Mobile ports to PC, then PC to console, are becoming a big trend.
Hitcent’s Draw a Stickman: Epic, is a sketchpad drawing simulator meets puzzleathon, and it works on some levels.
You start by sketching your own character, be it via the controller or Kinect. The colour palette is limited at first, but it will grow as you discover little marshmallow type characters in the game world. After sketching your Mona Lisa, you then sketch your best friend; weirdly limited to just orange. You can name them, too. I named my Khan, so when I found him in the world – “Khan!” would be displayed. Oh, William Shatner, you infect my life.
Now, from here, the game goes into typical port mode. The levels are very short, with them being approximately five to six screen lengths in size. Stickman: Epic is simple to look at, with little colour diversity. The resolution is fine, no upscaling artefacts are present. However, performance wise, the game does like to judder and jolt on occasion. The Xbox One isn’t powerful enough? There’s no excuse for the stuttering really.
The score is great, I’d listen to it all day if I could; it is very relaxing, which I am sure was put in as some sort of physiological effect, as I did find myself leaving levels on just to listen to the music.
So, the meat and potato of it all. Gameplay. It’s very simple, select a magic pencil tool, and sketch a cloud, fire, or a key, over an object to trigger a response. Keys open chests, gates, and activate tiny robots. I am sure you can imagine what the rest do. Yet, you do not have to sketch anything resembling the appropriate item, a simple line or squiggle will do. In essence, making the game no challenge in terms of game mechanics.
The aim of each level is to navigate your way to the next door, which in turn unlocks a new level. Now, some levels have multiple doors to unlock, and they may not all be accessible at first. You do gain new magic pencils as you progress, which adds replicability to the game. Hidden within each level are: puzzle pieces, colours to unlock, and sheets of paper – which tell the story of the main villain. Some of the unlocks can be a little challenging, for example: getting to a robe bridge before it burns down, which was caused by the player destroying some rocks with TNT.
The game is relatively enjoyable, can provide about as much gameplay as the main campaign of some AAA shooters; Call of Duty, Halo, as examples. Yet, once the puzzles are done, there is little to no reason to replay. It’s obvious that this is a game for commutes, bathrooms breaks, or even in the middle of class and/or work. The soundtrack is great, the real high point of game.
Draw a Stickman: Epic, sadly, does very little to promote the trend of mobile to console ports, maybe the sequel will improve this, and add more meat to the stickman’s bones.
John contributed 6 articles to ICXM in 2015, covering game reviews, and Xbox news with a focus on hands-on impressions and verified-source reporting. Their bylines on the site span the Xbox One’s first full year of post-launch coverage, including the early days of Backwards Compatibility and Windows 10 gaming. They post on X as @ProtoFoe.