The first game September Games comes to Xbox on stilts. Stilt Fella wants you to take control by learning to play.
For as long as there has been a computer, there have been games that challenge the player’s patience based on physics. Video games in which taking a step is already a challenge in itself. experiences like Qwopthat after walking 0.2 meters, the doll fell on its face and you felt more uncoordinated than Rosalia (the good one).
50 cm from the ground just because.
Stilt Fella presents us with a world on stilts. Well no, saying that makes us think that all humans on earth must walk on stilts because the ground would inevitably kill them since there is a mega-deadly virus that only survives 10 cm from the ground. This game has no story that I discovered. The man is on stilts and must evolve in an environment not very suitable for moving on two sticks until he reaches an objective, period.
This lack of depth doesn’t have to mean anything bad. Since the first machines, games have been based on scores and times. Stilt Fella has it too: world schedules and the desire to improve. But you also have to deal with a tedious control. This is where the game is and where the fun is lost. Because it’s fun to see a banner lose what little sanity you might have trying to get to the top with a man in a cauldron, but playing it is very difficult and not very fun.
The difficulty of the levels is not excessive and increases little by little, rarely showing truly surprising phases. Most of them use shots with sinking platforms, mobiles, stairs and holes in the scene. With the few possible moves it has, there are challenges in which you have to think beyond the mechanics of moving forward, making jumps or maintaining unnatural balances. Still nothing new that gives it a touch of originality, the Stacy Malibu Now he wears stilts.
Very simple.
Zero new features also in the game design, being something quite flat and poorly worked. Empty and lifeless scenarios. I don’t mean missing NPCs walking around, they’re not needed. Also, there is a very cute sheep that watches over you sometimes. I mean it lacks that spark of creativity that differentiates it from a trial version made by students. This is the first project from a solo developer, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a design. It seems that he only assembled predefined shapes to create the man and the scenarios, to focus on the movement system and physics. a bit like draw a horse
Even if that’s not it either. It’s curious and well thought out how he shows you in the tutorial that the stilts are an extension of the Joysticks and that to lift them from the ground you have to press the triggers. Of course, the left stick and the trigger for the left stick and the right ones for the right stick. It’s everything we manage in a scenario with elements to interact with. And although on some occasions th is is necessary, on other occasions it acts with little logic (and with some bugs) in front of repeat the phases
Conclusions
Stilt Fella is a meme game. An experience that, once told, seems crazy and fun. Seen on some streaming channels, as shown in your X account, it can be fun to bet to see how long it takes to throw away controller the content creator. This feels like a game made by a developer to prove a point for a later game at a development studio. As a playable experience, if the phases themselves could be completed, that would be even better. But as the only dynamic, climbing on stilts neither communicates nor contributes anything. It’s not worth reaching the goal or the journey. It has another “crazy” mode with rockets on the stilts which adds the jetpack effect but still doesn’t add any more dynamism. And be careful, these are rockets. We may have a new Twitch phenomenon (although Stilt Fella is from 2020), but I doubt it.
The guy on stilts
Benefits
- Good translation of actions to order
- It provides a lot of data: times, attempts, total durations, etc.
Disadvantages
- Frustrates more than it entertains
- Lack of design
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