McPixel

It's amusing and cheap, always a winning combination, but I'm far from impressed outside of a chuckle here and there. A parody of MacGyver and other unrealistic action heroes, the game has you defuse the danger in various scenarios by, well, clicking on everything on screen in hopes to find the order that works. And that's where McPixel falls short, there is no gameplay, per se. There is no internal logic to decipher, nothing to understand. Click a character or set piece. If nothing happens (that's good), click another one. If shit blows up, start over with a new order of clicking-on-things. It's basically a time consuming way to play out a bunch of jokes.

McPixel would be the result of mixing a point-and-click adventure with the Wario Ware series. McPixel is a hero of some sorts and is tasked with diffusing a bomb by any means necessary. In each scenario, you have 20 seconds to figure it out, and win or lose; you move onto the next scenario. There are 6 of these scenarios and you only complete the stage when all scenarios are successfully completed, otherwise it keeps looping through them. In each scenario there is usually one or more people, and one or more objects which you can interact with.

There's no point thinking logically too much, because most of the time; the solution is just stupid. That's where the fun is with McPixel, that the situations and solutions are just downright bizarre that you can't help but smile or laugh. For example, you are on a train with an old man and a young man. There's a bomb and some false teeth on the floor. You grab the false teeth then kick the young man. He retaliates and kicks you, the teeth clamp onto his foot. In shock he shakes his foot and kicks the bomb out of the window. McPixel saves the day.

Sometimes, you don't even know where the bomb is, but soon can learn by clicking on objects. In the office, there's a plant, photocopier, bin, computer, and a man. By clicking on the bin, McPixel reaches in and picks up a bomb. It explodes and you've failed. Next time it comes around, you grab the plant, then put it in the bin, smothering the explosion. McPixel saves the day.

After you complete the levels, you can come back to them with the challenge of finding all the gags. Once you have done so, you unlock bonus levels. These bonus levels are mainly parodies which include cartoons like Dexter's Lab, The Simpsons, and films such as Alien, Harry Potter, Star Wars.

McPixel seems to love kicking people and generally being rude. Sometimes kicking people doesn't provoke a response, sometimes it can lead to the solution, or sometimes it can lead to McPixel getting beat up. The unpredictability brings out a lot of humour. The unpredictability also means you will fail levels when you didn't expect to, but conversely maybe solve the level when you didn't expect to. You could just see a weird reaction when you expected something completely different. Clicking on the bomb sometimes picks it up, but sometimes McPixel will kick it instead and it will explode. Picking up the bomb on the ship and clicking on the anchor makes McPixel drink the bomb fluid, then kick the anchor which hits him on the head, causing the bomb to drop in the ocean. It makes no sense but it is the solution. There's a lot of Wario Ware humour too. Clicking on the supermarket cashier causes McPixel to reach in her mouth and pull out a chicken!? There's plenty of vulgarity too. Picking up the drinks bottle and clicking on the alien makes McPixel down the drink and then urinate on the alien! On the Lion King parody level, picking up Timon and clicking on Pumbaa causes McPixel to shove Timone up Pumbaa's backside.

If you are lucky and get 3 correct scenarios in a row, you get presented with a bonus level. These levels were so obscure I had no idea if there was a correct answer or not.

Graphically, McPixel is yet another indie game going for the retro graphical style. Obviously, there isn't the need for fancy graphics, but on some levels, objects can be hard to make out. There is a graphics option where you can toggle the filter which gives the game a different look, which can help, or just look a bit funky.

Surprisingly, you can get a few hours of fun out of McPixel. You could argue that it isn't a game, but more of a humorous past-time, but it certainly does it well. Some people just won't understand it, or think it is stupid, but others will find it hilariously unique.

Its a stupid game. And its trying to be a stupid game

Its a game where you are supposed to disarm a bomb in a ridiculous situation, and only have one or two clicks max to do it. The thing is that there is no sort of logic involved, meaning that you will be clicking everything in order to get through. At least some of the animations are funny, but most are really cringeworthy middle school humour.

The gameplay is also very counterintuitive, since the game awards you for finding everysingle clickable in a level, but only finding the correct one moves you forward.

Overal a poor game. I understand its a parody, but that doesnt make it all that more satisfying to play.