Any time of day is a good time for pie. Well that’s what indie developer, The Odd Couple, wants us to believe with their new Xbox Live Arcade game, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom. This mind-bending puzzle game will remind you of Braid but offers a unique presentation that makes it its own game. Put your pie in the oven and read on.
The story follows The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, a pie lover who terrorizes Bakersburg by stealing their pies. One day he comes across a magical pie which bends time and allows you to create clones of yourself. Creating clones and collecting pies is your destination to completing and reaching the end of the game. Not the best story ever but the presentation of it is unique and excellent. The game is presented in the way of an old silent-film style. The graphics are pretty good for an arcade game and the film grain effect and scratches make much more appealing and compliments the style that the game is going for. The music consist of piano themes that also adds to the 1920’s silent-film vibe. This is a great representation of how a story should clash with all the other elements of the game like the music and the visuals.
The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom are easy enough to pick up and play but the puzzles are sure to frustrate you and boggle your mind. Each stage consist of grabbing all the pies in that stage by means of jumping, gliding, and cloning yourself. You can clone yourself doing whatever for a small amount a time, and will that recording loop itself over and over. Each stage allows you to clone yourself a limited number of times which can prove to be difficult.There are some many different ways to complete a stage that it makes it a bit more confusing by not giving you only one way of completing a stage but that’s how puzzle games work. I found myself frustrated and ready to give up after 15 minutes in one stage and after finally completing it, I just felt drained and didn’t want to continue.There are several story stages in the game and some challenge levels which gives you a time limit and a clone limit. The P.B. Winterbottom experience wont last too long but there is room for replayability.
The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom was a unique experience and a frustrating one at the same time. If you’re a puzzle game genius then this will be a no-brainer, go ahead and buy this. If you’re not, then try the demo, the presentation alone might skew you towards a purchase. The set price for the game is 800 Microsoft points or ten dollars, so the entry isn’t steep or overpriced. Now run along and eat some pie.
