Completely Stretchy Review
I ask myself “will a game ever match my freak?” Completely Stretchy responds, resoundingly, “yes.”
Completely Stretchy, developed by Warp Digital and Dan Ferguson, belongs to a burgeoning mini-genre of 3D platformers set in snack-sized open worlds. Think iconic titles like A Short Hike and Lil’ Gator Game, and more recently Valley Peaks and Little Kitty Big City. Like these other titles, Completely Stretchy’s world is open to the player’s whims and whimsy, but manageable to traverse in a short period of time, given the main character’s speed and other abilities.
The other key marker of games in this tradition is the way the open world is populated by charming and intriguing NPCs who are just waiting to share (sometimes even overshare) their thoughts with the player. Completely Stretchy, however, distinguishes itself from these other games with its eccentric vibes and bizarre aesthetics. Players who are looking for something a tad less wholesome, and a tad more “what the %@$&?”, than Lil’ Gator Game are in for quite a treat.
The Grombi Isles (the setting of Completely Stretchy) make a striking first impression. My first steps into the cel-shaded, pastel world felt inviting, almost soothing. Or at least they did once I turned off the blaring alarm clock that drags your character back to consciousness in the first moments of the game. The second thing I noticed about the Grombi Isles after letting its pleasant color palette wash over me, was its citizens.
Completely Stretchy Review
Dotting every street corner, shop and house, Completely Stretchy’s almost entirely unclothed, anatomically confusing beige residents go about their day. Little guys, big guys, small guys with two big feet and no arms, medium-sized guys with one long arm protruding from their head, even guys with just a single long leg and nothing else, all bop around, ready to talk to you. After the catastrophic laboratory accident that leaves you entirely blue, stretchy and (some might say uncomfortably) sticky, some of these chaps even have the audacity to put you down for looking so odd.
This might sound like an off-putting start to the game, but if there’s one thing about me, it’s that I love weird sh*t. And Completely Stretchy delivers on the weird, while also being surprisingly charming. It didn’t matter to me whether they had a quest marker over their heads, I immediately wanted to talk to every single denizen of the Grombi Isles. Because you just never know what beautiful, bizarre nonsense is going to come out of their strangely round, slightly puckered mouths. In a way that felt very reminiscent of Adventure Time, the Grombi vernacular features wacky stand-ins for commonplace words. Money is “scrudge”, coffee is “sploffee”, everyone in town seems to exclusively eat Grumple Fruit soup. Also very similar to Adventure Time, you find moments of wisdom and compassion among the gobbledygook coming out of everyone’s mouths.
Once I finished immersing myself in the general atmosphere of the game, the next thing to get used to was the quirky climbing, grappling and swinging abilities of the playable character. The aforementioned lab accident leaves you with one LONG, blue stretchy arm (lord only knows what happened to your other one, you do start with two), that can be used to grab onto just about any surface. Folks who have played Valley Peaks will recognize the control scheme here, as it feels very similar to the frog’s climbing mechanics. The developers at Warp Digital even cite Valley Peaks as an inspiration.
It didn’t matter to me whether they had a quest marker over their heads, I immediately wanted to talk to every single denizen of the Grombi Isles. Because you just never know what beautiful, bizarre nonsense is going to come out of their strangely round, slightly puckered mouths.
There are some key differences, however, the most obvious being that you can only climb with one arm in Completely Stretchy. Other differences include: the ability to grab onto any surface, rather than predetermined ones; the presence of a stamina bar that requires managing; and the fact that swinging around on your arm is a much floppier experience than in Valley Peaks. I was really impressed with how the control scheme and game physics came together in Valley Peaks to allow the player to intuitively move their body around while suspended in the air, holding onto a mountain face. Completely Stretchy is clearly going for a different gameplay experience, which I respect, but did find the act of swinging myself up onto a ledge to be a bit more frustrating than I wanted, and overall required a good bit of trial and error to master.
I have one complaint to lodge about this game and that is that navigating the world can be quite dizzying, and not in a metaphorical way. I’m not someone who gets queasy often while playing first-person games, but it does happen occasionally. In fact, that was one of my main concerns about playing Valley Peaks for the first time. But I was pleasantly surprised that I found running and climbing my way through the world of Valley Peaks to be very comfortable, even for long periods of time. Unfortunately that is not the case for Completely Stretchy and I eventually discovered I can only play for about an hour at a time before I need to set it aside and stare at a wall for a couple of minutes to readjust myself.
Usually the culprit in games that do make me dizzy is any kind of motion blur effect, though I don’t think that’s the case here. After pondering it, I realized that when you walk in a curve, or walk in one direction while moving the camera around, there’s a sort of tilting effect your character experiences. Which makes logical sense for an essentially elasticized character. Imagine sending Gumby and Pokey down a rollercoaster, there’s going to be some flopping around.
So, I would caution anyone who does regularly get motion sickness from games like this, to maybe take a look at some gameplay footage to test the waters. And I’d like to petition the developers to consider adding some kind of motion-sickness accessibility setting in a future patch, to turn off some of this tilting effect. My heart wants to marathon this game, but my head needs to lie down regularly.
The most special thing about this game, to me, is the completely unhinged, yet welcoming world that the folks at Warp Digital have transported me to. I want to bask in the weird, and spend my days soaking in the wacky existence that is life on the Grombi Isles. My only grumble (to borrow from the vernacular of the game) is that the game’s camera and controls don’t always facilitate my dream to maximize my time among the little guys of Completely Stretchy.
Get to the point, girl
Completely Stretchy is a quirky fever-dream of a 3D platformer, with a fascinating, beautiful and strange open world to explore. I loved getting to know the Grombi’s, this world’s equally strange inhabitants, and helping them out with my stretchy, sticky body. The whole experience merges wholesomeness and humor, with bizarre character design, in a way that really spoke to me.
My only issue with this game is that it made me fairly motion sick after a while. I think this is probably something the developers could address as they support the game moving forward, and isn’t something that will affect every single player. But it was a bummer for me personally, since that’s not an experience I have very often with games, and I really wanted to be able to sit down for hours and hours to play this lovely, truly weird game.
Emily’s Score: 7/10
Emily was given a review key of Completely Stretchy by Dead Good PR
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No Small Games is an indie game recap and review podcast brought to you by hosts Kate and Emily! They became friends while streaming on Twitch and bonded over their love of indie video games. In each episode of No Small Games, the two will discuss an indie game they both played independently. They’ll compare their experiences: the good, the bad, their most memorable moments of their playthroughs.
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