I was thinking really hard on how to review Thimbleweed Park or doing it at all, because in general everything should have been said at this point. On the other hand there seems to be enough confusion whether it's a matter of taste or knowledge to like this Point'n'click adventure or not.

For my part, I love and appreciate it, but at the moment I don't feel like bragging in spoilers by putting every last bit in context, because I've matured enough to know how little I actually know. I might have gotten a majority of the references, but that doesn't entitle to pin it down. I've still learned things on this journey, like Ron Gilbert starting his career on developing Graphics Basic for the C64 and that I should have kept my eyes and ears open at the time the Kickstarter went live, because neither had I expected new (interesting) Point'n'clicks being designed, nor would I have expected being able to back their creation then, because I'd sure would have chipped in on this one.

I feel like I'm missing out on the whole initiation process, that I can just try to follow by reading blogs and picking up trails in Interviews or other talk formats. It's a bit like back when the movie Kill Bill found a life of its own on the internet, when there were active discussions on Quentin Tarantino's inspirations and viewers got involved by watching more and more of them to find more clues on his work.

On Thimbleweed Park though, backers even had a limited possibility to take part in the actual creation and this process, along with communities forming like the family of said supporters or players who then went on to discuss their progress and interpretation of the game.

I would have loved to be a part of that family of backers at least, because I feel like being the same kind, loving those brilliant Lucas Arts adventures. It's like there always had been a relation between those dream worlds we liked to dwell in and the designers who not only created the beautiful environments, but also laid out nuts to crack and lure us towards an exit, like guiding parents to finally take us home to reality. And we brats couldn't stop to reboot and live through those awesome adventures all the time.

It's like Thimbleweed Park was created for that specific family of players, who would understand plenty of the shown references unfolding in a surreal Twin Peaks murder mystery that enough players can't understand doesn't have to be the main focus all the time. That's the sad part about today's world where cashing in on explaining origins and tying loose ends shifted consumers to lay back and expect having each and everything explained in detail.

On the other end we have so called nerds, who would look back on Mad Max II rip off movies for instance as a reduction to subjectively summarized core elements due to low budget in best cases enhanced with own additions as a form of critique.

Ron Gilbert's writing genius works in the best essayistic manner comparable to the need to know basis of Tarantino's films, that the majority tries to catch up with by praising the cool dialogues, but then gets lost once he totally geeks out on a flick like Death Proof, which I'd consider one of his best works sheer alone for the big middle finger towards the pretenders giving me the opportunity to enjoy being the only one laughing in a packed theater.

Being backed by fans who would understand enough to still enjoy Thimbleweed Park without necessarily catching any self-revealing train of thought or bringing knowledge about Plato's cave allegory for instance, gives the designers a welcome freedom to geek out about computers or data carriers faded into obscurity, some even in 1987, when the story takes place. But it also lets Gilbert expand on his philosophy of game design with the confidence to better lose players on the way than to make compromises.

And together with old colleagues Gary Winnick, Mark Ferrari and David Fox he paved a solid way by creating retro but completely voice acted state of the pixel art design that emphasizes the impression of a lost game of the late eighties that collected dust unnoticed until now, to have you collect specks of dust instead because of your obsolete pixel hunting OCD and boy, I should have cleaned my screen first, because I didn't reckon being part of the joke. Well played, Gilbert.

Anyway, Thimbleweed Park lets you play as up to five characters simultaneously and making them cooperate to solve plenty of puzzles on a moderate to little advanced level is very natural when you're used to the verb system of games like Maniac Mansion or The Secret of Monkey Island. A later implemented helpline to call for hints in-game should keep you going constantly. You might just have to accept you see paths that will have to open up later in the game.

Still, there are usually enough tasks to work on should you be stuck on one and often this will lead you to new possibilities and ideas. Most of the essential puzzles are designed so that you get an idea what you can pick up or combine and though some items are red herrings, some actually reveal themselves before you get the wrong idea. Knowing the old works helps just as much as it surprises you maybe.

There's a DLC just to make Ransome the clown character swear without censorship and that's totally up to you if that's worth your money. It will just add uncensored audio, but the text will still show the beeping passages. He's a bit like an even more miserable Krusty and like other characters you will play him in a throwback rather than just watching a cutscene.

Ransome has his fans and haters, I guess the two agents aren't as ambivalent and their motivation seems a bit random. I guess it's quite clear the nerds fall for Delores (I did), who even got a small spin off I will play after this. But criticizing depth in all characters would be like arguing the Nazis would have gotten the Ark with or without Indy's involvement. You still did enjoy the ride, didn't you?

And what a foundation shaking ride Thimbleweed Park is! Though I only played it in hard mode, I still wanted to go back and look for things I might have missed, because not everything you can do is essential to the plot. One thing that was patched later is the possibility to actually play for highscores at the arcade, which I missed out first, because I didn't find the tokens. And you know my love for arcades. I really couldn't stop before I made sure to have tried anything except deleting the game.

I'm not yet ready for that step. There might still be something I'm missing out on, because Thimbleweed Park is not only written in computer code to run it, but also encrypted with said references you might enjoy the overall idea without, but could have fun to catch up on, should you not yet be familiar with the essence of the Point'n'click genre and been living in the eighties in general, or as an initiated have the time of your life reliving the good old days in a new way.

Thimbleweed Park in that sense is what so many impostors want to make you believe they are by throwing canonical catchphrases at you without having to add something themselves. You might even prefer that, because it's easy to accept something as cult, get in line and goose-step with the masses, throwing money at reproductions of icons chosen for you.

For Thimbleweed Park this would mean scratching the surface and it's possible you're fine with it. But the more you add yourself, be it by your autobiography or the effort you put into following the details, the more you can enjoy this adventure that grows with you just as Ron Gilbert isn't actually repeating himself, but refining his ideas in the most satisfying way, creating new games. Buy this, so he doesn't have to get a real job and can keep making more of them.