Now this game is an absolute CLASSIC from the Adobe Flash days. For those unfamiliar, The Fancy Pants Adventures is a series of (formerly) Adobe Flash browser games developed by Brad Borne.

This is a new game inspired by those flash games, so we'll be treating it as a relatively standalone project just for the sake of argument.

The first thing that might strike you about this game is the art style. It's very simple, sort of playing on that early Flash animation 'Newgrounds' style of stick figure. The main character (the Fancy Pants man?) is animated frame by frame by hand, leading to this super fluid looking character, whose movement is accentuated by his flowing hair and pants. It all leans into this smooth, slick look that the whole game has going on, looking like strokes of a digital pen.

The controls that those animations are helping are also butter smooth. The closest frame of reference for somebody like me (a deranged Sonic the Hedgehog fan) would be the classic Sonic games, with how they handle gradual buildup of speed, slopes, and the ways that you can jump off of ramps at different points to get different velocities in those jumps. I'd argue that it's even more smooth than those games in ways, the wall jumping and running makes the game all flow together seamlessly. It truly is a joy to control, and I'd personally really like to see just what goes on inside of that engine.

The levels are probably the most lacking part of this game, as I find some of the themes just kind of blend together, but the visuals are still very nice overall, and some areas have some rather good tunes to accompany them, and have gotten themselves lodged in my head over the years. The dialogue throughout the game is also just a good time. It doesn't take itself too seriously and knows when to crack a good joke, but it isn't a comedy by any means. It very much taps into that 'internet humor' of the early 2010s, in the nicest way possible. For a game that started life on the web, I can think of no more fitting a style.

The support for four player co-op is also a great perk to this version of the game. Each player is also able to customize their character with over 100 cosmetic items, all of which feel genuinely fun and creative (personal combo is the classic hair, cyan pants, and the pointy finger as my weapon). Nailing co-op is a tough task, but this game is very loose with both controls and the camera, so you don't tend to run into the same issues you might with shoving co-op into other games.

This game leaves me wanting a sequel so badly, it's simple fun that's a good time almost all the way through! I didn't even talk about how it includes the entirety of the first two Flash games in the series as unlockables!

As a final note, I played this game on Xbox 360, and as this is a digital only title, it will become unplayable on that platform following the 360's digital marketplace shutdown in July of this year. This game and likely hundreds of others will be lost in that shuffle, and although this game is thankfully preserved through a Flash demake and a mobile port (that could also get taken down at any point the publisher would like), many other games don't even have that luxury. If you'd like to try this game out on the 360, just know you have a limited time to do so.

With all that said, I do absolutely think you should give this game a try, although you'll get much the same experience playing the Flash version of this game or its predecessors. Even if not this specific game though, the Fancy Pants series is worth keeping an eye on, and I have the newest game 'Super Fancy Pants Adventures' on my backlog as we speak! Maybe you'll hear from that soon!

Man, I'm just a sucker for these types of games. This is one that I never actually finished as a kid, so some of this is new to me!

Just generally, this game is great at its purpose. The environments look great, and the objects are cleverly hidden. I've noticed this time around that the I SPY riddles get slightly more difficult as you progress through the game, expecting more comprehension out of the (intended child) player. For example, the game will go from telling you to find a duck, to asking you to find four birds, of which a duck would be one. This helps to solidify some of those good ol' critical thinking skills that children's games are trying to build, and it takes a good amount of thought and cleverness from the author of the riddle to embed that, so hats off to them.

Compared to I SPY: Spooky Mansion, I don't think this one's quite on that same level of design. To be fair, the theme just isn't as interesting, and they don't have as much room to stretch it, given they 'subdivide' the game into three sections. None of the themes get quite as developed as Spooky Mansion's due to the split. The sections do have their own UI design, sound design, and narratives, which is a really nice touch. It very much leans into that 'I'm a child playing with toys in my bedroom' theme that they're going for.

Each of the three themes (underwater, castle, outerspace) have a few different sets of puzzles in the same area to spread out playtime, which is a great feature for a game designed for very young kids... who don't generally get to buy many video games. The ending changes with each time the area is played as well, just a neat touch.

I will say that for me there's a little too much waiting, as in just waiting for the hidden object to do its little animation to play before I can click another one. Not a big deal by any means, and this way kids know what part of the object they clicked on was correct, and also potentially convey some information about how this potentially unknown object works (like a yo-yo, do kids still use those?).

I find it a shame these games don't really get made anymore. They were a staple of my childhood and I spent genuine hours replaying them as a kid. They are full of passion and creativity and effort, but in that weird CD-ROM game kind of way that you only truly understand if you've played one before.

If you're looking at playing one of these games, please do, as I genuinely find them a lot of fun, although I'd recommend I SPY: Spooky Mansion Deluxe as the best starting point.