Buy This Stuff: “Even Though I Didn’t Have to Pay For It” Edition

Stacking (PSN/XBLA)

Sometimes I have a hard time connecting with my friends when we talk about video games.

A trip to Gamestop:

Me: You should check this game out! It’s amazing.

Them: What game?

Me: THE SLY COOPER COLLECTION.

Them: Haha, no.

Sly Cooper, Katamari, Ratchet and Clank…don’t even get me started on what happens when I try to get them to play Portal.

Me: It’s like two hours long!

Them: Yeah I’ll play it.

Them: [NEVER PLAYS IT]

As soon as I booted up Stacking, I knew it was going to be one of those games.

You play Charlie Blackmore, the littlest Russian stacking doll, in a world where every living person and animal is a Russian stacking doll. There’s a plot about an evil Baron kidnapping your family here, but I’ll be completely honest, I missed some of the text at the very beginning, so I don’t remember all of the details. He’s bad, and you’re good.

Charlie has the unique ability to stack with other dolls, inhabiting their bodies. Each doll type has a special ability that is either useful in solving puzzles (unlocking doors), or just funny (farting). Sometimes they’re both (farting on other dolls).

Each level has several challenges for you to solve, and each challenge has more than one solution. After you solve a challenge once, you’re encouraged to replay the same challenge to find another solution. This helps enable your OCD, and also unlocks trophies/achievements. There’s also a set of “hi-jinks” in each level, which are various ways to make trouble that also earn you trophies/achievements/trips to the psychiatrist from all of the OCD.

The game is fun, creative, funny, and you get to jump inside of people’s bodies and make them do stuff. If you’re a PlayStation Network Plus subscriber, it’s free; it’s $15 otherwise (1200 Microsoft points on XBLA). It’s a good idea, so do it.