The second of the arcade games that Double Fine announced a long time ago, has seen the light, and has arrived to revolutionize the concept of conventional graphic adventure. After the great Costume Quest, which we already had the pleasure of analyzing.
Probably playing with characters as inanimate as Matrioskas doesnât seem like a good idea at first. But Tim Schafer and his company Double Fine have known how to take very good advantage of the limitations of these dolls, and of course their main virtue: the possibility of getting inside each other. Hence its name, Stacking which in English means to stack or pile up.
The game has been available since February both on the Xbox Live Marketplace and on the Playstation Network for a price of 1200 Microsoft Points (âŹ15). 
The story is told as a silent film, appearing scenes in which the matryoshkas interact and then the text that was said in said scene. Most of them appear in sepia tones to give it a much more aged look.
The game is set in the 1930s, in full industrialization, with child labor in the background and begins when our protagonistâs entire family (a humble family of chimney sweeps), is kidnapped by the villain of the game, the Baron who dominates the city.
I present to you the little protagonist of the story, Charlie, the smallest doll in the world of Stacking. But you shouldnât judge him by his size, since Charlie has the power to enter other matryoshkas to control them and use their powers. And this is exactly the playable purpose of the game, to solve the adversities that are presented to us by controlling the abilities of different matryoshkas.
These skills vary throughout the game, going from quite unpleasant content such as burping or farting, to much more childish content such as playing âyou take itâ or giving you a sugar rush. There are also unique matryoshkas that will allow us to perform some more special skills, such as the beautiful blonde matryoshka that will allow us to seduce the majority of men in the game, as you can see below.
Stacking is a somewhat different graphic adventure since it rewards us for doing things in different ways. That is, every time you encounter a problem there will always be 3, 4 or 5 ways to solve it**. It gives you the possibility to choose between doing it only one way, or racking your brain to solve it in all the ways. This last option will reward you with achievements, and some extra content in the game.
The control is very simple, and is perfectly focused for all types of players, and at no time did I have any problem with it. Perhaps that is one of its weak points, since the game becomes easy unless we want to complete it 100%.
To help us, the game menu will give us clues, which will go from being generic to quite precise, forcing us to wait between clues so that the most impatient ones donât spend the game running, just looking at the menu. As if that were not enough, we will also have an illuminated path (like in Dead Space) that will appear when we press a bumper and will take us to the next objective.
Stacking is probably one of those games that define the essence of a good perfume being sold in a small package. Its duration is quite short unless we stop to finish all the puzzles, thus reaching 4 or 5 hours, which is a somewhat fair duration for its price, but not for its quality.
Note
- Presentation: Its setting, and how carefully all the details are taken, make its presentation very good. 8.5
- Graphics: The graphics are simple, perhaps the animations are a bit abrupt, but they are matryoshka dolls walking, you couldnât ask for more. 7.5
- Duration and Engagement: The story mode, taking out all the achievements, lasts about 5 hours, for a price of 15 euros, it is a good purchase. 8
- Final Note: Another sign that Double Fine knows how to make good video games. A game that, although short, will make us smile with its videos and that will probably hook us until we finish it and with great quality/price. 8