The Lost Hobo King Review
DLC can be a tough thing to do. You have to offer new gameplay mechanics and situations while building on the original game. Mass Effect 2 comes to mind when thinking about good downloadable content, keeping the game’s original gameplay and characters fresh, giving them new and exciting situations to evolve in. Stacking’s first (and only?) expansion, The Lost Hobo King, gives you more Stacking and not much else.
Hobo King’s plot is set after the ending to Stacking’s main plot. You must help Levi the hobo bring the hobo kingdom of Camelback back to its original glory. And that’s about all the plot you’ll get. Story was not Stacking’s strong point but it feels like Double Fine didn’t really care about what was going on in the weird and wonderful universe of Stacking, instead prioritizing the implementation of new challenges and dolls.
Hobo King has 3 new challenges that player’s will have to wrap their heads around. These new mind benders introduce the concepts of scribes, which you must decode with a new mage doll, and zombies. That’s right, Stacking now has zombies and most importantly you can now die and permanently kill dolls (only the zombies, you can’t go on a murderous rampage, which is a shame). Like in the main game, there are multiple ways to solve the puzzles and compared to the main game, these puzzles are simpler.
Of course these new puzzles wouldn’t work (or be any fun) if there weren’t any new dolls. Out of the 15 or so, the most noteworthy is the scuba diver whose ability is to swing hooks Kratos style for a powerful and deadly area attack. Other than that, the other dolls are kind of lame. A dude who throws cheese? A bunny? A pervert who disguises himself as a panda? These dolls don’t really bring anything interesting in terms of gameplay and are pretty forgettable.
Did you like the original Stacking to death? Than this may be for you. Despite having no story to speak of and a disappointing array of new dolls, the 3 new challenges and new environments may warrant the 400 point asking price. But if you thought that Stacking was a cute concept but nothing more, than I can not recommend this to you. Except if you are a pervert who disguises himself as a panda.
Yann
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