The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom
By Christopher Healy,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Unique time-travel puzzler that is incredibly challenging.
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The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom
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What’s It About?
THE MISADVENTURES OF P.B. WINTERBOTTOM follows the exploits of a notorious pie thief who is lured through a time warp by a giant floating pie. Gathering up dozens of delicious pastries on his quest for the mother pie, Winterbottom discovers that he can warp time, reliving the same few seconds over and over again, essentially creating several copies of himself that must work together to grab pies situated in puzzling locations. The entire game is presented in black-and-white, with dialogue cards popping up between scenes, as if it were a silent movie.
Is It Any Good?
It's safe to say you've never played anything like The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom. The game looks utterly fabulous and does a great job of playing up that aura of the Hollywood silent era. And the gameplay concept -- you essentially perform an action on screen, then jump back in time and perform a new action in concert with a clone of yourself performing that first action, and so on -- feels so fresh and innovative. The only real flaw in the game, if you are to call it that, is the difficulty level. To call it challenging is an understatement. But those willing to put in the effort will feel rightly proud of themselves for finishing.
Online interaction: Scores and finishing times can be posted to leaderboards on Xbox Live.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the silent movie era of Hollywood. Have your children ever seen a silent movie? How is the game like a real silent films? How is it different?
Parents can also discuss the concept of farce with their children. P.B. Winterbottom is described as a vile and wicked villain, but his actions and demeanor are far from truly evil. How is this different from games or movies in which the lead character is genuinely a bad person? How does comedy dilute the bad behavior in the game?
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