulating’ to blowing bubblegum and tap dancing and while many serve as fun diversions some are vital in overcoming the various challenges Charlie will face. The first challenge is getting past a guard preventing you from entering a private bar called the Royal Lounge where the three members of the train guild are drinking. The three of them are required to break up the strike on the main platform and get the miners back to work thus letting the poor children (and Albert) go free.
In the demo you can get the members of the train guild to leave the bar in three ways, each as charming and funny as the other — this quality I’m led to believe will be prevalent throughout the game. For those of you wishing to discover all the solutions yourself you may wish to skip the next paragraph.
The most obvious way around the guard is to exploit his blatant weakness to the beautiful predatory female doll (she’s a doll in more ways than one, no less) called The Widow Chastity walking around near the information kiosk. She’s a buxom lady much taller than little Charlie so he has to stack into larger dolls to be able to stack into her. Once he has control of Chastity he can use her ‘seduce’ ability to distract the guard so that Charlie can unstack from her and then sneak behind the now awe-struck guard to stack into him and allow Charlie access to the private bar. Once inside, the members of the train guild and other patrons leave dismayed that the exclusivity of their private bar has been compromised by low-life riff-raff. Once outside the three train guild members can be stacked sequentially and whisked off to the train platform to disperse the strike.
Obviously it’s hard to tell from the demo what sort of puzzles will crop up later on but the main challenge here and the three available solutions bode very well for the rest of the game. They’re smart, funny, logical and perhaps above all fun to discover.
Wandering around the station are all sorts of dolls that respond differently to Charlie and in some cases specifically who he has stacked into, so talking to The Widow Chastity as Solicitor Barnabas (a doll of high stature, pocket watch and tobacco pipe in tow) will provoke a different reaction to Meriwether Malodor (a doll that prizes his ability to clear crowds with his bilious britches). This interplay is key to Stacking as it encourages playful exploration of the game world and its delightful core mechanic. In each area there are a few unique dolls and ‘sets’ of dolls which can be found and stacked together to gain access to quirky side stories. For instance, at the station there’s a (presumably) Austrian family who have lost each other after catching the wrong train to the Schnitzel Museum. Once they are reunited they decide to go back home.
While all this is going on Levi the Hobo finds a secret hideout which acts as a sort of mantelpiece or depository for all the unique dolls and sets you’ve collected as well as a record of which solutions you’ve found and how many remain for each challenge. Levi also pledges to do a painting of each new location you visit. Bless his tatty socks. One of the defining qualities of Stacking, as expected from a Double Fine game, is its sterling sense of humour. The attendants at the information kiosk in the main hallway happily dole out useful hints and tips and add remarks like ‘I don’t know what that means, but I’m supposed to follow the script’ and ‘I have no idea what <square> or <L1> is, but I hope you find them helpful’. Terrorising the station with Meriwether Malodor’s flatulence never ceased to lose its magic either, especially when trying to disperse the stalwart strikers after which they’d retort ‘Your odor can’t cut through the years of coal dust in my nose!’
Needless to say given the screenshots above, Stacking is also beautifully presented, so much so that if Professor Layton were to organise a cream tea and scones evening with The Triplets of Belleville and P.B. Winterbottom, Stacking would undoubtedly be invited. From the gorgeous illustrated dolls and their satin sheens to the little details peppered about the station: a long rug with ruffled bumps in it, the mosaics adorning various walls and floors, the curly clouds painted on to ceilings above, warm glowing ornate glass lamp shades hanging in the main hallway; it all looks gorgeous. The story itself is told through charming stage performances in the style of a silent movie, interspersed with snappy dialogue and accompanied by a suitably crackly soundtrack largely featuring piano and violin. It works perfectly.
All in all, I couldn’t be more surprised and impressed by Stacking. From knowing nothing about it (other than it being a Double Fine game) I’ve come away from the demo wanting a whole lot more and as far as I’m concerned that’s exactly what a demo is for. Those of you with a PS3 or an Xbox need to play this, those without can check out the trailer below. Sorry.
Email the author of this post at greggb@tap-repeatedly.com
Yet another argument for getting a PS3. Now if only I could find one more convincing than the counter-argument of me being a broke-ass bastard.
I understand every puzzle has multiple solutions in this game. You may wanna try the demo out again and see if you can find some of the others.
Also, “Bless his tatty socks.” <-wtf?
Armand, Armand, Armand. Of course I found all the solutions. To quote MrLipid ‘This is Tap-REPEATEDLY, not Tap-Occasionally’ ;-p
I didn’t really want to reveal all the solutions (especially the funniest) so I just stuck to the most obvious one as an example.
‘Bless his cotton socks’ just wasn’t going to cut it for a hobo.
I’ve been playing the full game since it released on XBLA last month and it’s made me laugh out loud several times. You’re right in saying that Meriwether’s stinky farts just never gets old. Other never gets old moments include: the kid who is hopped up on sugar and literally runs around in circles while his vision goes all wonky and the kid who’s always tossing his cookies. I’ve received crayon hats and scribbled all over the other dolls; inhabited the fighter and punched everyone; taken over a mummy and scared everyone; pooped all over the deck as a seagull… it’s hilarious.
The art direction is simply stunning. It reminds me of being a kid and making an entire world out of found bits n’ bobs – poker chips as tables, straws as trees, etc.
A new Double Fine game? ZOMG. I had no idea. This Stacking game sounds totally tubular.
Also: Gregg, did you know that you can achieve automatic updates and downloads of patches and such on your PS3 while you sleep at night? Yeah it’s great. All you have to do is join the goddamn PS Plus membership club which costs fucking money.
That’s TOTAL double wank and shit chips, if you ask me. Why the bloody hell can’t such a nice, simple feature be free for everybody?
Oh, and Armand: You + PS3 = Uncharted, Heavy Rain, LittleBigPlanet (if that’s your thing), God of War games (if that’s your thing), The Last Guardian (how can this not be anyone’s thing?) and now Stacking!
… Curses. Making me want things again. Mm, doublefine <3
Xtal: Yeah, those are all very valid arguments for a PS3. Sadly, they don’t outweigh the money issue. This may come as a surprise, but despite having 3 computers in my home (2 gaming machines,) hand held gaming devices, and other nifty gadgets, I don’t actually have a TV.
So either a 360 or a PS3 would both include what I imagine is a significant extra cost of just buying a television which would be used only for gaming.
Most TV and movies don’t really interest me, and the ones that do are all on either Netflix or Hulu. I’ve considered plugging in a gaming console to my desktop monitor, but that would be its own pain in the ass.
This game sounds delightful.
It’s part of Double Fine’s “Amnesia Fortnight” thing they did a while ago. Everyone was tired of working on Brutal Legend so they took like a month completely off it, broke up into four teams, and each made a little game. Costume Quest, Stacking… I can’t remember the other two but one of them was how they wound up with this Sesame Street contract (which makes perfect sense for Double Fine when you think about it).
Unfortunately this wonderful article also warns me that I have to go through a system update next time I turn on my PS3. Sigh.
This sounds great Gregg, if only I had a PS3 🙁
“that’s not living, that’s bullshit”
Oh god did that make me laugh! 🙂
@Toger: Yeah me and my girlfriend noticed that straight away, the big pins and playing cards and the cute little matchbox suitcases. It reminded us of The Borrowers!
@xtal: I totally forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me and thanks Sony for kidnapping basic usability and holding it to ransom.
@Steerpike: Oh it is delightful, be sure to try the demo!
I heard about this ‘Amnesia Fortnight’ and I can only imagine it being a good thing for the team, both financially and creatively. Based on Stacking I hope they continue to work on multiple smaller projects because locking all Double Fine’s talent into one big release just seems counter-productive to me. Has anybody here played Costume Quest btw?
@Lew: I wish we’d popped it on when you and Mat C were over. I think updating my system would’ve been more fun than Killzone 3.
I saw this on the PSN, but thought it would be something completely banal and childlike – but now I must check it out! Double Fine need to market better 😛
*soap box*
…and now you know why I never turn on my PS3 anymore unless I want to watch a Blu-Ray disc or there is an exclusive I can’t play on any other system.
The fan boys talk about how horrible and immoral MS is and that is why they support Sony…yet Sony make their 20 minute updates feel like punishment unless you give them cash.
..and now they offer to store your saved games for you on their server…of course you will lose them all (along with the “free” games you acquired) if you don’t keep paying. What a racket they have going.
I dont think I’ve updated my PS3 in about six months..I’ve turned the internet access off on it just so my Blu-Ray discs load up faster.
But wow, what a great Blu-Ray Player it has turned out to be. 🙂
*end soap box*
Love Stacking…I think my favorite character is the one who can organize people into rows…This is an amazing game for something that was downloadable. I’m glad DoubleFine has gone this route with their company.
I forgot to come back and mention combos – set fire to one of Meriwether’s farts, comedy ensued. 😀
Since writing this First Impressions I’ve not been on my PS3. The other night I finished Grim Fandango and booted the system up to start Heavy Rain. Heavy Lame more like, 1.1GB patch. So I left my system running all night to download it (Captain Planet would be proud) only to wake up and find that the PS3 had powered down mid-download as part of it’s ‘power saving’ feature. You want power saving Sony? Why don’t you include a fucking feature that turns the system off after a download?! When I got back from work the patch had been downloaded and installed and I wanted to check out the Motor Storm: Apocalypse demo. PSN was ‘down for maintenance’. Pah!
I’ll be picking up Stacking for my birthday in April. Can’t wait. Neither can my girlfriend (and she’s the one buying it ;-))
@Toger: for me that’s one of the best things about Stacking, the way that messing about with the pieces of the puzzle is such a laugh. Me and my girlfriend seduced the guard and walked Meriweather into the Royal Lounge to clear it out, little did we know that you could simply blast one off into the ventilation system and do just as good a job. Hilarious and genius.
Everybody I know is also complaining about how their gaming time is 80% being taken up by the constant PS3 patches/updates as well as the game patches. Heh, yep truly getting towards the PC experience.