| Title | It may be half as long, but Little Inferno burns twice as bright as longer games |
| Author | Tom Chick |
| Posted in | Game reviews |
| When | December 28, 2012 |
Do all boys burn their model airplanes? Or was it just me? Am I the only one who went through that weirdly destructive phase of watching with fascination as fire melted the plastic of the precious creations I had painstakingly pieced together and glued and held ti
Read the full articleI for one am glad you didn't show any other serial killer tendencies Tom, and turned out to be, erm, well adjusted and a game player/reviewer extradordianaiire. Unless, you don't lead a secret life, do you? (wink)
Henry Hatsworth was my favorite DS game, or close to it. Its progeny thus far has been incredibly disappointing. Monster Tale was a pretty, but underwhelming take on Castleroid subgenre that managed to misinterprete the genre's appeal fairly heavily, but still retaining Hatsworth's sound fundamentals. Epic Mickey 3DS is apparently hot garbage, probably in no small part due to Disney and time constraits, but still.
This... While the overall style and story is interesting, playing what seems to be commentary on crappy social game treadmills is not appealing. Making a game's system\mechanics bad on purpose doesn't actually make it any less bad. I think making a good parody game is probably one of the hardest things one could do.
My own childhood pyromania was... Less contained shall we say. Dry grass really does propagate flames quite quickly, doesn't it?
Burning model airplanes is a serial killer thing? Are you sure? Aren't you thinking of torturing animals? Because I definitely DIDN'T do that! I came home crying once because some kids at the bus stop were throwing caterpillars into the street and seeing how long it took them to get run over.
Maybe I'm too cynical, but I'm really not looking for any of that commentary when I pick up a game. I was hoping it would be fun in the same fundamental way as World of Goo, but it just lost me in the experiment.
Hmm...I was going to note that I found Hatsworth disappointing and was surprised at Tom's appraisal of it, but then I find there's two of you!
2hard4u? lol noob!
/flippancy
Started this around 10pm last night and didn't get to bed until I'd finished it at 2am. A really intriguing game.
anon, it didn't feel like a commentary on social gaming (other than the iPad device you can burn) but the "free to play" constructs around waiting for items to be delivered encourages you to seek out the combinations. Not only does this speed up the game but they're also crucial to progressing. Yes, it's an artificial way to make people explore the actual puzzle element but I never felt it was annoying. I always had enough ticket things to instantly receive an item.
Tom, what you never mentioned is that there are two moments, one early on and another halfway, that involve the same general thing and are absolutely chilling. Genuine "this is horrific" stuff. The sound design is brilliant. The crackle of the fire is just right.
But the ending is definitely a let down after what comes before. Maybe if I'd kept certain items instead of burning them, there'd be something different. Overall I liked it and connected with it far more than World of Goo. Until World of Goo comes out on the Wii U.
I'm starting to think the GamePad might be one of the best control methods I've ever used.
Little Inferno is one of those games where I just want to stand back and let people discover it. But, yeah, I love how dark it's willing to get.
By the way, I had about 40 of those "time coupons" left over by the time I'd finished the game, even thought I was using them fair liberally. The deliver delay was pretty much a non-issue for me, but I love how it felt like it was enforcing breathing space.
My childhood experience with burning things required a jumbo jar of army men, a match, and a can of Lysol. Good times.
When I first saw this game on Steam, I thought it was only a fireplace simulator with a gimmick. Great to see I couldn't be more wrong.
Typo:
"from a time when you thoght [sic] you didn’t have any pictures of yourself"
I love it, is magical