Dismemberment may be the next big thing. You know, the spiritual successor to cover systems, dual-wielding, and recharging health when it comes to ideas that every big game needs to find a means of incorporating. It’s a central mechanic in NeverDead, Rebellion Developments’ fabulously cheesy forthcoming collaboration with Konami design legend Shinta Nojiri, and now it’s front and centre in Anton Rogov’s pretty and characterful Flash game Pursuit Of Hat too.
There are some crucial distinctions in the handling, though. NeverDead’s gruff demon-slaying lead often sees his limbs shot away in manic gunfights or chewed up by dribbling mutants. The tumorous hero of Pursuit Of Hat, meanwhile, pulls his off like he’s removing his socks. It all comes down to a difference in temperament, really. Beneath the disturbing headline conceit, Rogov’s offering is actually a rather thoughtful puzzle game. It’s quirky rather than gory, and there don’t seem to be too many screaming nerve endings lurking inside the protagonist’s squishy and ever-diminishing body.
The objective, as the name deftly suggests, is to make your way across each level to reach your dandy purple bowler. In order to do that, you’re going to need to navigate a series of fairly standard videogame obstacles: doors and their pressure switches, cannons and funnels, and moving platforms that can be held down to keep them in place. Your limbs are mainly needed as ammunition or as warm-blooded paperweights, and while Pursuit Of Hat’s challenges aren’t particularly imaginative, the game has a pleasantly pedantic sensibility when it comes to constructing puzzles. This isn’t so much about working out what you have to do so much as the order you have to do it in. Which switch will allow you to access the next switch you really need to get to? How many limbs do you need by the time you’re trying to climb up to the final ledge, and will you have used all the others? Where should you leave your torso?
For a game that hinges on a character who’s so impetuous that he’s willing to mutilate himself just to get his clothes back, Pursuit Of Hat is surprisingly obsessed with planning in advance, in other words. That, along with some lovely roly-poly animation and colourful blue-sky level art, is why you should take a few minutes out of your Friday to tear yourself limb from limb with this odd little treat.