With most games playing themselves off as serious business, or throwing so much death and destruction on the screen that you feel numb to the plot and everything else halfway through, it’s nice to catch a break and tackle the lighthearted stuff sometimes. Mojo Bones‘ Siesta Fiesta1 offers a serious challenge, without taking itself too serious. It also put a smile on my face, and I’m grateful for it.
The whole thing is so bright and adorable I damn near threw up on my figurative plate of nachos.
A glorified ‘brick breaker’ with a Spanish theme, the game sees you bouncing a sleepy ball of human (Siesta) continuously on his bed / paddle, bashing scores of bricks and pinball-ing him off just about every conceivable surface2. Each stage (60+, spread across eight themed worlds) is lively, its backgrounds animated and filled with tiny, multi-colored creatures (called ‘Fiestas’) going about their business3. It’s charming stuff. The music too, is excellent, and those very same lovable creatures sing / hum along with the tracks. The whole thing is so bright and adorable I damn near threw up on my figurative plate of nachos. Many times.
Good thing I didn’t. It would have put a damper on how fun the game is. You see, there’s an inherent blandness to brick breakers, an idea that’s been done to death, but Siesta Fiesta wisely avoids the trap. Rather than keep things stationary and stale, the game plays like part-platformer, with the stages scrolling continuously— and you forced to keep up. This makes the ‘breaking’ more interesting, as you’ve then got to make decisions on how to go about scoring within an imposed time limit. Do you go for the big points, or focus on smaller bricks and bonuses that can add up to larger sums? At the end of the level, it’s all tallied up, and medals are awarded accordingly.
Those medals won’t ultimately do anything for you, other than show you how poorly you played4 or offer a pat on the back. Still, Siesta Fiesta continues to add new ideas throughout the game, injecting fire and ice ball variants, or swapping out the paddle completely; your bed can transform into a cannon or a fan, changing the entire way a level flows. There’s the time trial stages that play more like Breakout, having you destroy all the bricks before you can advance to the next wave, and boss battles that conclude each world. These too, are timed, and often task you with figuring out how to make an enemy vulnerable before going on a full-out attack.
It’s not all perfect; there’s a handful of situations where the ‘last brick syndrome’ shows up (those time trial stages can drag on), but most are easy enough to bypass once you’ve gotten a handle on the bed’s mechanics. The graphics, too, while lovely, can obscure the bed / ball at times. And even with all the new bricks and objects that show up, the constant ‘bounce, break, bounce’ will get repetitive.
… Siesta Fiesta does a good job of re-imagining the classic setup.
If you’re a fan of the genre, though, Siesta Fiesta does a good job of re-imagining the classic setup. Taken in digestible portions, you’ll likely get three hours out of it, even more if you insist on going for all the gold medals. Regardless of your level of devotion, the game offers plenty of content and friendly challenge. Your face might even crack a few smiles. Hard to put a price on that.
- For some reason, I kept wanting to write out the title as Siesta Fiestar. FIESTAR is the name of a kpop group that recently made a comeback. The hazards of the job, I guess, though I suppose there wouldn’t be any harm in watching the video …ah, one more time. ↩
- No way this guy is waking up without a concussion / loss of memory, or at least a very bad headache. ↩
- Riding motorcycles, swimming, hanging precariously off snow-capped peaks, …waving at you. Picking up the ball when you drop it. Busy little things, and affable. Very affable. ↩
- Getting Gold medals (outside of the initial few levels) is quite hard. Even obtaining Silver can be a uphill fight. Brick-breaking aficionados will get ample challenge here. ↩
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