Stretchmo Review

Push, pull, and take my money.

Early on in the 3DS lifespan, there was a download-only puzzle game named Pushmo that caught some good buzz from the Nintendo 3DS eShop. It starred a cute little red sumo named Mallo, tasked with climbing up and and pulling around blocks called Pushmo to save trapped, rainbow-colored children from within the top blocks themselves. And it’s really that simple, like a politician's empty slogan put into video game form. Knowing how much politicians seem to dislike video games, I get a nice chuckle that we can take something positive from them for a change.

So far, there have been four games in the series (three on 3DS and Pushmo World on Wii U), and each brings to it a new mechanic specific to that game and puzzle set. Pushmo was about pushing and pulling sections of the puzzle to climb to the top. In Crashmo, true to its name, you “broke” the environment to make it work by pulling segments away from others (like those “magicians” that can pull a tablecloth from underneath the dishes… which is a dumb trick, by the way), then pushing them back together and climbing up. This time, in Stretchmo, the blocks can be stretched at the sides and front, which means the impossible-looking puzzles can, in some cases, be easily solved.

Stretchmo looks just like the previous titles, so it’s especially welcoming if you’ve played them before. There are four additional puzzle packs for purchase—the “main” pack of 100, and three 50-puzzle add-ons—all with a theme unique to them (one is NES-themed, like they knew I was comin’!). The initial download comes with tester puzzles, and the full package is filled with unique puzzles that range from simple brainteasers to some surprisingly intricate conundrums. While the difficulty scale seems to vary quite a lot, the more intricate 3D art is very neat to look over, especially when they’re actually built for 3D viewing. One of the puzzle packs is filled with only special images and not simply utilitarian head-scratchers, and they’re just as interesting.

One of the puzzle packs, Corin's Fortress of Fun, even comes with its own element to the gameplay: enemies. The puzzles don’t tend to rely on a time limit, but when a baddie is involved, both them and the clock add a pseudo-high score element to the mix. It’s disappointing that the element is regulated to the specific pack, especially since it makes available an additional feature in the puzzle creation, which is still a part of this series’ attempt to create an infinite amount of levels “ironically” shaped like penises. But the stages themselves are an interesting diversion from the more expected “take your time and look around” aspect of most puzzles when danger isn’t a factor.

Controlling Mallo—the most adorable sumo wrestler and block-pusher ever—is easy, minimalist, and very responsive. He bounces around the environments without any problems, and I never once felt like a risky attempt at a jump was either robbed or just unfair. As each puzzle pack comes with its own challenges and themes and its own “Mallo” with a different color and appearance, I would’ve liked some diversity in the way they handled just for diversity’s sake, but having them all respond identically wasn’t bad. Still, for each of the puzzle packs, it felt more like a chore after a while than a good time. The challenge didn’t bore me, but it wasn’t stimulating after working through the original 100 of the full game, and some additional adjustments to the game’s core would’ve been a welcome way to approach 150 new stages.

And it’s not just those 250 total puzzles available. There’s a fifth pack that’s only available after purchasing and beating all four packs, and even if you get through all of those puzzles, remember there’s the simple “create your own” feature that can create new puzzles by painting a grid picture, and even share them via QR codes. Nintendo is really jumping on the “make your own fun” bandwagon in a big way and in a very, very welcome way. Using the editor, even I was able to create a playable level without much difficulty, and that’s after I reviewed Art Academy those years ago!

As an inexpensive downloadable title—again, the first few tutorial stages are free, and buying the four-pack of add-ons makes it ten bucks—I can’t help but say I enjoyed it, despite the repetition of what was necessary in each level. It looks nice, it handles well, it gives an interesting and twisty challenge, and it doesn’t feel as though I’ve wasted time like some games might (*cough* Attack on Titan *cough*). It’s not about the supplant heavyweight franchises like Tetris or any of the various Picrosse games, but Stretchmo can hold its own with offshoots like Picross 3D, and it’s already gotten more enjoyment hours out of me.