Costume Quest

Just out of curiosity, how many of you know who Tim Schaffer is? If you don't, just know that I don't hate you, but I am terribly disappointed in you. Tim Schaffer is the fantastic creative designer and head of Double Fine Studios. He started at Lucas Arts before founding Double Fine in 2000 and has helped developed some of the best, or at least best written, games in history including The Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, and the flawed but enjoyable Brutal Legend. Recently, Double Fine has begun to create smaller games for release through digital distribution services such as Xbox Live and Steam. The first of these games is Costume Quest, and I could not be happier with the results.

Costume Quest is a simple game, but it is executed so perfectly. In terms of game mechanics, it's a fairly standard turn-based RPG. You choose the attacks you wish your character to perform and then they perform them. The game requires the player to press certain buttons during the attack at certain times or hammer on a button to power up the attack and keep the battles a little more dynamic. This is also required when the enemies attack to minimize the damage taken. I suppose they're technically quick-time events, but they don't result in instant death and are relatively easy so they actually worked well. When not in battle, the player wanders around in three different environments in search of new costumes which somehow change the characters into magical beings, candy which is used as currency, and quests, which are usually of the 'fetch' variety. There are a few mini-games and collectables, too, but overall there is little to the game in terms of actual playing. You look around, you trick-or-treat a little bit and then you fight some monsters. There is a little variety that kept things fresh, but there is little more to the game than that.

So why do I like this game so much? Well, it all comes down to the narrative. Don't get me wrong, this is extremely simple, too. You are either a boy or a girl whose sister or brother is abducted by monsters because they think he/she is candy. The rest of the game is a quest to get them back. That's really it. However, the writing and the environments are so charming that it is impossible to dislike the game. Every line of dialogue in the game is fantastic. I bought the game, in fact, because of a screen shot I saw of a boy in a banana suit making an Arrested Development reference that I won't spoil here. Video game writing doesn't get better than this. It's a little annoying that there's no voice acting, but I don't mind reading every once in a while. Then there's the environments, or really the overall tone of the game which the environments evoked so perfectly. This game brings back the memories of childhood and bygone Halloweens so perfectly that I thought I would asphyxiate on the nostalgia. All of the kids running around, the constant pursuit of candy, and the sheer adventure of being a child is all so beautifully rendered. The three main environments are a suburban neighborhood, a gigantic mall and a little town that looks like it is somewhere in Connecticut or one of those other Northeastern states that are so beautifully and disgustingly quaint. I love it so much.

This is a short review, I know, but it is also a short game. It took me just about seven hours to beat with minimal effort. Be that as it may, I urge you to buy this game. Tim Schaffer is the closest thing to an auteur that video games have right now and he should be supported. At the same time, this is a fantastic game about the joys of being young. The imagination, the writing and the sheer love that went into this game makes it irresistible. I feel that this game is a modern Norman Rockwell painting. It embodies everything we hold dear, including meta humor, pop culture references, fantastic imagination and a deep undercurrent of, for lack of a better term, goodness. I'd say love, but I'm not a hippie. It's one of the few games I've ever seen that has children killing monsters for candy that I think is totally wholesome.