McPixel 3 Review (Xbox One)

STAFF REVIEW of McPixel 3 (Xbox One)

Friday, December 9, 2022.
by Peggy Doyle

I honestly don’t recall the last time I played a game that made me laugh so hard that I actually snorted. It takes a lot to get me to laugh that hard, but that’s exactly what McPixel 3 managed to do recently. McPixel 3 is the follow up to the 2012 indie classic McPixel from the solo developer Sos Sosowski. There is no McPixel 2 (there was a mini documentary about why) but instead of pondering over it too much just know this sequel was highly anticipated. Following the adventures of the title character, McPixel, who will do anything and everything to ‘save the day’ by using objects and finding solutions in the environment around him.

McPixel is clearly a parody of MacGyver and McPixel 3 is, by far, one of the most ridiculous and entertaining games I have ever played. It will come as no surprise to most, that Devolver Digital is the publisher of McPixel 3. Every single part of the game has Devolver Digital stamped on it. If you know, you know.

I cannot reiterate this enough. If you don’t like crude humour, McPixel 3 likely isn’t for you. I’m still not entirely sure it’s for me, but I laughed at the sheer nonsense that was on my screen at times. The opening tutorial, if you can call it that, sets the tone for the whole game and involves diffusing a bomb and pooping. Yep, we’re at poop level humour in McPixel 3.

Controls in game are simple. Using a basic point and click system for getting around, joystick and single button to interact. You are controlling McPixel, and it has such a simplistic game style that you could sit virtually anyone down in front of this game and they would be able to figure it out with minimal effort. Be prepared, though, despite its cute 8-bit graphics, it is NOT a kid’s game. It’s juvenile, definitely, and the ESRB rating is T for Teen for involving ‘crude humour, use of alcohol and tobacco, sexual themes, partial nudity, and fantasy violence’. With all of that parental warning stuff out of the way, it won’t be long until you’re laughing at the absurdity of McPixel 3. Watching the trailers, I thought it was really childish, it showed just the crude potty humour, but once you get into it, it’s just pure chaos and nonsense and I was fully pulled into the world.

Exploring the open world hub, the town of McBurg, you’ll unlock areas after earning currency playing levels. Each group of levels is referred to as a round, and each level in the round is a scene where McPixel must save himself from imminent danger. While there is only one way to ‘save the day’, a correct solution they want you to discover, there are a multitude of wrong ways. This is where the hilarity of McPixel 3 shows itself. Whether you get it right or wrong, once you complete one of the solutions you’ll be shuttled to the next scene, and you have to wait for it to roll around to take another crack at it. Once you solve each level correctly, you’ll go back out to McBurg and pick up a new round from a new area.

Scenarios can range from diffusing a bomb, stopping an out-of-control train, finding your way past a cat (when you’re the size of a mouse), etc. McPixel 3 quickly taught me that using logic wasn’t the way to win the game, in fact, the more I thought about the solutions, the longer it took me to complete levels. Time is of the essence in each level, and I found I just had to ‘wing it’. Solutions started to make sense if I thought about it from McPixel’s frame of mind. If you are familiar with Saturday Night Live’s MacGruber, and how his thought process wasn’t always the smartest solutions, then you’ll understand McPixel’s brain a little better. If you’re even older, you may be familiar with Super Dave Osborne and his antics. Both are applicable here. Think outside the box, and out of the ordinary to find all the hidden solutions.

Besides saving the day, McPixel will compete in sporting events, take part in TV shows and action movies, even become a layer in his own retro style video game. You do not need to complete every possible outcome to get through a scenario, but to get 100% of the game and coins you will. At the end of each round there is a summary showing you how much gold you earned, what percentage of the level you completed, how many clicks it took you, and your total time. There are incentives for replaying and completing it faster and more accurately, and it’s easy to jump into any area you’ve completed from the main menu. In total there are 100 levels to play, with more than 900 gags, 1500 items to interact with and 20 mini games within the world.

As you are walking around McBurg, you can interact with anyone you see. McPixel’s preference for interacting with people is to either kick them in the junk or pee on them. There’s a line I never thought I would write in a review. I’m not exactly why these are your only two options, but they are. In fact, you can pee on almost anything in the game and sometimes this is one of your solutions. For example, one way to prevent a bomb from exploding. Clicking randomly around the screen often rewards you with unexpected surprises. At times you will find a hidden Steve, in a garbage can, in a hole in the ground, you never know. Steve is sort of a side gag to the game and has his own side quests of sorts. He has entirely unwinnable scenarios, but they are ridiculous in their own way. I’m not sure I can pick a favourite level in McPixel 3, but one that sticks out was a game of chess, where the only way to ‘win’ the level was to sucker punch your elderly opponent.

While I rarely found myself stuck in trying to find a solution to a level, there is a hint system where you hit a button and it will highlight everything on the screen you can interact with. It won’t tell you how, why, or what to do with it, but sometimes just seeing something you may have missed will clear your mental block. There is a finite set of options in each level though, so you may repeat an option, and that’s okay too. McPixel is fast, and chaotic, and it never wants you to slow down. In the grand scheme of things though, finding the right solution isn’t the main purpose of the game, the absurdity in all the wrong solutions is.

Graphically, McPixel 3 has a classic 8-bit aesthetic. Each area and character are well designed with enough detail available to give little bits of personality to each character. The entire game is backed by an old school energetic soundtrack keeping pace with the quick movement of the game. There was a distinct lack of sound effects that I found strange though. People with nostalgia for the older style games will find something familiar here, but I tend to think more modern gamers may not find as much appeal.

McPixel 3 isn’t for everyone. It’s crude but it gave me the kind of unexpected laughs that I haven’t had since moments playing the most recent South Park game. If you want something to have a few laughs, and not take seriously, I think you’ll like it. If you like crude humour, you’ll love it.

**McPixel 3 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**

Overall: 7.3 / 10
Gameplay: 7.5 / 10
Visuals: 8.0 / 10
Sound: 7.0 / 10

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