Stacking

When the Blackmore family gets into debt, the Baron forces the children into labour but deems the youngest child, Charlie as worthless so leaves him. Charlie then sets off to free his siblings and put an end to the Baron's evil schemes.

The people in Stacking's world are Matryoshka dolls (Russian nesting dolls) each with one simple ability. Since Charlie is the smallest doll in the world, he can stack into a doll one size up and then use this doll to stack into dolls in the same manner. The graphics are very impressive and the character models are well animated. Since they have no limbs, they hop and shuffle about like South Park characters and their top halves can bobble loosely as your character moves. Cut scenes are played out like old silent films, complete with slides with subtitles, screen flicker and piano soundtrack.

In each area, you will be given objectives such as opening a door, or forcing people to leave their position. You do this by experimenting with each dolls ability and thinking how it can be used to solve the puzzles. Each puzzle can be solved in many ways, and once you find a solution, you can try to find another solution instantly (rather than having to come back later or use menus like in other games). Each solution is given a name which will give a slight hint at what the solution is. If this isn't enough, you can use the in-game hint system which gives you 3 hints, where the final hint usually makes it 100% clear what the solution is. This is an optional system, so those that don't want to use it don't have to.

There are plenty of dolls which have gimmicky abilities and are useless in terms of the puzzles. Quite a lot of abilities can be used for “hi jinks” which are found by using mischievous abilities on other dolls. For example, the doll which has a fishing rod can yank off hats from other dolls, a child that wants to play the game of 'tag' can tag other child dolls. Using these abilities a set amount goes towards the game's completion.

You have to give Double Fine credit for making a game about Matryoshka dolls. Given the theme, it is quite difficult to make a game from it but they have done a wonderful job. Even though the world and story is a weird combination and extremely imaginative; the game just isn't that fun. The puzzles are okay but it mainly involves fetch quests; finding a character, stacking inside, going to another location, stacking inside and so on. Finding all the solutions, dolls and performing high-jinks are all optional and are suited to completionist type of gamers. The game can be played at a very slow pace which makes it very suited to casual gamers.

I got to give it to Double Fine, as often their games are riddled with shallow gameplay, they are masters at creating unique universes. And this is what they have done with Stacking, essencially a world made up of those russian nesting doll. Basically everyone in the world is a russian nesting doll, and you are able to stack into everyone (that is one size bigger than you) in order to solve puzzles. Every doll has its unique power, and its really fun to mess around with them. There is usually quite a few solutions to the same problem, and the game rewards the player by finding them all, as well as discovering a lot of the easter eggs found throughout the levels.

Unfortunatly the story itself is quite dull, and the levels are pretty small. It ultimatly feels like there was more potential to this idea that the team couldnt quite fully explore.

The game is filled with that Double Fine charm. Its an easy, casual game, but i still had a lot of fun with it.

This has some similarities with another Double Fine Productions game of the same time, Costume Quest, to the extent that if you liked one, you'll probably like the other and if not, then not.

It's another comedic light adventure for the whole family, with one major mechanical trick: here it is the Russian-style stackable matryoshka dolls, your character is the smallest of them all and can ride other dolls of various sizes to move them in desired positions or use their special skills to solve problems.
And it has a strong thematic element, here the industrial era strife when our hero tries to battle child labour (still in a comedic manner), and a visual style getting its cues from from steampunk and silent films.

It is quite easy to find solutions to most of the puzzles, so the story doesn't lose its momentum and if one takes the shortest route through the game it is quite short and slight. The key is to explore: almost all the puzzles have multiple solutions, it is possible to try all of them, and some of them are fairly arcane (this "solve the same problem multiple times" idea might bug some with its unrealism, but to be honest this game is not that big on realism to start with). And there's enough other things to explore, try to collect all kinds of tricks and admire the environment.

Of course, at least in PC some of the clumsy controls are also here, and in a game avoiding combat, there is one totally unnecessary stylized combat section near the end. But still, this one has plenty to recommend itself.

Stacking is as shallow and devoid of substance as the hollowed out Russian nesting dolls that occupy its world.

Since 2005, Double Fine Productions’s idiosyncratic creations, when condensed to pictures and video clips, capture the imagination, but when explored through play, their games leave something to be desired. Past titles, such as Psychonauts and Brütal Legend, were filled with underdeveloped ideas sandwiched between unpolished controls and production values of an Oscar-worthy animated feature. The bizarre world of Stacking, inspired by silent-film-era aesthetics, industrial backdrops and quaint European humor, is no different.

Even with its prepubescent sense of humor (there are farts and burps aplenty) and small, stilted environments, the world of Stacking is a spectacle that stands out from other games. The variety of character models and environments keep impressing throughout the brief four-to-five hour game. The same can’t be said for the game’s puzzles, which are childish in the worst sense possible.

The game opens with a narrative told through text complemented by piano, replicating a silent drama you might find at a theater in the 1930s. Charlie Blackmore’s family, all Russian matryoshka dolls of varying sizes, are forced into labor, including the children. Charlie is so tiny that he is deemed useless and left behind, but it’s up to him to save his family and put an end to child labor. As Charlie, the player solves environmental puzzles that involve taking on the role of other stacking dolls and using their abilities. You can stack up to five dolls, increasing in size and ability with each new doll. The abilities vary from being funny but pointless (serving tea) to being the obvious solution to a problem; often too obvious.

For example, one puzzle presents a cartographer that you need to make leave his room. On his wall is a collection of maps written in ink, and right outside the room is a shipmate scrubbing the walls. It doesn’t take much to connect one and the other when the problem and solution are consistently in close proximity to each other. Stacking never makes you feel clever for solving its logic obstacles because that would require the puzzles to be clever to begin with.

For a puzzle game whose biggest challenge lies in organizing people into lines by size, Double Fine working on a Sesame Street game for Kinect shouldn’t come as a surprise. On a basic level, the mechanics of Stacking could have provided a brilliant challenge involving complex chains of action and planning. Instead, the game encourages you to walk around and solve puzzles through trial and error.

Once you tune into the game’s juvenile humor, the obvious solutions only become easier to spot. If an opera singer can’t open a vent shaft, then hop into the guy next to her that can bend over and fart into it, driving away the people on the other side.

Video games are only the medium for the visual works of art Double Fine creates. Since 2005, critics and consumers alike have excused the developer’s shallow games because the elaborate worlds and imaginative art direction of each project have proven enough to delight. Psychonauts and Brutal Legend, despite being financial bombs, are remembered fondly for their characters, worlds and unique visuals.

The constant displays of whimsy and imagination make Double Fine a hard studio to dislike, but Stacking suggests that its focus on brief, downloadable titles has only further stunted its ability to create games of depth and complexity. Double Fine is a wonderfully talented animation studio in the wrong business.