S&S Indie Review: Little Inferno

Title: Little Inferno
Format: PC
Release Date: November 19, 2012
Publisher: Tomorrow Corporation
Developer: Tomorrow Corporation
Price: $15
ESRB Rating: T

Little Inferno comes to us from Tomorrow Corporation, this new indie game's art style was the reason I picked it up.  You can instantly tell that the game is unique, but is the gameplay actually fun?

Presentation and Core Gameplay:
The game's distinctive presentation was the obvious reason I picked the game up, as you may know, I always love a good art showpiece.  I'm also one of the people who could stomach through a bad game, if the story and presentation were great, I would still finish the game even though the gameplay was lackluster.  Little Inferno was different in that respect, although I really enjoyed the game's aesthetics, I still couldn't get past the boring game mechanics.  You probably guessed by now that the theme of the game is fire, the object of the game is to set different things on fire.  The setting of the game is just your large open fireplace.  This is where you, as you guessed it, burn all the things you earn.  How do you earn things, you ask?  By burning all the various objects you have in your possession.  This is basically all you do in the game, you get a couple things to start off with, and as you burn off those objects, you get coins to unlock more things to burn. A funny little quirk of the game is that you don't just magically own the items you pay for, you have to order them and wait for the express mail service to deliver them.  This is no more than a simple timer, but its kinda amusing you have to order things that you wanna burn.   This game would be perfect for those people who love to watch things burn, and if I was 5 years younger, this would be the game for me.  
The physics of the fire are actually really good, the realism of various items burning in the fire are impressive.  As time goes by, the objects will begin to disintegrate and be converted into ashes.  When you burn certain objects together, you will unlock a whole new catalog full of items to begin ordering.  This gives the game a little more meaning, other than to burn stuff.  The items can vary from large wooden blocks, to dolls and corn on the cob.  Its pretty diverse in terms of the items you can burn. After about a hour, the game becomes very repetitive, and just flat out mind-numbing.  There is a bit of narrative in the game, but it just amounts to various letters you get from strangers talking about their own lives.  Without a single word of dialogue, the game still manages to be intriguing into whats happening outside of your cozy fireplace.  The game's music is one of the only things I love, its subtle and adds a lot to the mysteriousness surrounding the game's enigma.  

Final Thoughts:
Little Inferno feels more like an experiment rather than a game, it just feels like a glorified tech demo.  Seeing how these are the same guys behind the great World of Goo, I really expected more from there new title.  For $15 bucks, I wouldn't recommend you spending so much money on this one.  

S&S Rating: 5.5/10

@whatsPlay