Stacking — Matryoshka Dolls Have Never Been Cooler

But there’s no Russian

Sometimes, but not all the time, I tend to talk about the 2010s, often mentioning how the first half was easier and the second half was terribly, terribly harder, but that’s no one’s business. My point is that I talk a lot about the different time periods and what they meant for me, for better or worse. I may have mentioned that the early 2010s was a time of discovery for me regarding video games. I have since lost my passion for video games, but there was one game in particular during that time that I can genuinely say that it is unique. If anyone remembers it, it’s called Stacking.

Forgive me if I get a bit of the details wrong since it’s been over a decade since I played this game (two generations of consoles, that is). Stacking is a game where you play as matryoshka dolls, often falsely, if not popularly, known as babushka dolls (or, even better, just call them nesting dolls). Trivia aside, the story, simply put, is about a young boy (again, these are matryoshka dolls) out on a journey to rescue his family from slavery. That’s just the two-cent description, but the game is so much more.

I have never played a game that’s even remotely similar to date. What joy it is to play this game with its uniqueness, and I genuinely mean that. As a tiny nesting doll, you can literally enter the bodies of other characters (who are, again, nesting dolls) and control them. Sure, as a gameplay feature, it sounds like something out of a horror movie, but through the quirkiness and charm of the game, you learn that there’s more comedy to find. Not only that, but I kept getting this feeling from the game that I needed to discover everything it had to offer because each matryoshka doll possessed is a story of its own and the sounds they made. Yeah… about the sounds…

What other games can be as quirky as this?

The game didn’t have standard voice acting; the different matryoshka dolls made random noises that best represented their character. For example, in the second level, which takes place on a ship, a prima donna yells at people in this deep opera-like voice. That’s the only thing I remember clearly from the game; I barely remember what happened in the ending, besides the good guys winning, of course.

Truthfully, I quite like the game’s sounds and the imagination they inspire in players… supposedly (in me, at least). But the real problem is that I don’t see a lot of quirky games like this. Almost as if no one is interested in making something like this. I suppose you could say the best solu… actually, that’s in the next paragraph.

A game this creative needs to represent a new archetype of video games that is not necessarily a new genre but a new style representing novelty, such as, in the case of Stacking, taking nesting dolls and making a video game out of it. The dolls are an iconic association with the Russian culture, making it intuitive to take them and make an imaginative video game. Why not make use of another cultural trope like… pogs, maybe? When I was six, I used to collect pogs, but they had already gone out of fashion when I realised it was not cool anymore. But hey, if somebody makes a quirky game about the culture that was once “pogs”, I’d be more than happy to play it.

Brainstorming… again

As displayed above, there’s the option of making another game with a similar quirk, but instead of nesting dolls, it would have to be something like, I suppose, Raggedy Ann? I don’t know if I’m tossing random ideas into the air, but it’s a start… I guess.

There’s always the option of making a Stacking sequel, as a sequel will always satisfy the need for “more of the same”. But that’s highly unlikely considering that the game is over a decade old, and everyone has moved on from it, including the developers.

Of course, the real thing that gets in the way of making a game that’s just as good and flamboyant is that nobody today is interested in trying out something novel because it is too much of a risk. I might be a bit exaggerating on that one, but my point is that today people make video games from a more cynical standpoint because the video game industry has had a lot of ups and downs in the last ten years. Much stuff has happened during that time, including a pandemic that lasted two years and counting. People nowadays just have different needs, I guess.

Do you want a game with Raggedy Ann?

I swear that was just a random conjecture. But did you play Stacking? Did you enjoy it? Because I did. What did you like about it, and do you want to see games like this one in the future? Because I definitely do. But I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon. Wishful thinking, I guess…

In Conclusion…

Stacking was a fun and colourful game with a lot of quirk. If you haven’t played it yet, you should do so because it’s an experience you’re missing out on, even if it is over a decade old. But I doubt there’ll be anything from it because nobody today cares enough. But that’s ok because there are other things to enjoy today.

I suppose something that’s just as colourful could fill the picture for something that could be just as fun as Stacking, like a game based around sock puppets… now THAT’S an idea!

Ok, so… I think I know what the next brainstorm will be about… but I’m going to need a bucket of googly eyes for it.