Joy is a little underrated in my opinion, but it felt like the closest thing to a running theme this year at Summer Game Fest. Astro Bot and Lego Horizon Adventures were fast-paced, playful and spirited family games that focused on simply having a good time. But The Plucky Squire, a home-dimension-jumping action game, probably just pipped them to the top spot in the race for the most joyous experience I’ve had all week.
In fact, it was one of the most joyous video games I’ve had in a while. Plucky Squire is a delight.
The setup here included the opening sequence in the 2D part of The Plucky Squire, the main storybook. It is striking how the edges of the pages, even though they are always visible, seem to melt away here. You’re in it, playing a top-down Zelda-like adventure, chopping up little enemy balls with your sword, or using a nice little throw and summon system like a hand-summoned boomerang to do it. You jump over ledges and chasms from the set, green eddies in the ground that lead you to matching green eddies on the other side. Then you hit an obstacle – a large spinning grinder that seems a bit rough and, frankly, suspiciously out of place for this little pastel colored story – and jump onto the next ring and – oh! – you jumped right off the page.
I never get tired of moments like this. Fez’s world turn, portal-hopping Portal, corresponding line Superliminal or Manifold Garden. The Plucky Squire’s is different – it’s not an on-demand thing, but a shift that takes place in set locations – but it feels just as magical. Just as instantly transformative, just as effective, it left me with a huge smile.
The first of these moments introduced me to the world of 3D desktops. Suddenly you’re not in Zelda anymore, you’re in Toy Story, A Bug’s Life. You hop on stacks of notepads and along playing cards or precariously, playfully balanced rulers – the eloquent workspace of a procrastinator, I know a comrade when I see one. A small wizard, sitting on various stationary objects on the desktop, offers advice. Enemies taunt you with attacks from ledges that you can’t reach with your sword or that are too high to jump. We are in an old 3D platformer. I feel an unlockable ability.
I feel right: there are other characters around the world who need help and who give you an ability in return. Most notable is the jetpack, which spews out a long flame as you climb a bit higher – a flame that’s lit quite amazingly, I should add, flickering and glowing, casting shadows on a world that seems set for some time. around dusk.
Unlocking this jetpack took some work. I encountered another small glowing warp vortex, this time on the surface of the mug. I went for a mug with a theme of some kind of space cartoon and a small emergency rocket. Its parts were scattered on the desktop and need restoration. (If you’re wondering what the story behind all this 2D-3D world crossing is, by the way, there’s a suitably charming magical explanation: the evil wizard Humgrump is using his magic to control the story of the book you come from, and it also seems to reverse everything others upside down.)
With the parts collected and the jetpack obtained, the next quest continues. A portal on a vertical wall takes me into a retro 2D platformer with my own sketchy crayon art style, scribbling on the wall as I hop on ledges and dodge other patrolling enemy spikes and orbs. The next mission has me using my jetpack to find and use its gushing flame to light several candles hidden around the world. The plastic toy tub provides a moment of true magic: independent play.
Is this actually a Resogun bike – Resotub? It works? – when plucky Jott transforms into an 80s action hero with a jetpack and a shadow laser gun, and you make your way around a cylinder tub, surviving wave after wave of enemy spaceships and rescuing civilians. A different art style – something like a retro cartoon? – another mechanic, another moment of impossible magic.
As you play through The Plucky Squire, you realize that it must be an inimitable work of art – and it is. James Turner, formerly the designer of Pokemon such as Golurk, Sinistea and Gigantamax Pikachu at Game Freak, is one of the founders of developer All Possible Futures. Turner explains to me a few little bits of developer magic—how 2D minigames and story segments were created by projecting those 2D elements into a 3D world that’s nearly impossible to understand, for example. Suddenly, it’s impossible not to see the artist’s hand in everything – shifting artistic styles for one, but also shifting perspective, shifting frame and angle. Even the collectibles are a wonderful touch of art: each one is a poster of a different character in the game, which is actually actual concept art for the characters in development.
And what you actually feel above all is the love the artist has for his creations. The Plucky Squire is joyful, adorable, and inventive, but it’s also a game that’s been crafted with undeniable care. The kind of care that literally jumps off the page.