Costume Quest

The Good
There's been a lot of criticism levelled at many of the Xbox Live Arcade and similar format games since the online download craze began. It largely falls into the 'it's too short' context, games that look good, play good but just don't last long enough. Costume Quest fell into that hole, a game with plenty going for it but just didn't last that long. This reviewer, however, didn't mind it one bit.

I'll admit, I'm a Double Fine fan. Brutal Legend and Psychonauts are two of the most ingenious and intelligent games I've played in recent times. Costume Quest continues that tradition of unique worlds filled with fun characters, but unlike their previous efforts, CQ also has a few added advantages. Its simplistic gameplay means that anyone can pick up and play, possibly even complete it 100%. You can't often say that about modern gaming, in which every game tries to outdo the last with even more complex controls and even more options. CQ, on the other hand, reverts back to a simpler formula, and it's rather effective.

Of course, it helps that the story is engaging. The battle between a group of kids in Halloween costumes and monsters out to feed on candy never fails to entertain young and old, with a visual style not unlike a hand drawn comic by a ten year old. There's no voice overs, but each character's dialogue works well to give them a 'voice' of their own.

There's also an unusual level of strategy involved. With each battle that takes place, you need to choose the right costume, plan out the right kind of attacks (both offence and defence) and choose your opponent intelligently. If you don't, the game does have a tendency to beat you down rather harshly, especially later on during boss levels. But a change in tactics can lead to a much easier victory, and that's testament to the kinds of costumes and upgrades that are available.

The Bad
I must admit, I do wish there was more to do. I want to explore this world further, delve deeper into the weird lives of these young characters and watch them interact with even weirder evil creatures, all the while finding more costumes to fight with. There's the possibility of future DLC (besides what's already available at the time of this review) or a straight out sequel, which I'll be looking forward to, but I do wonder if Double Fine were holding out on some features in the main game for such a purpose.

Speaking of the costumes, an extra level of options in terms of upgrading each kit would have been advantageous. As it is, there's so many costumes to choose from and the upgrade options in general are effective, but I would have liked the option to choose a handful more attack styles for each costume before a battle, three just didn't seem to be enough.

If I had a technical gripe, and there aren't many, I'd have to say the music can grind on the senses after a while. The same battle music plays with each sequence, over and over. A little variety would have helped, no doubt. And it's a shame there are no voice overs, though the little grunts and groans from each character did remind me of a Zelda style adventure, so it wasn't such a huge loss.

The Bottom Line
So yes, Costume Quest is short. If it were a fully fledged, disc on a shelf game at a full retail price, I would agree with other reviewers in their 'it's too short' mentality.

But this is a downloadable game. A game that costs less than half of a Mass Effect or Mario Bros. title. If anything, I expect it to be short, that's the way Xbox Live Arcade, the PSN network and WiiWare have all been advertised and used, like an M&M hidden amongst the vanilla ice-cream of your expensive sundae.

Costume Quest fits perfectly into the downloadable medium, a short but very sweet adventure that can entertain audiences of all ages and will leave you wanting much, much more.