Pinstripe (2017)

Pinstripe is a nice little emotional strange tale about a father searching for his daughter. It has a good blend of puzzles, platforming, and exploration.

It’s only a couple hours long but I enjoyed it quite a bit, it has a solid art style and controls well. There’s even some backtracking and abilities (of a type). It has a unique feel to it, and it’s definitely worth a play through.

Pinstripe is a puzzle platformer in which you play as ex minister, father Ted (HA HA). A tragic accident has befallen Ted and his young daughter, Bo, and he must traverse hell itself in order to rescue her.

Tonally and in set-up the story is a lot like Limbo's, only far less pretentious, preferring a more straightforward and less metaphorical approach to plot.

Visually the game is gorgeous, with its digitally painted backgrounds and characters inspired by Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and the film Coraline. The look and feel is that of a dark fairy-tale and there is a stark beauty to each scene. The voice acting is pretty great across the board and the beautiful soundtrack really adds to the bleak atmosphere.

More focus has obviously gone into the art design and story elements than the gameplay, but it's still enjoyable enough to play even if it doesn't provide much of a challenge. I found the shooting mechanics suffered when using a controller and there was some noticeable slowdown too. The puzzles in the game are rather simple but are also varied enough that they don't become boring.

The price may put some people off due to the short length of the game, but perhaps Thomas Brush felt he'd worked hard enough to warrant charging £10.99, and one can hardly blame him. The effort clearly shows. If you’re looking for an atmospheric adventure with a sorrowful story and some casual gameplay, you can't really go wrong with Pinstripe. It's one of those games that will stick in the memory and I thoroughly recommend it.

This isn't to say this somewhat obscure 2D side-scrolling puzzle platformer is bad. It isn't, and the fact that it was made by a one-man dev team makes it somewhat impressive. I’m a sucker for Burtonesque visuals and thus really enjoyed Pinstripe's presentation, with its moody art style and fitting voice acting. Sadly, the music doesn’t quite match the same tone, and there is a weird blooming effect almost from start to finish, which is discernible enough to negatively impact the visuals. So not ideal. Also, the need to backtrack and ‘grind’ (you need what the game refers to as ‘drops' to buy a specific item at a certain point), in a playthrough that takes about 3 hours to complete, makes zero sense, and it was to me the most frustrating aspect of it.

However, the game is so short that it never really outstays its welcome, and even the problems already mentioned, along with some obtuse puzzles and somewhat floaty platforming, aren't enough to negate its charm. If you're a sucker for dreamlike atmospheres, Pinstripe is worth experiencing for that alone. The strangely alluring backdrop, the cute ending and some competent animation work make it a pretty decent palate cleanser in between longer titles. 6.5/10

Pinstripe is an indie game in every sense of the word. The game was developed solo by Thomas Brush over a five year period. What the game lacks in engaging gameplay, it tries to make up for with an interesting premise. The game feels like it has gone through multiple prototype iterations with several single gameplay one offs like a physics puzzle involving pool balls. This is complete conjecture but I feel that Pinstripe used to be an adventure game that was converted into a platformer midway into development. Unfortunately the final product left me feeling like I just played an incomplete video game, riddled with tedious backtracking, poor gameplay and a weak ending.

You play as Ted, a minister aboard a train accompanied by his daughter Bo. The two walk through the train cars only to encounter a mysterious man named Pinstripe. Pinstripe is particularly interested in Bo in an odd creepy fashion. At first Ted doesn't think much of it, but then Pinstripe uses his magic to kidnap Bo and tells Ted that eventually she will be calling him “daddy”. The train suddenly crashes but fortunately Ted remains unharmed. The rest of the game is to figure out where to find Pinstripe and rescue Bo.

I have to admit the game looks very nice. It’s a hand drawn style set in a grim setting similar to the movie “Tim Burton’s The Night Before Christmas”. The art never gets grotesque or gory in a needless disturbing way which I appreciated. However I did not like anything else about the game.

The crux of the gameplay involves walking to the left or right with minor platforming elements. Eventually Ted obtains a slingshot which is used to solve simple puzzles like shooting at a rope hanging from a tree or at a button too far to reach by hand. The game does not feel good to play. The platforming is floaty and lacks momentum. It is also hard to tell what is and is not a platform. The slingshot lacks a draw time so you can spam it as fast as you can press the attack button. There is a heart meter for some reason, even though there are not many enemies to fight. The puzzles are simple and clever, but some are tedious such as the aforementioned pool ball physics puzzle where it is a test of patience rather than skill. Lastly, at a certain point the game blocks your progression and forces you to backtrack to collect 300 frozen tears which is as frustrating as it sounds.

The narrative never really pulled me in. You learn about Ted and the characters in this world, through short dialog sequences and mementos. The writing is depressing and somber without any real meat to it. Most of the characters spout about how their life is [pissing] miserable and how Pinstripe is going to help fix things. The mementos in the meantime do a great job and hint at the game’s mysteries. Sadly, the game loses most of its narrative goodwill with a lackluster boss fight followed by a very abrupt ending.

It is clear that the developer put a lot of time, money and heart into Pinstripe. The art is fantastic and the puzzles are varied. But when I picked up the controller and played Pinstripe, it simply was not very fun to play. The game is not buggy, yet it feels unfinished. The story is severely lacking and needs more content. The gameplay needs fine tuning to make the platforming and combat feel polished. There is a New Game Plus mode which may reveal more narrative tidbits but I simply stopped caring once I reached credits. Pinstripe is NOT a terrible game and I do see a lot of potential if this game were an adventure game instead of a platformer. Unfortunately at its current state, Pinstripe is not a standout indie hit nor should it be worth many people’s time.

I really enjoyed this game! It gave me serious Limbo vibes, which is one of my favourite Indie games. The story is pretty weird, but interesting. I tried to look up some sort of explanation video on YouTube, but I couldn't find one, so I still don't know if it's supposed to be some sort of allegory or something. Essentially your daughter gets kidnapped and you have to traverse through some sort of hellscape to get her back, finding clues and solving puzzles along the way.

I thought the gameplay was actually pretty satisfying. Most of the puzzles don't give you too much trouble, but I didn't think it was easy by any means. Like Limbo, you're mainly interacting with the environment to progress through the game. You shouldn't get too stuck at any point, and the whole thing should take about 3-4 hours. There was only one part that I didn't like, which had you returning to old areas to collect enough currency to progress. Felt grindy.

I don't think there's quite enough content to warrant the $20 price tag, but put it on your wish list and pick it up when it goes on sale, because it's quick enough that it won't take up too much of your time, but enjoyable enough that I definitely recommend it!