The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom

There’s a fabulous Xbox Live Arcade game with stellar art and music, compelling gameplay about time manipulation, and no, it’s not Braid. Comparisons to 2008’s Xbox Live darling Braid are inevitable, but The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is no simple copycat.

Taking on some of the tropes of silent films, Winterbottom plays more like a bizarre comedy than the sort of tale of forgetting and regretting of Braid. P.B. Winterbottom is pie-thief extraordinaire, and the best at what he does, not to mention the only. One day, though, P.B. Winterbottom happens upon the Chronoberry Pie, which unsticks him from time.

Fans of Penny Arcade’s Catsby and Twisp or the silent film A Trip to the Moon (and the Smashing Pumpkins video it later inspired) will feel at home with the top hats and umbrellas, surrounded by machines of unknown function and jagged-handed clocks. Screenshots alone have had fans anticipating the game for some time. If there are top hats and umbrella-based violence, what else might there be? Shenanigans, fisticuffs, defenestration? Sadly, there is no defenestration. The world of P.B. Winterbottom is almost entirely black and white, with just a few dashes of color here and there to help the game along. About the only silent film conventions the game doesn’t pick up are exhausting parlor piano and women tied up on railroad tracks; the story is even told by text cards between levels.

While that other XBLA time manipulation game was about rewinding, Winterbottom is about recording. At the Chronoberry Pie’s behest, the dastardly Mr. Winterbottom must collect all the past pies (not exactly the most painful task he can imagine). Only, the pies aren’t just sitting on windowsills, ripe for the taking. No, they’re in the most absurd places imaginable, reachable only through some mental and temporal gymnastics.

The puzzles presented range all the way from very easy to brain-numbingly difficult. Much of the difficulty comes just from the effort it takes to surmount some of the mental brick walls we put in place as we play. Upon solving—or searching online for the solution to—a particularly difficult puzzle, gamers won’t find themselves exasperated at the solution. They will instead, more often than not, apply their palms directly to their foreheads, asking themselves and anyone else with ears, “Why didn’t I think of that (sooner)?!” This is the best thing a puzzle game can be: difficult and frustrating, but never outside the bounds of logic.

With 75 time-bending levels—50-plus in the story and the rest challenges—there’s plenty of value for the $10US price. There’s no multiplayer, though the challenge levels do have leaderboards to add some additional value.

Now to wander briefly into spoiler territory; for those that have not yet finished Braid and intend to, skip this paragraph. One of the best things about Braid was the intertwining of the story and gameplay. As a jilted lover deep in denial, Braid‘s main character was constantly rewinding time to avoid his past mistakes. As he followed the Princess, he thought he was saving her, but when time played forward it turned out quite the opposite, and the way the game mechanic itself hammered relentlessly on this theme made it a very memorable experience. Winterbottom’s time travel doesn’t play into openly interpretable themes as much as it makes way for wacky hijinks. It’s not a complaint by any means, but more of a comparison.

The Rundown
P.B. Winterbottom steps forward, umbrella in hand and top hat on head, ready to boggle the minds of all who dare to step into his world. The only appropriate way to end this review is with a poem:

If you want a good puzzle, and need a good fix,
P.B. Winterbottom offers a mix.

If you like time travel, and platforms galore,
This game offers both, and quite a bit more.

Twisted art style and a humorous story,
Keep P.B’s adventure from ever getting boring.

Don’t understand P.B.’s obsession with pie?
Check out this game, and you won’t deny.