Stick Man Rescue looks like an amateur product, but it has some decent gameplay mechanics within. Reasonable level design and a moreish campaign elevate the game beyond its scrappy artstyle.
As far as game titles go, Stick Man Rescue couldn't be closer to the point. This is a simple, basically styled, erm, rescue game, in which you save a group of helpless stick men. We told you it was a good name.
Controlling a simplistically styled chopper, you must meander around a slew of different zones, avoiding obstacles and collecting survivors in order to return them to base. Each stage comes with a rescue quota - and while you won't need to salvage every stick man, you'll be rewarded with an ultra satisfying "Perfect" badge if you do. There are a vast variety of levels, each increasing in difficulty as you progress.
Threats come in the form of steam-rollers hoping to squash your stick men, rocket launchers and lightning infused storm clouds. You'll need to be quick and methodical with your rescue efforts in order to return the helpless stick men back to base unscathed. Meanwhile, the level design, while largely unambitious, does a good job of keeping the campaign varied throughout.
The presentation is extremely plain, with a rough, amateur look encompassing the artstyle. There's some decent animation attached to the gruesome deaths of the survivors, but it's the bland backgrounds and contrived layouts that ultimately give the game a flat look. While the doodle-esque presentation is cute, it could have really benefited from a bigger art budget.
Thankfully its soundtrack is a little more ambitious, and while wholly repetitive, it adds a nice retro backdrop to proceedings.
Stick Man Rescue is an extremely low-budget affair, but it's the kind of title that's perfectly suited to the PlayStation Minis platform. Short, sporadic levels and a strong, if unoriginal, underlying gameplay mechanic make it a decent distraction during periods of downtime.
