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A fat old man exposing his underwear equals fun? Every day!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

It's no surprise that there aren't any other reviews for this game- it's that demented. Mr. Pants was released a few years ago by Rare, and it seemed to never get a proper US release for some reason. It came out in the UK well enough, but I never saw this anywhere. No game stores carried it, much less, knew what it was. I had to buy this thing from an online auction site in order to play it. And it was worth it. My god was it worth it. From the minute Mr. Pants greets the player with, "HELLOW EV'RYBAWDY!", to the underwear that makes up backgrounds, I knew I had purchased one of the most unique games in history. Just what is Mr. Pants? Well, if you're looking at this page, you've either done your research, or...well, I don't know how else you managed to find this page. Mr. Pants is a puzzle game where you make rectangles with colored blocks. That's all there is to it. As with most puzzle games, the premise sounds simple, but kicks your ass after about 10 levels. And it surprised me- there aren't many new puzzle games that keep my interest after a few hours. Chu Chu Rocket, Tetris Attack and even Sega Swirl are some of the only ones to come out in the past 10 years that I can still enjoy. Is Mr. Pants able to rank up there as a memorable classic puzzle game? It's a bit too early to tell, but I can tell you this- it's easily one of the more fun ones.

As far as I know, there's no plot to Mr. Pants, or any back story to who he is. He's an older, round gentleman with a bowler hat, shoes, and red underwear, and that's all we need to know about him and his motives. Mr. Pants wants you to make rectangles out of select given blocks of the same color. Honestly, it's hard to explain, and you're probably better off finding pictures or gameplay videos to get a good idea of the premise. But it's somewhat similar to Tetris. You'll be given a set number of blocks to complete the puzzle with (think of the blocks as moves too). You can rotate them around like Tetris pieces, but instead of making rectangles with the blocks you're given, you actually use the colored pieces to fit into existing shapes on the game board and make THOSE into rectangles. See? It's confusing to read about, but trust me- it's fun. There's the main puzzle mode for the game, going through many stages and unlocking funny art pieces, a timed challenge mode, multiplayer, and a few other less fun options. All of the modes are similar, though the timed one is based off of how fast you can eliminate rectangles before the screen is shortened (think of the last minute of a Bomberman multiplayer match when the screen slowly gets smaller). I haven't been able to play the multiplayer mode, but I can only assume it'd be crazy once you play against someone who's had enough time with the game to know some combos and everything.

Mr. Pants is good and all, as dirty as that sounds, but there are some minor problems that keep it from being perfect, and a true puzzle gem. The biggest problem being the "help" option in the main game. If...no, WHEN you fail a stage enough times, because you will fail some of these damn things, a little character shows up offering help if you need it, but you can only get his help once the stage begins. If you make a move/drop a block, he'll go away until you fail again. That's not so much a problem, as it is when you get help and do the "wrong" moves. What I'm saying is, you can put a piece that would complete a rectangle in one more move on the left side of the shape, but often times, it'll be "wrong", and the helper will put it on the right side even when it wouldn't make a difference. Eventually, you'll memorize what help he'll give you, and use the help at the beginning of a stage, do everything he showed you in order, and then get some real help. Yes, you have to do things in order with his help- if you screw up or put something somewhere else, he'll show you something you already know, then vanish until you fail again. It sucks, and I found myself repeating some stages 30+ times thanks to it. I guess it encourages you to figure things out without help, and memorization. It doesn't help though, that the game keeps track of how many attempts at a stage you've had. The other, smaller cons would be that the main puzzle mode is a bit short, making this one of those games that leaves you hoping for more once it's all over. Sadly, Mr. Pants didn't seem to do very well in sales, and I'm doubting a sequel is in the works. It's a shame though- this game really had me in the palm of its hand when I first got it. I'd actually find myself taking extended breaks (15-30 extra minutes) just to beat another level. It's that addicting, something I can't say for a lot of current puzzle games.

The graphics in the game aren't anything to brag about, but they're pretty cool if you think about it. They're done in a crayon-like style, similar to Yoshi's Island, but still different. It has a very scratchy look to it, like that of early Beavis & Butt-Head episodes, and I love it. Mr. Pants himself is a real character, and his movements had me laughing often. Backgrounds are also very cool, being done in crayon style as well, and being still-frame pictures like cows, sheep, or other odd things that go along with the level name. It's very unique, I'll give it that. The audio features some voice samples from Mr. Pants, which, while funny, can get annoying. But it's all in fun, so I can let it slide. Some of the music featured here, while limited, is also pretty catchy. A lot of it is done in chimes, making it charming. Some of the sound effects are pretty wacked out too.

Mr. Pants is a good game, plain and simple. But the bizarre help option, and lack of replay in the main game keep it from being great. It was a truly great effort by Rare to put out something non-platformer or action for a change though, and I admire them for that. Hopefully there'll be a new, improved Mr. Pants sometime in the future. No matter how long it may be (knowing Rare, it could be decades), I'd patiently wait. Until then, I can just erase my saves on the game and redo everything from scratch, because it is in fact, that much fun.

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