Here’s a charming and surrealist point and click game by Spanish indie devs Gammera Nest and Nacho Rodríguez. It launched in September 2023 and is available on all consoles and PC.
Although a very brief game, it’s a highly memorable animated experienced that’ll stick with you for some time. Everything is set in a nonsensical world and it’s your job, as Mr. Coo, to make no sense of it. Hurray!
Art and Clicking in The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo
Point and click adventure games were a big deal in the 1980s and 1990s (think the legendary Curse of Monkey Island and all that). The genre is more of a cult deal now, but modern developers are pelting out interesting new games.
Which is great, as point and click has plenty of room for creative experimentation (i.e. titles like Amanita Design’s Samorost 3).
The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo takes experimentation to its logical extreme. It’s never clear what the hell is going on, but that’s not important. You simply take control of Mr. Coo, solve abstract puzzles, maybe contemplate a bit of existential strife, and marvel at the incredible artwork.
As artistically, the game is a joy to behold. More an interactive animated short than anything else.
One of the devs is Nacho Rodríguez, he’s a Spanish animator and director. He talked about the game’s inspirations with Indie Games Devel in a November 2023 interview:
“From my childhood, as I mentioned before, the most interesting animations for me were the cartoony ones. The actual inspiration for Mr. Coo comes from the Pink Panther, where this white guy was sometimes the enemy of the Pink Panther. I really liked the design. You weren’t so wrong with the influences you suggested in your previous article because, actually, this ‘big nose design’ was very popular in the ’50s, maybe even sooner in the ’40s possibly, with the UPA cartoons. Many characters afterward, including the ones from Bruno Bozzetto, share this style, and the one that impacted me was the one in Pink Panther. It’s a matter of simplicity, having the minimum details possible.”
It is a short game. The extensive need for animation means this one can be completed in 30 minutes, but what an experience whilst it lasts. It’s a title that’s well worth sitting and watching play out, as below, with its fantastic artistic visions.
It’s always best to play point and click games, though, and we recommend it on Steam (it’s £10).
As big fans of the colour yellow, The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo didn’t disappoint us there. It’s packed full of yellow! All sorts of vibrant shades of it, too, so we were happy bunnies.
But as a game, it’s enjoyable, too. Fun to play, especially if point and clicks are your thing.
For the score, Nepalese-born Spanish composer Julie Reier worked on this. As it’s such an unique game, it’s not a traditional game soundtrack and more a free-flowing experiment in a bit of everything.
There’s a lot going on in the gaming industry, but what dominates headlines in the non-gaming press are hyper-violent AAA blockbuster games.
What we love doing is finding the creative, intelligent indie gems like this. Mainly to show to our largely non-gamer readers what’s lurking beneath the surface of the mainstream.
Titles like this. Very creative, clever, and unique.
It always feels something as audacious and bold as this should get major international attention. Yet there it is on Steam with less than 1,000 user reviews. Be different! Be bold! Get the game and give it a whirl.
