The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom
I’m a sucker for platformer games. I’m also a sucker for puzzle games. So what happens when the two genres come together and make a big fat baby that cries and demands my attention at all hours of the morning, leaving me with only two hours of sleep and a hellacious cranky attitude in the morning? P.B. Winterbottom, I suppose.
I held off buying this title on the 360 despite the urging of Mark Davis and a good friend of mine. However, when the game released on Steam this past week, I hastily picked it up in order to experience my own brand of plundering pastries with a portly gentleman of no paltry prestige.
The design and music immediately struck a chord with me, and I commented to Sarah that the music had a similar feel to that of Max and the Magic Marker, though the two games are of an entirely different genre. Playing through the various levels, I was reminded of Braid, but in a different sense, since P.B. uses clones of his previous self in order to assist him in his pastry-raiding escapades.
With the ability to create a clone of himself on the fly, and the number of clones available to you limited by the level you are on, stages of P.B. Winterbottom that require complex jumping and whacking of clones feels almost like you are orchestrating your own Rube Goldberg machine in order to achieve your goals.
The silent movie feel of the game is especially enjoyable and the fact that the story is told in rhyming lyrics only adds to the charm of the game. Spanning five levels of pie hi-jinx, P.B. Winterbottom has absolutely consumed the time I’m not spending working to the point I have to ask myself, is this really healthy? Probably not, but there’s nothing healthy about a dastardly devious scoundrel nabbing pies, either.
Difficulty-wise, I found that P.B. Winterbottom scales well and introduces you to the elements you will need to complete each level at a decent rate, but some of the more advanced levels that contain pie timing are nearly impossible to complete without geometric perfection. The time trials included add a nice touch and the achievements for completing them add incentive, but once again some of the later levels had me wanting to chuck my controller in frustration, despite enjoying the atmosphere and the storyline.
Puzzle-platformer veterans like me will probably love the game, while others will laud the difficulty level and the thought that goes into placing your clones, since you can only delete your last created clone and back. If you find you need to delete a previous clone but you cannot reach it, you’re pretty much out of luck. This means in some cases, you will have to set up your “machine” all over again, which can definitely be frustrating.
For its price-tag, P.B. Winterbottom is a definite must for anyone who enjoys a challenge. The graphics aren’t going to blow you away and the black and white nature of the game can seem drab at times, but the joy of finishing a puzzle you were cursing only moments before is one of the true achievements in gaming. Kudos to you, The Odd Gentlemen. Dare I say, I tip my hat to your pie-pilfering prowess.
