'Winterbottom' tops shelf

I’ve been waiting for a taste of The Odd Gentlemen’s Xbox Live Arcade puzzle-platformer “The Misadventures of P. B. Winterbottom” ever since it was presented at the 2009 Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle. The silent film style and the story of the old-timey pie thief looked absolutely brilliant and invigoratingly fresh.

However, the game was announced alongside a deluge of time-based games that came in the wake of “Braid,” and I was a bit skeptical. Was “Winterbottom” going to do anything new?

The answer: Yes. Very much so.

“Winterbottom” tasks players with going back in time and fixing the city after Winterbottom’s greed wreaks havoc in the opening sequence.

In each stage of the story, Winterbottom must collect every pie in the room before he can move on. To reach them, he can clone himself a limited number of times by recording an action, which the clones will perform repeatedly. He can then climb on clones’ heads, hit them through the air and otherwise manipulate them to collect all the pies on each level.

The premise is quite simple, and the mechanic has actually been used by other games. What makes “Winterbottom” brilliant is the way it uses and builds on a single mechanic to create a fantastic game.

Each stage in Winterbottom introduces you to a new aspect of the cloning mechanic. By completing the level, you prove that you understand how the game works in a certain way.

Based on that understanding, the game gives you a new challenge to wrap your head around and master. It introduces pies that can only be collected by clones, pies that must be collected in a certain order, red clones that can’t be touched and more.

While mentally challenging, none of the tasks require fancy fingerwork, making the puzzles accessible to platformer-averse players.

The art and story of Winterbottom are nothing short of brilliant. The combination of storybook and silent film styles never failed to put a smile on my face.

The music also complements the game well. Jaunty, mechanical tunes played against backdrops of baking factories and clock towers form a rich atmosphere rarely seen in other games. “The Misadventures of P. B. Winterbottom” is an absolute joy to play, and comes highly recommended to any puzzle-lover.