Stacking

On 11/23/2015 at 01:03 AM by KnightDriver

Not stacking games on top of games like the last couple weeks, just playing the Xbox Live downloadable game Stacking, by Double Fine, all during the football game, and then the rest of the day.

The football game is not worth mentioning. Let's just say Philly pride is at a all time low right now. Stacking, however, I had a lot of fun with until the last hour or so of a full day, and then puzzle game fatigue started setting in. I got stuck on one puzzle/situation very close to the end of the game that I just couldn't figure out. It wasn't a problem with knowing what to do really, it was more a matter of figuring out the mechanics of a particular task (I took a quick peek at a walkthrough just now and figured out what I was doing wrong). Sometimes, this game leaves you to figure out some basic functions on your own. which after a whole day of gaming, can be kind of frustrating.

Stacking has four major locations (may be a final boss related one too, but I'm not there yet) filled with story challenges, side challenges and lots of small challenges. The menu system lets you see what you need to do, but the descriptions there don't often tell you exactly what is needed, and that's fine because you can usually figure it out with a little experimentation. There are loads of different nesting dolls, each with their own single ability that sometimes can be combined with other dolls to solve problems or just to make fun. I ran around one time just banging everything with my hammer helmet doll. It didn't do anything, but it was funny. It helps to just try stuff and see what happens. Often it becomes a major solution or tics off a small challenge.

I think one of my favorite things I experienced today was something a basic challenge made me notice. You have to guess which of three dolls a smaller doll was hidden in. The three dolls were shuffled so fast, it required a better solution to just guessing. The trick was doing certain things that would make the dolls open just a little so you could see inside. After I did this challenge, I started noticing the way the dolls show their insides when they move. I thought this was poignant, a metaphore for how our inner selves sometimes reveal themselves even though we see the external self most of the time. Darn if Double Fine doesn't always sneak in some psychology into their games in a very interesting way.

Tomorrow, I'll likely finish the game and consider completeing all the special challenges. I did it on the Zeppelin level on my first pass, but the others have some left that I'm just baffled over. Then there's one DLC level to be downloaded.

Onto tomorrow.

Super Step Contributing Writer

11/23/2015 at 01:12 AM

We're a comin' for that NFC East title. 3-7 baby, wooooooo! #NFCEastSux

KnightDriver

11/24/2015 at 04:43 PM

What happened with Cowboys and Dolphins? I was watching the score during the Eagles game, but go so disgusted, I stopped watching. Did the Cowboys get a safety on the Dolphins to keep their streak alive?

11/24/2015 at 08:21 PM

It was 24-14 so they got more than a safety. Cowboys won.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

11/23/2015 at 07:40 AM

yeah the Eagles are terrible. Terrible!

11/24/2015 at 04:45 PM

I knew they had problems, but this blow-out game convinced me of their inepitude. My friend was calling fo them to tank the rest of the season for draft picks next year. That's bad. And I have to watch them again on Thanksgiving.

11/24/2015 at 05:07 PM

I know, it's the early game too. Well, if they were semi-decent, I could hope they could beat the Lions, but man, they suck!

mothman

11/23/2015 at 09:32 AM

I downloaded Stacking on PSN again. I had it on there before my original PS3 died but never finished it. I'm going to start it again and see if I can finish it.

11/24/2015 at 04:46 PM

It's worth finishing and then completeing every little thing in it. It's all fun.

Ranger1

11/23/2015 at 10:23 AM

Which puzzle was it, John? There was one I had a really hard time with, too, and I'm wondering if it's the same one.

I really liked Stacking because of how much got packed into that little game. And all the detail of the backgrounds.

And ahem, 9-0, baby.

11/24/2015 at 04:51 PM

Ok, it was in the Triple Tank Engine area and the boss who's in the dark and you have to scare him off with a lot of light. You can combine abilities of two dolls, this one being the Oil Spill doll and the Flare doll. I doused the boss with oil, then flared, then doused the flare guy and used his flare ability. I tried putting oil on the floor and then flaring. Nothing. I didn't realize you could unstack while a doll is active in his/her ability. So you acivate Flare, then unstack, then douse the flaring doll with oil. Wala! It works. There are several other situations that use this type of thing, (activate a doll, unstack, then activate the unstacked doll) so it's good to remember it.

11/25/2015 at 08:00 AM

I got them all, I was just wondering if you'd had difficulty with the same one I did. And yes, that was the same puzzle. That one drove me nuts.

11/26/2015 at 02:30 AM

I was eyeing those candles, but that was a dead end. In the Simpleton the Strong one right after it, I tried to figure out how to pull the nightlight out of the wall. That didn't work either.

Cary Woodham

11/23/2015 at 04:04 PM

That looked like an interesting game when it came out. I don't have time to play it right now what with all the other games I need to review and searching for a job and stuff.

11/25/2015 at 03:32 AM

It's super interesting. It took me about 17 hours to do everything in the game, and I mean everything. You could just cruise through the main story, though, in way less time than that. I think howlongtobeat.com said it was about 5 hours for the main story.

GrayHaired

11/23/2015 at 11:30 PM

Yeah I remember Tami,Rangergirl when she was playing this game.

sounds pretty interesting

11/25/2015 at 03:38 AM

The music is pretty neat too. Lots of old time jazz violin and piano music and classical stuff. I heard something from one of Wagner's operas in the final parts of the DLC The Hobo King.

PixlBit