When the reviews are a little slimming it feels like some twisted punishment to have not only a game, that by all appearances, smells a bit “platform puzzler”, but one which messes around with time. Still, I like a challenge as much as the next guy and it's not the first time someone's shoved a title under my nose stating that it was about time I rolled around that squishy grey stuff in that hole I claim to be a head.

The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is about a glutinous, pie-addicted, crusty old geezer (AKA Jay – Matt) that spends his time chasing an ever-elusive magical pie. As you can imagine, getting into such predicaments can be your undoing as P.B. Winterbottom finds out the hard way when said pie starts playing around with Mr Winterbottom and Time.

If you managed to play the somewhat pretentious-but-really-rather-good Braid then you'll have a good idea as to what the angle is – except rather than just rewinding time, you can play back a recording of yourself, which generates a clone you can interact with – in some instances, multiple times.

It's a clever idea to begin with, before you start to wonder how the blooming 'eck they'll manage to pull it off. In short, it's a series of silly, light-hearted puzzles put together with some silly, light-hearted poetry – but in a good way. After completing the first set of introductory levels, you'll reach a sort of nexus for the other scenarios. From here you'll be able to travel to any of the themed challenges as you unlock them and additionally complete some smaller bonus levels that include time / clone challenges.

At first it appears pretty easy to get to grips with. You record yourself doing something and watch as it creates a clone and repeats the recording until interrupted. This happens if the clone collides with something that wasn't there when you recorded yourself or if you (or one of your clones) hits him. Hitting a clone (or being hit by one) catapults you across the level, which can help you reach certain parts of the level.

I say “at first” as the initial warm up levels lead you into somewhat of a false sense of security, as the later levels provide trickier challenges to overcome – they also change the way you can generate clones. You might only be able to create a few, or only in a certain place – and then there's the evil ones you can't touch at all. It certainly makes for interesting gameplay.

The variety of playing styles is enough to keep a player progressing quiet contently through each level at a pace I found to be both challenging (particularly one level that brought me close to weeping furiously) and enjoyable. Somehow, despite a similar theme of obstacles throughout the game, it managed to avoid getting tiresome.

It's wicked how well they've managed to present the game for effectively a bunch of students (albeit the talented types) and 600 points. The art and music particularly stand out, presenting something that smacks of World of Goo, which I loved. However, where the Goo boys went all shiny and clean, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom (what a mouthful – ha...ha...) take a decidedly darker edge.

So the game looks good, plays well and certainly retained my attention for an impressive amount of time (more than 10 minutes). Downside? Well, you could probably whine about the length of the game, completable in a few hours and the perhaps lack of re-playability in those particular story driven levels – but for the points you spend on the game, I'd say it was justified. There are always the bonus shorts to finish and grab achievement points for if you're enjoying the game.

Personally, I like Pie and I like crazy, old, time-travelling miscreants – so The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom have worked out a treat.