Animation is pretty cool. Good animation is a rarity, especially hand-drawn animation, ever since the rise of conglomerates putting a heavier emphasis on 3D CGI. That’s why whenever I get the chance to experience some sweet energy put into animated form, I will gleefully indulge. A chance encounter with a trailer for The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo on Twitter last week was an easy decision to include in my gargantuan haul of demos to try.
Quick structure disclaimer: Given this (and all the others) is only a demo, I won’t be too in-depth with my coverage, and will only reflect on the good and the bad. No overly long personal history or filibuster. No nonsense. That said, I will provide a synopsis for the game below.
Game Summary
“The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo is a whimsical point’n’click adventure with a surrealist story, astounding hand-drawn animations and hilarious puzzles. Mr. Coo is trapped and broken into pieces. But most of all, he has no idea of what’s going on. Is that a giant chicken over there?“
The Good
What a majestically absurd game. Potentially overwhelmingly so… still, I was impressed by the kind of atmosphere the game possessed. For all eight minutes of content.
Indeed, there is almost nothing here to consume. The demo took me less than ten minutes to complete in full, so there won’t be much to say outside of surface-level mechanics and the feats of animated bliss on display.
My, what a gorgeous ten minutes it was, though. Despite how little actually occurs outside of flashes of bombast, presumably showing what chaos is to come, that which is interactable is brimming with life. Akin to the opening act of a grand performance, it sets an unmistakable tone of a proper, adventurous game to come.
Oozing with an eccentric style of animation that bends the rules of reality to its whims. It’s easy to assume that nothing will make much sense in this world it’s created, and your puzzle-solving skills will have to adjust. Experimentation in point ‘n’ click games are a given, though this takes it another step further by ensuring everything around you is experimental.
The Bad
Nothing. Okay, of course there will be something at some point, it’s just that there’s basically nothing here to groan over. It’s expressive, to the point, and effortlessly charming. And less than ten minutes of content. Maybe that can be a fault? Too short? Standard point ‘n’ click stuff. If you like that (plus gorgeous animation), play this.
Conclusion
Not much to really take in here. The trailer you see linked above is almost more content than you’ll inevitably get when playing the trailer. Even still, the gorgeous effort in animation combined with the sense of control you have over such a goofy, likable specimen is enough to entice most, I believe. Looking forward to its release in 2023 quite a bit!
The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo has a demo you can play now on Steam. (Link under “Game Summary.”)
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Thank you for your time. Have a great timezone.
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