McPixel’s first game is a collection of micro toys that have a common plot: McPixel is in a dangerous situation who must survive to save the day (or save it, at least). It plays out like a graphic adventure with a time limit whose default interaction is fixed in the plot: it’s simple, basic and calming, but it works as a plan because it dominates the moments of slapstick comedy and absurd. Almost a decade later, we have a sequel that shows from the title that its creator Sos Sosowski knows full well where we are: the second part skips to go straight to the third.
McPixel 3 has expanded to offer a hub with its own chips, from which to access levels. Once we enter the level, we have to solve half a dozen dangerous situations that have already taken place in several levels that are a little more complex and in special levels. The rhetorical logic of classic graphic adventures is transformed here into material for dozens of jokes. In just five minutes time to shoot a pez through a train window, grow in a spaceship, dissolve the protagonist in stomach acid, and treat a plane to llamas using a shovel as a parachute .
The main novelty of McPixel 3 is a marker of gags that allows us to take into account the situations that we still have to discover to reach 100%. Although at first it seems like a great idea to invite everyone to discover all the possible combinations, I suspect that the whole game seems to be too much to be complete. In the demo, you can unlock an extra level without having to carry everything, but I don’t know if there will be any limitations for advancing through the campaign.
There are also micro toys added inside the own micro toys, with driving levels, kill them or one of which beat them hidden as one more gag and that only a few times will be the right path for McPixel to save the day. Its clumsy handling, which maintains a graphic adventure scheme, translates these brief phases into small controlled disasters. The third big news is, of course, Steve. You will meet him now.
As I go through the original, the Rats feel a little overwhelmed with it: it’s like trying to explain the appeal of the short “Man Beaten by a Soccer Ball” in words. I can devote a thousand words to analyze it Hourly of each interaction or by detailing its references, but it will never be so courteous as to experiment with its levels and concern itself with reordering the various interactions to obtain distinct results. Maybe there’s time for that in the review, but for now I have a demo to try on Steam.
McPixel 3 is under development for PC and “other platforms”. You can try the demo on Steam between February 21 and February 28.
