INTRO:
Anti-heroes that are aged men are not exactly pervasive in video games, and anti-heroes that are geezers with a criminal penchant for pastries are even rarer.
P.B. Winterbottom is one such character and is the protagonist for his namesake game. Yet, despite Winterbottom's rare character design, it is not good enough to disguise what appears to be yet another puzzle-platformer game that requires the collection of trinket objects.
However, to make itself more sophisticated than just having the player character jumping and running from platform to platform to collect stuff, this game uses the mechanic of recording the actions of the player character and making clones that repeat these actions to enrich its puzzles and their solutions.
Of course, this mechanic is nothing new by the time of this game, but the game's requiring of the player to use this feature to collect many items simultaneously in a short time makes it stand out from most others that have the same gameplay elements.
PREMISE:
As hinted to earlier, the game has the titular protagonist committing all sorts of petty crimes and misdemeanours just to stuff his face full of tasty pastries. Moreover, in his fictional world, stealing pastry products is a particularly serious misdeed, because it so happens that pastries are a form of currency, as impractical as this may seem.
Anyway, his misdeeds are about to become even worse in magnitude and consequences. A shenanigan of his has caught the attention of a mysteriously sapient and magical pie, which led Winterbottom on a wild chase that wrecked quite a lot of the city that he resides in.
The pie's reward for his dogged perseverance, or perhaps its consequences, is a set of time/space-altering powers, which he will learn to quickly use just to steal even more pastries. However, there are consequences to his decisions and his pursuit of the mysterious pie, as the player would discover from playing the game's story mode.
COLLECTING PIES:
The true objective of just about any level seen in the game is the collection of pies that are seemingly suspended in mid-air, in addition to appearing almost sapient. Even if there is some other underlying story-based reason for Winterbottom doing what he does, he will still be collecting pies.
Anyway, the game is predominantly 2-D, so the player only has to worry about getting Winterbottom and his clones to the right, left, up and/or down to grab said pies.
This is easier said than done of course. The pies are often located in places that Winterbottom and company cannot immediately reach. Getting to them involves a lot of cloning shenanigans in addition to plenty of movement, as well as the operation of various machineries and avoidance of hazards, the nature of some of which would be quite surprising.
A few levels into the game, the player will be introduced to pies that reside in another dimension until a trigger is activated. This trigger may be a switch, or it may be the recording action that Winterbottom can do (more on this later). There are a few other kinds of triggers, but they will not be mentioned here as this may be too much of a spoiler.
The player has limited time to collect all these pies before they disappear. Failure to do so generally means that the player has to start all over again, including collecting pies that had been collected before; this can seem to be a hassle.
Later, the pies are numbered, requiring the player to collect them in ascending order. This increase in the challenge requires the player to think more critically. However, an observant player would also notice that the solutions for these puzzles involve whacking a lot of clones, which can seem a bit cheesy. Still, thwacking clones around is amusing and instrumental, as will be elaborated later.
Soon after, the game introduces shadowy pies that can only be collected by clones, which add a layer of complexity to the puzzles and their solutions. Next, the game introduces blood-red pies that only red clones – which will be described later - can collect. These alter Winterbottom's spawning position, making the puzzles quite tricky.
There are a couple more tricks that the game will introduce, though describing them here would be too much for this review. It should suffice to say that the couple last chapters of the game are substantially trickier than the previous ones.
These gameplay elements are not new to puzzle platformers, but they do add more sophistication to the levels in the game, as will be mentioned later.
RUNNING, JUMPING & GLIDING:
Winterbottom may be a middle-aged man that uses an umbrella-cane to shuffle about, but his appetite for pastries gives him a sprightly vigour and endless stamina, as befitting the protagonist of a typical puzzle-platformer.
Winterbottom has a hearty jump that has enough momentum to get him across most platforms, but not all of them are close enough to each other to be cleared by a simple hop. For these, the player will need to make use of Winterbottom's umbrella (or perhaps a parasol), which he will open to slow down his descent from the height of a jump.
Switching from jumping to gliding is as simple as holding down the button for jumping; the player can also have Winterbottom start gliding from before the zenith of a jump simply by pressing and holding down the jump button again.
During mid-jump or mid-fall, the player can have Winterbottom wiggle about, not unlike what other player characters can do in some other competently done action-platforming games. The player can also somehow switch his gliding direction in mid-air; as strange as this is, the player will have Winterbottom gliding to collect many pies that are floating in mid-air.
If there is a significant complaint with the gliding feature, it is that he cannot float straight down unless he was already falling straight down. Also, if he tilts to the left or right while floating straight down, he can no longer float straight down unless he hits a wall.
This can be a bit difficult to comprehend at first, but the player will need to learn this anyway as gliding will become an important element of solutions later in the game.
These can be arguably just minor complaints, as they are not too serious as to adversely impair the gameplay. However, giving the player more versatility in gliding could have made the game better.
RECORDING & CLONING:
After having the player gone through the (well-disguised) tutorial levels for the staples in puzzle-platforming controls, the player is introduced to the cloning element of the game.
The cloning process starts off with the player invoking the recording phase; this can be done by pressing and holding down the appropriate button. The screen changes in visual quality to depict the start of this phase, conveniently enough. Generally, Winterbottom's actions during the recording phase will be converted into behavioural scripts that his clone will use, with the exception of a few startlingly different levels.
For most levels, releasing the button for recording has Winterbottom creating a clone right at where he was before the recording was initiated, in a plane behind the plane that he is located in. The clone will be loaded with said scripts, and will repeat them ad-nauseam until he somehow cannot perform them; what happens after this will be described later.
The clone will disappear in a puff of smoke after having completed one run of his scripts, and reappear at where Winterbottom started the recording that was associated with that clone. This is an important trait that the game will inform the player about, and which will be used in innovative solutions.
Winterbottom can maintain the presence of at least one clone in any level, but different levels have different maximum limits for the number of clones there can be. This can be seen as a hint on what efficient solutions there are for a level. With the exception of some levels that strictly enforce the limits, the player can attempt to create a clone beyond the limit, but this will remove the earliest clone that was made; this can be used for some solutions too.
One chapter of the game will have devilish puzzles that require the player to learn on his/her own that Winterbottom can still interact with his clones while he is making a recording. This is a trick that is quite pleasant to learn about.
Some chapters into the story mode of the game, the game imposes restrictions on the player's freedom to record and create clones. An example of a restriction is that the game will require the player to start recording from a specific location. The imposition of these restrictions can seem to be a jarring transition. Just when the player has gotten used to the above, the game will trip things up again. Through a slightly dark plot twist, Winterbottom's clones are now anathema to him, becoming walking hazards. Where earlier the player would be using the clones to solve puzzles, the player must now eliminate them or avoid them.
This is also when the puzzles become a lot trickier than one would expect, which can be an unpleasant change.
CLONING PECULIARITIES:
There are some peculiarities that the observant player would notice about the clones' behaviour, especially if the player had Winterbottom creating clones in odd places. The game will not inform the player of most of these oddities, unfortunately.
The most prominent of these peculiarities is that the clones defy gravity and many other physical laws. As an illustrative example, if Winterbottom had been standing on a moving clone to do some recording, the clone that is created will not fall when the previous clone is removed, but instead appears to glide across the air as if it was standing on something.
Yet, as the player would notice when abusing some clones by hitting them around (an act which will be described later), gravity does affect clones in other cases. These other cases include them simply standing around, or had not been moving around for substantial distances.
Perhaps these physics-defying loopholes in the recording process were intentionally left behind in the game in order to encourage create some bizarre puzzles and solutions involving floating Winterbottom clones, as is evident by a certain level in the second chapter of the story mode.
However, it has to be mentioned here that these loopholes are not mentioned to the player. If the player had been trying to approach the game in a logical manner (which he/she should not, considering the silliness of the premise), he/she would not realize that these loopholes can be used to solve puzzles.
Another peculiarity to be seen is the various poses that Winterbottom and his clones have for balancing themselves on their hats or their noses. (Winterbottom has a surprisingly strong spine, necks and legs, as well as a ludicrously stiff top hat that never crumples).
Depending on their orientations relative to each other and where they are stepping on each other's hats, this can be one of several poses. This may seem whimsical, but experimenting with them and knowing which standing position results in which pose is important. This is because this will affect the orientation of the clones' hats, which have small hitboxes, and the player will need to have Winterbottom standing on these to reach higher platforms.
Having to teeter clones on their hats can seem frustrating at first, but the observant player may notice that he/she can exploit the clones' poses to grab just a few more pastries. After all, their hitboxes actually change, albeit subtly, when they change poses.
ELIMINATING & DISABLING CLONES:
Clones persist, taking up slots that count towards the maximum limit of clones that the player can have. Therefore, it is the player's interest to know how to dispel them, in addition to mishaps that would result in them being banished.
The easiest way to remove them is to manually dispel them. However, this removes the latest clone that has been made, so it is mainly there to help the player undo a mistake without causing other previous clones to be removed. It could have been more versatile, of course, but it is still convenient.
Another way to remove clones is to create clones beyond the maximum limit, if the current level allows it, as mentioned earlier. The earliest clone among the ones that exist will be removed when this happens. Smart players will exploit this for their solutions, though careless players may unwittingly do this if they had not been looking at the clone counter.
Unfortunately, this feature also highlights a problem with the game; other than memorizing and associating their recorded behaviour with their order of appearance, there is no other means to recall the order in which the clones have been made. This is not an issue for players that already have an affinity for being efficient, but for other players who resort to just making more clones to solve problems, they are going to have a problem.
Any clone, not just the earliest or latest one to be made, can be forced to disappear, usually by preventing them from performing their scripts. The easiest way to do this is to hit them, which will cause them to be displaced from where they were, though this is not the extent of the utility of hitting things.
Clones that are forced to stop what they are doing will make an expression of the appropriate emotion before and while fading away. Such expressions make them quite easy to spot, if they happen to be on-screen. The clones will take a while to fade though; the player can interrupt this process by hitting them about, which is a viable tactic to collecting pies, as will be elaborated later. (However, this nuance is not told to the player.)
Sometimes, the behaviour of clones can be disabled without eliminating them. For example, the bottom-most clone of a stack of clones that were standing on each other can be knocked out; the one above him will fall and proceed to be stuck in an animation loop where he appears to be wobbling. He will have slightly unreliable hitboxes, but the clone will stay in the same spot and not appear to reset at all. Clones that happen to be repeatedly launching off bounce-pads are also similarly disabled in behaviour.
Another way to disable clones only comes by later; they can be exposed to frigid waters to turn them into popsicles, which Winterbottom and other clones can stand on.
HITTING CLONES & OTHER THINGS:
Although the player will be introduced to Winterbottom's ability to whack things with his umbrella early on in the game, this ability is more useful than one would think.
The game will teach the player that having clones hit switches is the easiest way to automate the operation of a machine. Smarter players will eventually learn how to control their frequencies and their rhythm by using hits performed in the recording phase to time the cycle of operation for a machine.
The player can also whack and continue to whack a clone about, as long as it has not completely faded away. Clones can collect pies too, so the player can have Winterbottom hitting his clones to toss them all over the place and into pies floating in mid-air.
Perhaps in a twist of ironic justice, clones that have been programmed to perform whacking can hit the original Winterbottom too. (Clones in certain levels do not have to be programmed to do this.) Whacks from clones can be used to solve puzzles as well; after all, hits from clones can launch Winterbottom further than his jump can.
It is also worth noting here that Winterbottom can still perform the whacking animation in mid-air, either during a jump or when tossed through the air by a clone. This can allow for some fantastic shenanigans, though these tend to be inefficient at collecting pies and even if they are, they rely more on the player's reflexes than wits.
There is one peculiarity about the area of effect of a hitting animation that the game does not inform the player about. A clone that is performing a hitting animation will hit anything that is not only in front of him, but anything that touches him anywhere but his hat. Fortunately, the game will have the player learning this soon through the implementation of puzzles that require the player to have clones hit Winterbottom.
LEVEL DESIGNS OF STORY MODE:
In the beginning of the story mode, the game offers rather straightforward levels, requiring the player to have Winterbottom running from one end of the level to another; the other end usually has a bunch of pies to collect.
Eventually, the levels get more complicated; they require the player to make use of the game mechanics that have been mentioned earlier to overcome obstacles that Winterbottom cannot simply jump over. However, every once in a while, the game will resort to using a straightforward level, if only to introduce the next gameplay element.
The subsequent levels after the straightforward ones mix the later gameplay elements with the previous ones to create surprisingly challenging puzzles. It may take a while for most players to figure out the puzzles, but patience is always a winning factor.
Yet, an observant player may notice that some levels are sharply more difficult than the rest, and the levels are not necessarily arranged in the order of ascending dificulty. Consequently, it would be hard to argue that the game has a gradual difficulty curve. Nonetheless, there can be a sense of satisfaction for finishing the levels the first time around at least, if only to see the development in the game's story.
THEATRE:
Acting as a hub world of sorts in the game is an ominous theatre. In this hub world, the player can have Winterbottom moving about, selecting specific chapters to play or going down into the lowest floor to partake in the "bonus shorts", which is a game mode that will be described later. Moving about is a simple matter of jumping from platform to platform onto the desired floor that contains the portals for the chapters.
Yet, entering a portal only brings up a menu screen, which shows a list of icons for levels that make up the associated chapter. This gives an impression that the implementation of levels as menus of sorts is not thorough.
BONUS SHORTS:
Acting as a meta-game and an excuse to implement leaderboards in the game are the "bonus shorts". These are sets of levels that contain tricky puzzles, though they may not be too difficult for quick-witted players or veterans of puzzle-platformers.
Each bonus short level has a pair of challenges: one for completing the level under a minimum time period and the other for completing it with a minimum total of clones that were conjured from start to finish. These challenges can be achieved separately, which is something that the game will not inform the player of.
Of the two though, the time challenge is perhaps the more prominent one as anyone can attempt to use as few clones as possible, given enough time.
The very short minimum durations for the time challenges can seem daunting, but they also happen to give hints on what the player should do for his/her solution – namely having clones do the bulk of the collecting.
However, acing the bonus shorts does not give much in the way of rewards beyond bragging rights for having gone high up in the leaderboards. On the other hand, the leaderboards do not appear to be filled with too many cheaters; the tallies of time and clones used on the Steam leaderboards do seem quite probable.
WRITING:
At first, the story may seem like it is written in an anachronistic manner, often wildly switching between what appears to be Early Modern English and Modern English. This is especially so when the writing devolves into amusingly manic rhymes, which occurs after Winterbottom has met the mysterious pie.
As for said rhymes, they are surprisingly well-conceived despite their silliness. Most of these rhymes are accompanied by illustrative pictures, usually showing the consequences of Winterbottom's actions.
Conveniently enough though, whatever that he hopes to achieve happen to involve collecting pastries. The reason for this is explained in-game, though to elaborate more would be to mention a spoiler. Yet, it has to be said here that the reason may come off as a convenient justification.
Every level in the story mode has a subtitle just at the bottom of the screen. The subtitle is a sentence that is usually intended for dandy humour, but in a rare few levels, it actually contains hints on what to do. However, the subtitle tends to be so unhelpful that it is likely that the player would soon ignore it.
Although much of the story is whimsical, there is still something noteworthy in the development of the plot. It turns slightly dark towards the end, culminating in a conclusion that befits the single-mindedness of Winterbottom. The writing also resorts to a lot of wordplay. Some of these are silly puns, such as replacing any word that rhymes with pastry-related terminology with words in said terminology. Others are more imaginative, such as the interesting titles for the bonus shorts.
VISUAL DESIGNS & GRAPHICS:
Much of the game is presented with grayscale and sepia tones, giving the game a look of antiquity as befitting its setting, which appears to be some spoof of the Victorian era of England. There are also some steampunk elements, as can be seen in the machinery that works the bakeries and industries of the city that Winterbottom lives in. In addition, the recording of Winterbottom's actions is accompanied by film reel effects.
As to be expected from a puzzle-platformer, the game makes use of pre-made art for the background and detailed sprites for characters and items. It may hardly be a new graphical design, but it is still functional.
Most of the sprites that the player will see in the game are those for Winterbottom himself and the pastries. Most of the pastries appear to be either pies or tarts; the game refers to them as either, seemingly interchangeably.
Winterbottom's facial expressions are mainly conveyed via changes in his eyes; his mouth is obscured by his considerable moustache and even bigger nose. Due to this limitation, it can be difficult to judge his mood; the player will have to look at his body language instead, of which he has quite a lot, fortunately.
For example, having been hit by a clone has him rubbing his buttocks after he lands (assuming that the player does not have him hit the ground waddling).
If his clones have been given the punt instead, they wave their fists at the player (oddly enough, instead of the original Winterbottom) and prance about in annoyance while they fade away. If his clones disappear due to being confused instead, they wave goodbye at the player.
In addition to being amusing sights, the clones' animations help the player determine which of them are being dispelled.
If there is a significant issue with the design of Winterbottom's sprite, it is that there may be a problem in picking him out from among his many clones, which do look like him after all. He may look brighter than them, but when the screen is awash with sprites that happen to have the same sets of animations as the original Winterbottom, this difference in hue is only barely useful.
The pastries, most of which are pies, may look a bit too gaudy to be convincingly appetite-whetting. The mysterious pie is especially so, which may put off foodies that dislike garish decoration for pastries. That they sparkle and sometimes jitter like they are alive may be a bit disturbing too. The art for the background is mostly inspired by Victorian English art, but there are hints of art deco as well. The player can only appreciate shapes, motifs and textures only though, because of the limited colour palette that have been mentioned earlier.
Interestingly enough, Winterbottom may be eager to collect pastries, but he is never seen stuffing pies down a visible mouth in-game. However, there is a scene where he does appear like he is scarfing down pastry (though no mouth is shown), so people who want to watch him messily savour what he collects would not be disappointed too much.
The theatre hub world is also another notable visual design in the game. Compared to the rest of the game, that the theatre is a moody and heavily shadowed place can seem to contrast tremendously with the rest of the game, which is either a lot cheerier or more whimsical.
SOUNDS: Perhaps in an attempt to project a silent film vibe, there are no voice-overs to be heard. Sound effects are also sparse; if there are any, there are the whimsical boing that accompanies the occurrence of Winterbottom hitting clones and vice versa, the clacking from the hitting of switches and the chimes and twinkling that indicate the collection of pies.
If Winterbottom or his clones are destroyed, they go poof, a sound that is accompanied by an almost inaudible playing of a comical sound effect that is often associated with embarrassing failure.
These few sound effects are appreciated though, as they denote important occurrences.
MUSIC:
If a musically-inclined person listens to the soundtracks for the game, he/she may be able to make a good guess at the sources of inspiration for their composition.
The music of humorous silent films is one of them, though there is plenty of a modern vibe to the soundtracks in the game. Piano remains a main component of the music throughout the game though.
Not all of the soundtracks are cheerful to listen to; some distance into the story, things take a turn for the worse for Winterbottom, after which the soundtracks are noticeably more suspenseful. There are also fittingly hectic soundtracks for levels in which the player has to create a mess of clones running around – it is especially appropriate when said clones are of the red hazardous variety.
The theatre also has a disturbingly foreboding soundtrack, as befitting its eerie atmosphere that contrasts with the rest of the game.
CONCLUSION:
Not one individual gameplay element of this game is remarkably refreshing, but it has cobbled these elements together to create deviously challenging but still solvable puzzles. The story and artwork for the game may seem cartoonish, but a slightly dark underpinning concerning the protagonist's destructive single-mindedness prevents it from being seemingly mundane.
Overall, the Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is a surprisingly good game that can satisfy the appetites of players who desire challenging brain-teasers.