Game #902: Stick it to the Man!

 A hero with sticky fingers.

 So, I'm not exactly sure how I came around Stick it to the Man! but man, am I glad I did. When I first saw the trailer, after I read its enigmatic title, the first thing that came to mind was Psychonauts, and the resemblance only intensified the more I played it. It's a wacky point-and-clickish adventure game, like Monkey Island with light platforming elements, and it works so well. 

 You play as Ray, a well meaning idiot with a severe case of a giant pink spaghetti arm coming out of his head. You aim the arm around with the right analog stick, and you can use this arm to read characters' minds. This also translates into, sometimes, having their thoughts turn into stickers that you can grab and then use elsewhere. What you can grab is quite clearly signaled by its thick, white outline-it is a sticker after all! And where you can try to use stickers is clearly designated with a semi translucid white aura around it, and there's no penalty for trying stickers on places until they work. What this amounts to is a very simple game, so even if there are some puzzles that make no sense at all(Using glue on a trampoline so that a conjoined-triplet wrestler brothers jump on it and lose their... fake legs... so that you can then take these REAL peg-legs to a ghost) it doesn't feel too bad because you know what can be interacted with.

 Up to chapter 5 the game is really good and fun, but most of the next five chapters feature very large environments.... which makes the game MUCH more fun. The large, exploratory levels in which it takes you a while to interact with everyone and everything as you slowly piece together what you should be doing were my favorite parts in the game. The game is on the short side, which is a shame because it leaves you wanting more. If anything, I thought the small enemy-chase puzzles were a bit dull, you have to figure out how to avoid enemies, sometimes mind-reading one of them to get a ZZZ or RAY'SFACE stickers to help you distract enemies.

 Lastly, I want to commend the game on its art-style, the game looks beautiful, the art is super high quality, cartoony and very, very unique. To add to the fantastic quality of the art itself, they made every character as well as a few objects look like paper cut-outs, which makes the game look absolutely gorgeous, as well as add something of a surreal atmosphere to the world of the game itself. The funny script compliments its looks quite nicely, and I chuckled out loud a few times.

 I came at Stick it to the Man! expecting a good time, but in the end I got that and then some. It's pretty, it's funny and above all it's fun. I think the developers managed to make a point-and-click adventure that feels very modernized, everything is fast and snappy, and you don't need to pixel-hunt for items or try to use a ginormous amount of items on every single thing or character that comes your way, which I appreciated. All in all, I'm so glad I came upon this game.

8.0