Stretchmo is an interesting release. It’s a free-to-play title from the creators of Pushmo and Crashmo (‘Mo’ is better, right? Had to) that is based on the concept of stretching certain pictures out to form steps up to an end goal (flag/person/thing) at the the tip-top of the stretched picture. Playing the role of Mallo, a red Kabuki-esque creature sporting sumo pants/towel (too lazy to google), the gameplay has Mallo grabbing blocks and stretching them out to boundary limitations. The key gameplay is to try to pull them out in such a way that you can create steps to make it to the top. The tricky part of the game is figuring out which blocks should be pulled at what time and which ones should be left alone. Trust me folks, determining which get pulled is quite tricky.
The gameplay is easy at first because the complication of the puzzles isn’t that bad at the beginning (especially, when they’re trying to sell you the game with the first three levels — by the way, that’s all you get without paying). The easy puzzles contain less pieces to them. For example, the fourth puzzle in Mallo’s world contains all of four pieces to it. You could, as I did, figure that out pretty easily. By the 20th puzzle you get a lot of pieces thrown at you, eight in the shape of a pig, which require a bit more cerebral know-how to get through. The difficulty progression in the game is even balanced in all the pictures that Intelligent Systems throws at you, so there isn’t a surprise or a sudden steep climb when you get to them. it’s a nice, even progression. I enjoy that about the game, as it keeps the frustration levels down quite a bit.
Now, there are four initial lands for purchase via the game (you can’t find them directly in the Nintendo 3DS shop — Nintendo needs to figure that out and clean the process up, as it was very confusing).
The lands are broken up into:
– Mallo’s Playtime Plaza
– Poppy’s Sculpture Square
– Corin’s Fortress of Fun
– Papa Blox’s NES Expo
The latter of the bunch is hard as nails, so Intelligent Systems fully expects you to not jump around apparently. That is a little baffling considering gamers generally treat their gaming experiences like they’re at a hors devours party, where they want to try everything before committing to something. When I jumped over to NES Expo I made it through the first two puzzles before deciding I need to get used to the game with easier levels first. The NES Expo is crazy hard at times, but neat because of the way each puzzle is shaped like an Nintendo related character or item. Anyway, by purchasing these lands (they were a total of $9.99 — special bundle deal apparently) you open up not only the initial 100 puzzles in Mallo’s land, but also an additional 150 puzzles total with the others. 250 puzzles isn’t bad for a game that you probably will play on and off.
Speaking of which, this is the type of gameplay you’ll run into when you play Stretchmo — ‘on and off’. This means you won’t go balls-to-the-wall playing this game and attempt to complete it by the end of a week. That’s not what this game was made for and if you do try that method with the game, you’re going to be miserable. As I have been doing on and off for the past week or so, I have been digging into Stretchmo when I wanted to get away from other games/movies that I’ve been reviewing. That’s just perfect for me and I’m sure for a lot of other folks out there. So, go into the game with that strategy and understanding that you’re getting an ‘on and off’ again game for $9.99. You’ll be much happier with it.
In addition to the initial gameplay, you also have an option to create your own puzzles in Stretchmo. Personally, this is probably the coolest part of the release. You can put together any type of puzzle you want via a nice level editor that is quite easy to figure out, despite the annoyingly long introduction/tutorial. Once created, you then test it, approve it and finally attach a QR code to share it. I put together a giant ‘DC’ puzzle that had no strategy (editor’s note: much like our own reviewing) and was simple to figure out. It took about five minutes tops to create it, test it and QR code it. The puzzle creating option for Stretchmo is quite cool and I can certainly see the potential with this option for the game. Again, I firmly believe this is the biggest part of the package.
Anyway, the gameplay is solid in Stretchmo, as are the options that come with the game. There are no surprises and you know exactly what you’re getting from this puzzle title.
On the presentation side of things, visually Stretchmo is a gorgeous game as puzzle games go. Sure the game is blocky and simple, but it’s supposed to be, which gives it some graphical charm. The characters are welcoming, cute and overall fun, much like the gameplay. It’s nothing too extraordinary, so don’t expect huge amounts of details — just simplicity.
Now, the level design of each puzzle is beautifully crafted with the upmost care and creativity to make sure the player has every opportunity to figure out how to achieve the level’s goal. You can tell that Intelligent Systems really pushed the brains of their development team to make sure each puzzle had its own structural flavor and creative solution. Even when the puzzles seem visually similar, their solutions and strategies make them quite different from the last.
So, is there a downer to Stretchmo? Well, if I had to be picky, it would be that this is an ‘on and off’ again style of play, which means that you won’t commit a huge amount of time to it. Again, that’s not a knock, but the memorability of the gameplay doesn’t stick enough to make it terribly ‘over the top’ exciting. That’s not a knock against how it plays when you’re in it, just a knock against the motivation to revisit all the time. Like I said before, it’s the type of game that helps you relieve some stress when you’re playing bigger titles. You won’t be motivated enough to play this all the time, which is fine. Having said that, the game is only $9.99 (special bundle price), so acquiring a great puzzle game that you play now and then at that price isn’t a bad deal at all. Just know what you’re purchasing before you dive into it. In my opinion, you’re purchasing a great game.