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Genre: Adventure Developer & Publisher: Gammera Nest/Meridiem Games Released: September 6, 2023 Requirements: OS: Windows 7 SP1 or above Processor: Intel Core i3 2100;AMD FX 6300; Memory: 4 GB Graphics: Nvidia GTX 750Ti/ATI Radeon 7950 DirectX: Version Storage: 4 GB available space Additional note: Controller support, Microsoft XBox
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By flotsam The Many Pieces of Mr Coo Gammera Nest/Meridiem Games This is a surreal piece of zany animation that is a whole heap of fun and which has to be experienced to best be appreciated. Mr Coo gets a gift, which then eludes him, so off he goes in pursuit. Which involves an old-fashioned video game machine, a chicken (and of course an egg), mushrooms, the thought bubbles of a sulking(?) horned and hoofed beast, a disembodied forearm or two and a raincloud. Plus all sorts of other unrelated bits and pieces. Except that they aren’t, unrelated that is, and working out the connections is how you move on. The first half-ish is a point-and-click progression reminiscent of a 2D cartoon strip. The earliest parts are just Mr Coo and his present in a black void. Things get added, if you click in the right spot, and you ultimately progress to a galloping yellow background and the said chicken. What to do is what you do. The curser will change to a pointing finger to indicate spots you can interact with, and click and see what happens. Which might be nothing, or something, and may or may not help you, not perhaps until you click a few more and work out how this particular part of Mr Coo’s world behaves. While there might be some cues in the environment, generally you are clicking and prodding and pondering to work out the relevant way forward. Trying things and trying more things and then trying the same things is your stock in trade. It is largely the same in the second half-ish, except this time you are playing against ‘real-world’ backgrounds (the first of which is a joy to behold) and engaging in (a bit) more traditional point and click puzzling. It’s a relative concept, but you need to work out who can do what and where by interacting with the environment. Trying things and failing will still be an element, but there is a more informed degree of “what might work here” than in the first part. Which doesn’t make it any less fabulously bizarre. Nothing is terribly conventional, so be prepared to deploy your best point and click inventory. I won’t spoil what happens between the two parts but lets just say its related to the title. Which adds a whole other bit of puzzling-ness. I confess I loved every bit of this. The look, the sultry jazz sound, the vibrancy of the animation, the overall weirdness. The sum of the parts were compelling, and there’s a rambunctious joyfulness about the whole thing. Mr Coo plays in the third person and is point and click throughout. It (exclusively) autosaves at the end each of the chapters but I confess to playing straight through. There are a couple of timing puzzles (the worm might frustrate you for a while) and a book of Hints is available if you are stuck. Be warned though, it's really an answer not a hint. Get to the end and it seems you can play again looking for a number of collectable pages; I haven’t tried so can’t tell you anything more. It took me a bit over two hours, utilising a hint or two. In my opinion you should certainly check it out. I played on: OS: Windows 10, 64 Bit Processor: Intel i7-9700K 3.7GHz RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4 32GB Video card: AMD Radeon RX 580 8192MB
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