A Doubly Fine Adventure: Stick It To The Man

I haven't gotten to play any of sidescrolling not-quite-point-and-click-adventure Stick It To The Man, but its general reception on consoles was something to the effect of, "I can't believe this wasn't made by Tim Schafer." To my mind, there are few more ringing endorsements of hybrid adventures/puzzle platformers, especially ones that bear a decently significant conceptual resemblance to brilliant brain-tickler Psychonauts, among others. Stick It To The Man will fire its psychic star lasers at Steam next week, and you can see a video of it in action below.

It looks quite nice, but um, that music. It was like the trailer spent its entire runtime talking over itself. What a strangely cacophonous thing. It's a shame, too, because apparently the game's dialogue is quite clever, having hatched from the brilliance-oozing brain sac of Adventure Time and Dinosaur Comics writer Ryan North.

Here's how the story plays out:

"Meet Ray, he lives in a world where everything is made out of paper and stickers. One day he has an accident and wakes up with a giant pink spaghetti arm sticking out of his brain. This gives him awesome powers and he can suddenly change the world around him by folding it, tearing it, pulling stickers off and sticking them elsewhere! And if that weren't enough, Ray can also read peoples minds! Digging into the brains of his fellow citizens, Ray can hear their thoughts and use that to his advantage."

"Unfortunately, Ray doesn't have much time to get to grips with his new abilities. He is framed by ‘The Man’ with a crime he didn’t commit, and is on the run. Can you help to get Ray out of this sticky situation? Get ready to tear it, rip it and Stick it to the Man!"

Gameplay, meanwhile, is a mix of light action, character interaction, and puzzles set against a Metroidvania-style backdrop. It's certainly got my eye, but will it sink its hooks into my brain? And what about the rest of me?

We'll find out next week, I suppose. I know you're on the edge of your seat, a puddle of anticipatory fluids pooling just beneath it, awaiting my opinion. I'll leave you to that, then. Strange, entirely unverified stalker obsessions are the source of my powers.