Tons of games have been given the spotlight thanks to content creators. Back in the day, one of YouTube’s most popular channels, PewDiePie, gave rise to games like Happy Wheels, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and Five Nights at Freddy’s due to a format that makes it as fun to watch as it is to play. One such game PewDiePie played was 2012’s McPixel, a hysterical adventure title made by one person. Now a decade removed, a follow-up has been developed by “Sos”, McPixel 3. Is the formula for fun still present?

The play loop of McPixel 3 is easy to grasp. You have a limited amount of time to escape a situation where you’re all but set to meet your demise. These range from navigating a helicopter careening toward a building, to escaping a mouse-hole as a shrunken McPixel. You’ll have to accomplish a very unorthodox set of tasks to make it out alive, and McPixel’s only thought process is to kick people and pee in anything that resembles a toilet.

One thing is certain, you are going to die again and again in McPixel 3. Thankfully, that’s what makes the game so fun. The series of events that you control is so outright funny that you won’t mind playing the same scenarios more than a handful of times. As levels are set in groups of 6 rounds, you’ll repeat them in succession until you manage to escape each one. There’s no penalty to losing, as you’ll just get to retry them in a matter of seconds, and your trial-and-error can be fast-forwarded to speed things up even further.

Once you complete a level, you’ll be able to navigate McPixel 3‘s city to unlock more levels with coins. With 100 different rounds to experience, Sos’ creativity is on full display, as he’s had a lot of tricks up his sleeve in the 10 years since the original McPixel released. In fact, the jump from McPixel “1” to 3 was a joke he made before Goat Simulator 3 did the same. Ironically, Goat Simulator 3 is also set for release this week. Is Sos a trendsetter?!

Of course, with 100 rounds to get through, some of them are more entertaining and easier to grasp than others. I got stuck pretty hard during one where I had to steal food as an ant-shaped McPixel, and another where you have less than a second to react. Luckily, if you get stuck too much, you are free to exit to the city at any point and retain your earned coins. However, I encourage trying everythingyour mind can think up before calling it quits. Thanks to a button letting you see everything you can interact with, you shouldn’t be stuck for too long, anyways. McPixel 3 is a riot, so long as you can keep up with it.

While I wasn’t sure what to expect from a game that had its peak in 2012, McPixel 3 recaptures all the good times had with the original, ten years removed. I laughed harder than I have in ages and used the critical thinking part of my brain much more than I thought I would. With the same retail price as my game of the year in Vampire Survivors, McPixel 3 is in must-buy territory at $4.99. With a playtime of 6-7 hours and a huge climax, it’s heartwarming to see a solo developer make a masterpiece backed by one of the best publishers in the industry.

A review copy of McPixel 3 was provided courtesy of Devolver Digital for the purpose of this review.

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McPixel 3

4.99

9.5

Score

9.5/10

Pros

• Gut-Bustingly Funny
• Simple, Yet Varied
• Clever As Can Be
• Uniquely Addictive

Cons

• Some Frustrating Levels