Publisher: 2K Play
Developer: The Odd Gentlemen
Genre: Puzzle
Release date: Available now

Who ate all the pies? Not me. I was too busy playing 2K Play and developer The Odd Gentlemen’s puzzle game The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom to take snack breaks. In this case, the culprit is the titular lead character of the game, a villain sporting a fabulously fiendish waxed moustache who harkens back to the silent-film era. But wait, I am getting ahead of myself.

The first thing that really smacks you across the face with an innovative kipper are the game graphics. The vast majority of the game is played out in grainy black and white, paying homage to film classics such as “Metropolis,” “The General” and “Nosferatu.” I thought this might spoil my craving for all things mega gamey, but instead I found myself charmed by my new understated visual environment. The music adds the final touch in creating a “not so long ago” feel to the setup.

Winterbottom is basically a puzzle game, so if you’re looking for guns, elves, cars or zombies, look away now. If you like a casual game that runs around 3 to 4 hours and tests your brain and learning skills, then read on. You help Winterbottom in his wicked plan to collect and eat all of the pies. You move him across more than 50 levels as he pursues the elusive but delicious grand prize: the “Chronoberry pie,” which will finally satiate his appetite. As you progress, you can unlock another 25 bonus levels. Your adventures take you to caverns, buildings, skylines and a burning bakery in your effort to collect all of those scrummy pies. As you can tell, the game doesn’t take itself seriously, and the silliness just adds to the sense of refreshing fun.

Getting hold of the pies becomes increasingly more difficult, so you have to think of ever more inventive ways to get Winterbottom’s greedy hands on them. This is where our understated anti-hero can use some of his special skills. Like all gentlemen of the era, P.B. Winterbottom owns an umbrella, which can be used to hit things and float down from high jumps, collecting pies on the way. The other ability that he has is filmmaking; he can record clones of himself in areas that his real present self can’t reach. Winterbottom can use his clones as improvised ladders (climbing on top of them to reach high places), he can fling them over obstacles or have them send him careering through the sky. You can hold the record button at any time; when you release it, a cloned version of yourself endlessly repeats your recorded actions. If you were hitting with your umbrella or floating down, the clone does the same. Each level has a limit on the number of clones available, so you have to think how best to use them.

The bonus levels can be quite fun as you toil to achieve the quickest time using the least number of clones. These levels tie into the online leaderboards, so just when you think you’ve completed a stage quickly you can see how bad your time really was. This adds another level of competition.

The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom isn’t for everyone; I must admit that I wasn’t all that excited when I was asked to review it. However, from the opening scenes my curiosity got the better of me until eventually I was shouting at the cat in frustration because I couldn’t reach that last pie (sorry, cat). At 800 MS points ($10) on XBLA, this game has its own charm. If you want to experience something different (refreshingly so, in my opinion) and you enjoy puzzle solving, it’s worth the purchase. The game is fun, silly and rewards your sense of pride and achievement in terms of thinking and planning. It’s just like one of your granny’s special pies; once you cut into the inside, you’ll be in for some warming, yummy surprises. The nice thing is that the game is a decent alternative to some of the big guns out there. So if you fancy a break from squashing aliens or collecting spells, try it!

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