I am notorious for not playing a game when it's "all the rage." Between my work with PopChix, PMSClan.com, school, reading, the significant other...you get the picture. The unending, ever growing stack of games that I get distracted from and "mean to get back to, really!" but probably never will is testament to the fact that I love gaming - I just don't have a driving need to finish them.
Enter Costume Quest.
Started as one of four projects to keep developer Double Fine busy while they sorted out the ultimately cancelled Brutal Legends sequel and kept to a short development cycle, Costume Quest delivers exactly what it promises to, nothing more and nothing less.
Set on Hallowe'en night, the player finds themselves playing Wren (or Reynold if you choose to play as a male), the older half of a set of fraternal twins (but only by a few minutes!) responsible for overseeing her "little" brother while they trick-or-treat around their new neighbourhood. Hallowe'en is serious business here, costumes are closely judged and cleaning out the surrounding houses of candy is the ultimate goal. At least it is until your twin's (lame) candy corn costume turns your night upside down. Mistaken for a real, oversized piece of candy corn, your brother is snatched by a goblin and your costume is taken from you, and you are introduced to the real point of the game - get your brother and your costume back.
Solid game play, easily mastered combat and classical silly Tim Burton humor makes Costume Quest a great diversion. The gameplay can basically be summed up as 1/3 action adventure, 1/3 collection and 1/3 combat and although I'm not a huge fan of turn based combat, (and it does get a tad repetitive), I got an enormous kick out of watching my transformed costumes do battle , giant-anime-robot style (easily pictured as one of your costumes IS a Giant robot). Besides, who WOULDN'T want to do battle as a giant PONY OF RAINBOWS AND PAIN. Sorry, no double rainbows to be found.
My one gameplay complaint was it wasn't long enough. I finished it in just two days (probably a total of 6 hours) but if that's my only complaint I think they did something right! For it's length, 1200 MS points might be a little steep for some, but if you got them, it's definitely worth it for a such solidly fun game.
I downloaded the demo and loved it, went to get it and stopped when I saw how much it was. I've been mulling it over because I liked it so much, and I think I'm going to get it. I figured it was short, but it just grabs you and pulls you in when you are playing it!
KITTY EDIT on November 20th, 2010:
If you haven't heard, Double Fine has announced that there will be DLC for Costume Quest, available this Decemeber, called "Costume Quest: Grubbins on Ice"!
This DLC will include an entierly different level, new costumes, and more. They also are retroactivly adding the ability to save more frequently (YAY!) as well as the ability to pause in cutscenes (double yay!)
No price annoucement yet, but this is one that you should definitely keep an eye on!