Have you ever dreamt of being the expert curator of an art museum, studying the works of Miró, Kandinsky, or Picasso? You may want to rethink that dream after playing Stolen Art, a spot-the-difference game by Small is Beautiful where blubbering art collectors and obtrusive detectives are constantly knocking on your door to help them uncover some clever forgeries. Study two near-identical paintings to find and then click any slight differences as speedily as you can. While there is no visible timer, you can receive bonus points for working quickly or lose points for mis-clicking. You also have a recharging hint button at your disposal, which is sure to become your best friend when you hit the surrealism levels. The quirky, if somewhat repetitive, dialogue adds an entertaining story and the scaling difficulty curve will present a surprising challenge. Speaking of surprises, be on the look out for two curiously familiar characters you won't expect to see in the Louvre any time soon!
Review
Game of the week
Nice twist on the painters' names ;)
Good game, but would be even better with some *more*. Levels, on first play; on replay, differences and the option to select level.
Love the artwork, which really spoofs the styles of the artists who are "identified" by your clients. Also loved most of the snappy banter.
But why, WHY, must the detective call me "freak boy," when I am so clearly a lady? Especially when it would have been so easy to write a non-gendered comment.
Almost half of all gamers are women. I'm doubling my bill to you because of your lack of respect, Mr. Detective.
I understand what you're saying, Carny, but you're not a museum-detective-person either...
But on a more serious note... I, personally, am OK with games with male protagonists as long as there are games with female ones, too. And since I would be sad to see my beloved non-typical protagonists disappear (even such simple things as the implication in the recent Escape from the Woody Room that the protagonist is either female or homosexual), I don't feel upset when people are clearly male, either.
Although I agree it *is* nice to be able to choose sometimes, maybe even most times.
PS. I came on here to comment: that last picture was hard! I had to resort to pretending it was a magic-eye, ie screwing up my eyes until the images overlapped, and then looking for the faint part, for the last difference.
I understand what you're saying, Carny, but you're not a museum-detective-person either...
But on a more serious note... I, personally, am OK with games with male protagonists as long as there are games with female ones, too. And since I would be sad to see my beloved non-typical protagonists disappear (even such simple things as the implication in the recent Escape from the Woody Room that the protagonist is either female or homosexual), I don't feel upset when people are clearly male, either.
Although I agree it *is* nice to be able to choose sometimes, maybe even most times.
PS. I came on here to comment: that last picture was hard! I had to resort to pretending it was a magic-eye, ie screwing up my eyes until the images overlapped, and then looking for the faint part, for the last difference.
Update