As someone who primarily plays indie games, I will occasionally play games that have me asking the question, “How is this game not more popular?” Yes, every so often there’s an indie game so well-done that it explodes in popularity like Cuphead and Undertale, but then there are indie games like The Pedestrian and Octahedron that can’t seem to get half the attention those popular indie games do, despite being nearly or even just as good.
Pinstripe is one of those games. Released in 2017, today (April 25th, 2022) officially marks its 5th anniversary and, still, many of the indie game enthusiasts I interact with have no idea what it is. The ones that do all seem to have the same response: “I’ll get around to it soon, but I’m in no rush.” I don’t blame them — indie games are a dime a dozen these days and it seems like every week, there’s a new indie game on Steam yearning for your attention.
However, despite it being five years old and largely forgotten by the gaming community, my love for Pinstripe hasn’t faded away. I still consider it one of my favorite games of all time, listen to its soundtrack and even rewatch its trailer whenever I remember how great of a game it is, and most of all, recommend it to every indie game enthusiast I meet because I believe it’s truly deserving of their attention.
It’s not really because of its gameplay, though. Pinstripe is a 2D puzzle platformer that doesn’t particularly have any difficult puzzles or platforming levels — in fact, it might even be one of the easiest games I’ve played. It doesn’t do anything new or noteworthy with the genre, either. Every gameplay aspect of Pinstripe is one you’ve encountered in dozens of other 2D puzzle platformers before.
No, what really impresses about Pinstripe is how well-done it is, not really in a gameplay sense, but as a story told through the video game medium.
Pinstripe tells the story of an ex-minister named Ted on a mission to save his daughter Bo after being kidnapped by a mysterious entity named Pinstripe. It’s a game that was made not because a game designer had an interesting idea for a game, but because he had a story to tell and decided a video game would be the best way to tell this story. By the end of a playthrough, you’ll agree this decision was absolute genius.
First and foremost, Pinstripe is beautiful, both in looks and sounds: every frame is absolutely breathtaking, filled with creative character designs, wonderful winter colors, and luscious landscape art, and the soundtrack boasts some of the most atmospheric and transportative music I’ve heard in a game. It really is remarkable how the game almost has enough to win you over just by the visuals and the soundtrack.
Luckily for us, Pinstripe doesn’t just have environments we want to spend time in and music we want to spend time listening to, as it also has characters we want to spend time with. The titular character Pinstripe is a fantastic villain — he’s cocky, nefarious, and best of all, a lot of fun, even if you do hate him for kidnapping your daughter. Bo is absolutely adorable and her tender voice and sweet dialogue should endear you so much that you spend the rest of the game desperately determined to save her from Pinstripe. George is everything you could want in a sidekick for an adventure like this, someone you feel genuinely thankful to have by your side.
Finally, of course, there’s Ted, the protagonist who’s given a surprising amount of depth in a game genre where the protagonist is usually just someone you control and isn’t given much personality or dialogue. Ted doesn’t have a lot of dialogue here either and it’s all dialogue that you choose for him, but he’s given a welcomingly deep backstory and it’s through this backstory that we see his life, struggles, flaws, and the people he cares for.
The best part is that the game doesn’t just dump all this info on us through a cutscene — throughout the game, you are constantly learning more and more about Ted’s backstory, making him feel more and more like a fuller character. Ted is a protagonist you’re actively rooting for, so much so that you are genuinely pissed off at Pinstripe for kidnapping his daughter and you want nothing more than to reunite her with her dad.
Speaking of characters, Pinstripe has some of the best voice acting in a game. Pinstripe, Bo, and George are all well-cast and even many of the side characters feature excellent voice work that really help bring these characters to life. Ted doesn’t have a voice actor, but that’s not really surprising considering most 2D platformers don’t give their protagonists a lot of dialogue and the depth that went into writing his character is more than enough to make up for it.
Pinstripe’s story is also one with plenty of metaphors and symbolism — there are multiple ways of interpreting the entire thing and it’s one of my favorite things about the game. It’s a definite example of the saying, “No two people ever read the same book,” although in this case, the more accurate saying would be “No two people ever play the same game.” Did the game actually happen or was it all in Ted’s head? Is Ted actually an ex-minister or is that just a projection of his role as a father? What actually happens in the ending of this game? You decide.
Ultimately, Pinstripe is an example of what video games can accomplish in terms of storytelling. The fact that you play as Ted and are in his shoes as he tries to save his daughter allows for a level of empathy that really only could’ve been achieved in video game format. Maybe you’re not much of a story person and you’d much rather play a game with great gameplay but little story — if so, Pinstripe isn’t for you. For anyone else, however, Pinstripe is a shining showcase of a storyteller using his chosen medium to the story’s advantage.
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