Why You Should Play Stacking!

Stacking is a game that just came out this week for the Xbox Live Arcade. It's a finely crafted puzzle adventure game where you run around stacking your pint-sized protagonist inside of other Babushka dolls to solve puzzles. More after the break.

Now, I'm not a huge puzzle fan, I like puzzles being mixed in with other genres, but I can rarely stomach a straight puzzle game. But there's something about Stacking that just works for me. It's a very different style and take on what a puzzle is, and it's almost hard to fully grasp the concept until you try it out for yourself. Going in, I expected this to be a very bland "Match Doll Sizes" style romp, but it's hardly ever that. The crew over at Double Fine definitely hasn't let me down.

But let's get into why you should actually play it. What makes this worth the 1200 Microsoft Points you'll have to pay? (Or Playstation Network money if you're using that.)

Well, it's kind of an odd picture to paint. On the one hand, the graphics are stellar. On the other hand, there's no voice acting, as cut scenes unfold a la a silent film. The game is incredibly fun, but it's not very lengthy. So what makes this worth your purchase?

Innovation. Aside from the fact that you have this very well thought out approach and style and theme, Stacking takes it a step further. You can actually solve a puzzle in different ways depending upon how you think about it. Often times I find myself completing puzzles in the most roundabout way, only to realize the game had placed an easier solution right next to the puzzle, I just wasn't thinking. This to me is a concept that more games, especially those that include puzzling bits, should definitely include. It's certainly been done before Stacking, but the tact with which the team over at Double Fine has incorporated this mechanic is both fun and intuitive. Once you approach a puzzle in the game, the game tells you how many different solutions are possible, and it allows you hints as to how each one can be accomplished. The game goes even further to reward you for finding every solution possible, and for finding all the distinct Babushka dolls in the game, as well as rewarding you for "Hijinks."

The team over at Double Fine has managed to take a very short and light hearted game and flesh it out to almost the pinnacle of quality that we've seen on the Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network. If anything, the sheer attention to detail and hefty amount of innovation should be enough to convince you to play Stacking, not to mention, the game is fun!