• Posted February 16th, 2011 at 13:02 EDT by Steven Williamson
• 2 Comments

If you think you’ve got money problems, spare a thought for little Charlie Blackmore and his family of chimney sweeps. Unlike Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, the Blackmores don’t have a happy-go-lucky, dance across the rooftop attitude. In fact, they’re totally miserable, struggling to afford a few slices of bread for their dinner. To make matters worse, Charlie’s father leaves his family home to try and earn more money working away for a rich Baron. During his absence, the family’s debt spirals out of control and the Baron’s henchmen, disguised as debt collectors, kidnap Charlie’s four siblings to use them for child labour in the city.

Charlie is spared the ordeal, but he’s not about to sit on his hands and do nothing. This pint-sized, cheeky chappie may be the smallest child in the family, but he makes up for it with attitude by taking the family motto of “Ain’t no mess we can’t address” quite literally, embarking on a dangerous journey to rescue his brothers. This is no ordinary rescue mission, however. After all, Stacking is a game from Double Fine Productions, whose portfolio includes the brilliantly creative Costume Quest. Double Fine has a reputation for delivering unique games where you should expect the unexpected — Stacking certainly doesn’t disappoint in that respect.

In Stacking, players use stackable Russians dolls, known as Matryoshkas, to solve a variety of challenges. Playing as Charlie, you waddle around meeting and interacting with other dolls. You can walk up behind any doll and — providing they are larger then you — possess their hollow bodies, essentially becoming a brand new doll with a totally different look. The unique twist is that many dolls possess different abilities, which you may need to solve a puzzle. There are dozens of entertaining situations that you find yourself in as you carry out such activities as burping, farting and fluttering your eye-lashes in an attempt to solve a variety of surreal, stimulating challenges.

Each doll has a unique skill, ranging from a seduce ability ideal for distracting guards to a rancid belch, which may disgust other dolls, but comes in handy for clearing a room in a matter of moments. There are approximately 100 dolls in total, so Stacking offers loads of variety. Expect to perform plenty of experimentation to find the right doll for the job. Despite a few frustrating challenges that defy logic and require little more than a trial and error approach, the Double Fine designers put a lot of careful thought and imagination into the puzzle creation process. Some of these bizarre challenges, such as having to possess the Pied Piper by using a violin and then using her flute to lure rats to a cheese sphinx, provoke the thought, "why on Earth would you have to do that?" But strangely, in the context of the game, they mostly makes sense; plus, the feeling of not knowing what you’re going to have to do next keeps you hooked.

Stacking cleverly encourages you to experiment and gives you good reason to replay challenges. Each puzzle has a number of solutions, and after completing a challenge you’re told how many other ways you could have solved it. In one of the first puzzles you encounter, for example, you have to infiltrate the railway lounge. It can be tackled in three ways. You can jump into the body of lady who has the ability to woo and use her to distract the guard, or you can use an engineer to pry a grate off so you can sneak through into the room. Or, if you’re feeling particularly naughty, you can fart in the ventilation fan and stink out all the guests. The challenges become more complicated and elaborate as you progress. The later stages really kick your brain into overdrive, but there’s always help nearby.

The hint system is a good way to progress if you get stuck, but its inclusion is a double-edged sword. Initially, I found myself wandering around locations looking for the right doll to complete a challenge for far longer than I would have liked, using a trial and error approach to pass some of the trickier puzzles. Once I started using the immediately accessible hint system, I was ... (continued on next page)