Pinstripe

Brought to you by the same dev who you might remember from his previous work, an obscure little browser game called "Coma". Which frankly, I enjoyed a lot more than Pinstripe. Firstly because it's free and second it's much more concise. Pinstripe is barely 3 hours long and still feels padded. The worst aspect of Pinstripe is by far the gameplay itself. Being neihter a full adventure nor a real action game but the worst of both worlds. Ultra light platforming with floaty controls mixed with solving puzzles that are barely worth the effort. At the halfway point it turns into a collect-a-thon of all things. To reach the final area you have to backtrack to collect a certain amount of shinies before you can progress. Whyyy would you force your player through that. Story is the old "Stuck in purgatory" cliche. Which is neither a twist nor a spoiler because it's written in the very description of the game. Look up, it says it right there. "Discover the mystery behind Ted & Bo's death." The setting lends itself to some surreal senery and dialogue, which I did find intriguing. Albeit sprinkled with a bit too much toilet humor for my taste... the game's riddled with fart noises, insults containing the word piss and the like. If you just want some weirdness for weirdness' sake, Pinstripe may keep you distracted for one afternoon. Set your bar low though. (As an aside, one thing that made me chuckle while watching the credit's roll...Danny Sexbang of Game Grumps fame did a voice. That's neat I guess?)

A strange box of a game. I have played it through, but had quit one run, because I was simply too annoyed and tired of it all. While on the one hand it has a nice setting and voice acting, the lack of choices in the dialogue, the strange way of interaction in the inventory and odd jumping (slightly difficult due to the lack of precise controls) around stuff in order to get some oil, somehow put me off. Initially, I played it on Newgrounds and already there the large interface in terms of selection of dialogue elements put me off. After completing the game, all of these impressions somehow remained, but to it the aspect of lack of content has to be added. A serious gamer will complete this game in no time. There is hardly a challenge, except for timing issue and it is a very forgiving game; a run without dying should maybe even on the harder game play mode might not be that difficult. ** minor spoiler** Once completed ... ask yourself, whether the game wants to shove something down your throat; the last scene ... you will understand what I mean. It can be understood in such a way. I am not entirely sure about it, but it leaves a slightly bitter taste. Throughout the game, especially as things escalate, I thought that there would be something of Silent Hill to it all, but things progress into a different direction later on. ** end minor spoiler ** Somehow it feels as if the game had been released too early. Not much flesh there. Looks great, well done ... but all in all it does not have that much to it.

Well, the big thing about this game that everyone says is that it's short. It is. You can do a single playthrough in 3 hours, maybe more, maybe less. If that doesn't sound like it's worth it to you for $15, I'm sorry, but there is actually a really great experience to be had here. It's got a very good flow to it. Although I stuck around for a little while on certain puzzles, I never felt like I was really getting held up or stopped at any point. The gameplay just focuses around simple platforming, simple puzzles, and simple combat, all based around a slingshot. The real highlight here isn't just the story, but the overall feel of the game. The dark story is complimented with ocassional bits of whimsical humor, and the art, music and voice acting, highlights this tone perfectly. There is some replay value with new stuff you can unlock with New Game Plus, but overall this game is really just if you think a really great 3-4 hour experience is worth your money. If you agree that it is, then I definitely reccomend this game.

Almost like from the workshop of Tim Burton. I think the timing for release could not be worse. You definitely want to play it during winter time holiday for sure. Maybe that was the plan for initial release but it got postponed to polish out bugs etc. And it is polished well. If you'd like narrative adventurous platformer take this one. Recommended!