Little Inferno
Platform: iPad, Mac, Windows, Linux
Part physics puzzle, part adventure, part pyromania-driven surrealness, Little Inferno, the first release by indie superheroes The Tomorrow Corporation (Kyle Gabler of World of Goo, Kyle Gray, and Allan Blomquist), is an unlikely chimera of a game that works on a multitude of levels. You're stuck inside a cold gray city where it hasn't stopped snowing since... well, nobody can remember the last time it wasn't snowing. It's important to keep warm, however, and lucky for you the manufacturers of the Little Inferno fireplace have made that easy and fun... namely, by creating something that quickly and efficiently burns all your belongings, and then selling you more things to continue the cycle! It might sound like a gloomy existence, but hey, igniting things that burn in spectacular fashion is weirdly entertaining and keeps you alive. Besides, there's nothing outside your walls worth seeing in the snow anyway... right?
So it's simple. All you need to play the game is to play with fire. Parked in front of your Little Inferno, you can click anywhere to ignite a flame that will burn whatever it's touching, and keep you nice and warm to boot. Different objects made of different material can burn in drastically different fashion, and even interact in unexpected ways as they ignite. Just drag an object from your inventory, place it where you want it (careful, some things are fragile or destructive or... weird!), and then click and drag around the screen to set your flames burning. As things burn away, they generate money you can use to order more things to burn from the Tomorrow Corporation's catalogue. It takes anywhere for a few seconds to a few minutes for an item to be delivered, so if you don't want to wait, you can spend Tomorrow Stamps to get it instantly.
Of course, to get the best results, you can't just go incinerating things willy-nilly. In order to progress, you'll need to unlock combos by burning certain things together at the same time. Click the starred tab in the upper right-hand corner to get a list of all the combos in the game. Greyed out combos mean you can't create that yet, but the names of the others are the clues you'll need to figure out what items you need to burninate at the same time. For a combo to count, you need to ignite the required objects at roughly the same time, so you can't just drop something on the smouldering remains of something that had been burning for a while already. The more combos you earn, the more catalogues full of different items you'll unlock, and maybe you'll discover that there's more to life than what goes on in your fireplace in the process. Though... what goes on in the fireplace is pretty awesomesauce.
Analysis: Little Inferno is wholly unexpected for quite a few reasons. I mean... it's kind of crazy. Like, a lot crazy. Its distinctive design is somehow both disturbing and beautiful to behold. Not just the way the off-kilter catalogue items are rendered and react to your interaction, but the fire and lighting effects themselves are absolutely gorgeous. It's easy to get caught up in playing around with all the objects you can light on fire, and the game has tons of surprises up its proverbial sleeve in the way they burn. It's a simple sort of gameplay, but also hard to put down, with the rich visuals that are their own reward, and the sneaky way the story unfolds. Triggering combos can be frustrating sometimes, since even if you have the correct items in place, the game can be fussy about recognising it if they're not touching in such a way that they light almost simultaneously. This forces you to slow down a bit and think about what you're doing and where you're doing it, instead of just piling everything into the blaze at once.
But what really makes Little Inferno work, more than its striking original design and simple addictive gameplay, is its clever storytelling. I bought Little Inferno for myself because after reading all the information and watching the trailers, I still wasn't sure what it was all about. I sat down to play it to evaluate it, and couldn't quite pull myself away from it until I finished it hours later. If you're not going for 100% combo completion, you can likely spend around four hours or more on it, but in that period of time Little Inferno manages to convey a surprisingly affecting story and some unexpected emotion. I may have possibly considered the notion of maybe tearing up a little bit at the end. It's beautiful, sneaky, strange, and with a style all its own, and serves up its addictively simple gameplay with a dose of heart to boot. Little Inferno is the sort of game that sneaks up on you, and if its striking atmosphere and intriguing concepts draw you in, it'll keep you warm as long as you park yourself in front of the hearth. Just don't forget... you can go as far as you want.
Windows:
Order the full version
Mac OS X:
Order the full version (Not yet available, coming soon)
Linux:
Order the full version (Not yet available, coming soon)
Walkthrough Guide
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Little Inferno Combo List (Complete)
Chimney Stuffer (1)
1. Bike Pirate
Wooden Bicycle (1) + Toy Pirate (1)
2. Someone Else's
Someone Else's Credit Card (1) + Someone Else's Family Portrait (1)
3. Springtime
Instant Seed Packet (1) + Alarm Clock (1)
4. Generations
Spider Egg (1) + Someone Else's Family Portrait (1)
5. Lenders
Someone Else's Credit Card (1) + Blankity Bank (1)
6. Movie Night
Corn on the Cob (1) + Television (1)
Totally Recalled TOYS (2)
7. Seafarers
Toy Pirate (1) + Oil Barge (2)
8. Building Blocks
Building Blocks (2) + Ordinary Brick (1)
9. Fire Breather
Antiki Torch (1) + Pyranosauraus Plushie (2)
10. Dino-Mite
Pyranosaurus Plushie (2) + Disgruntled Elf Plushie (2)
11. Watching You
Television (1) + Wandering Eye (2)
12. Magnetic Heart
Broken Magnet (1) + Cold Metal Heart (2)
13. Double Fan
Space Heater (2) + Cold Metal Heart (2)
14. Terrible Teeth
Eager Bunny Plushie (2) + Toy Leperchaun (2)
15. Time Bomb
Alarm Clock (1) + Mini Nuke (2)
16. LOL Kitty
Wandering Eye (2) + Kitty Kitty Poo Poo Plushie (2)
Snooty Foodie (3)
17. Catfish
Kitty Kitty Poo Poo Plushie (2) + Blowfish (3)
18. Bear in a Chinashop
Feelings Bear Plushie (2) + Fragile China (3)
19. Dinnerware
Wooden Spoon (3) + Fragile China (3)
20. Cornflakes
Corn on the Cob (1) + Tooth 'n' Corn Breakfast Flakes (3)
21. Deadly Fish
Blowfish (3) + Discount Sushi (3)
22. Wake Up!
Alarm Clock (1) + Coffee (3)
23. Iced Coffee
Dry Ice Cubes (3) + Coffee (3)
24. Easter Bunny
Egg Pack (3) + Eager Bunny Plushie (2)
25. Liquid Diet
Future Fizz (3) + Coffee (3) + Midlife Crisis Mitigator (3)
26. Egg Sac
Spider Egg (1) + Locust Eggs (3)
27. Freaked Out Food
Marshmallows (3) + Coffee (3) + Toaster (3)
1st Person Shopper (4)
28. Wooden Block
Letter Blocks (1) + Building Blocks (2) + Tetronimos (4)
29. Arachnid
Spider Egg (1) + Giant Spider (4)
30. Zombie Garden
Instant Seed Packet (1) + Toy Zombie (4)
31. Eggcellent
Egg Pack (3) + Phoenix Egg (4)
32. Puzzling Adventure
Tetronimos (4) + Gentleman Adventurer Doll (4)
33. World of Goo
Goo Ball Pack (4) + Casual Game (4)
34. Airplane Mode
Cell Phone (4) + Handheld Fireplace (4) + Gaming Tablet (4)
35. Underwater
Blowfish (3) + Miss Hexopus (4)
36. Meta
Handheld Fireplace (4) + Beta Version (4)
37. Pixel Pixelated
Pixel Pack (4) + Beta Version (4)
38. Japanese
Discount Sushi (3) + Toy Ninja (4)
39. Brains Ahoy HIYA!
Toy Zombie (4) + Toy Pirate (1) + Toy Ninja (4)
40. Rosy
Valkyrie Doll (2) + Gravity Boy Action Toy (4)
Miss Nancy's Guide to Stylish Living (5)
41. Howl at the Moon
Howling Coyote (5) + Mini Moon (2)
42. Cat Lady
Kitty Kitty Poo Poo Plushie (2) + Old Lady Doll (5)
43. Elderly Couple
Gentleman Adventurer Doll (4) + Old Lady Doll (5)
44. Terribly Mystery
The Terrible Secret (5) + Mystery Seasoning (3)
45. Change the Bulb
Fragile Bulbs (2) + Modern Lamp (5)
46. Cold War
Uncle Sam's Blam Blams (2) + Russian Nesting Doll (5)
47. Framed
Little Inferno Collector Poster (1) + Someone Else's Family Portrait (1) + Oil Painting (5)
48. Writer's Blocks
Letter Blocks (1) + Word Pack (5)
49. Stop Drop & Roll
Smoke Detector (3) + Fire Extinguisher (5)
50. Colorful Flame
Zesty Beetles (3) + Beta Version (4) + Powder Barrel (5)
51. Pollinating
Instant Seed Packet (1) + Cocoon (5)
52. Cat Bath
Kitty Kitty Poo Poo Plushie (2) + Dish Detergent (5)
53. Clean Plate
Dish Detergent (5) + Fragile China (3)
54. Orchestral
Valkyrie Doll (2) + Cello (5)
55. Moonlight Melody
Mini Moon (2) + Cello (5)
56. Medicated Midlife
Midlife Crisis Mitigator (3) + Medicated Mommy Pills (5)
57. Pill Popper
Best Friend Supplement Pills (2) + Medicated Mommy Pills (5)
Shop & Awe (6)
58. Bearskin Rug
Feelings Bear Plushie (2) + Old Bear Trap (6)
59. Fireworks
Uncle Sam's Blam Blams (2) + Dynamite Daisy (6)
60. Spinning Blades
Super Juicer 4000 (3) + Drill Chain Thrower (6)
61. TIMBER!
Drill Chain Thrower (6) + Lumberjack Hand (6) + Manly Odor Spray (6)
62. Poker Hand
Glass Cards (6) + Lumberjack Hand (6)
63. Duck Season
Gaming Tablet (4) + Game Bush (6)
64. Huntin'
Old Bear Trap (6) + Game Bush (6)
65. Nuclear Shave
Mini Nuke (2) + Manly Razor (6)
66. Manly
Manly Razor (6) + Manly Trophy (6) + Manly Odor Spray (6)
67. Brick 'n Mortar
Ordinary Brick (1) + Unstable Ordinance (6)
68. Texting Gurl
Cell Phone (4) + Low Self-Esteem Action Doll (6)
69. Sorority Party
Low Self-Esteem Action Doll (6) + Balloons (5)
70. Chain Puffer
Drill Chain Thrower (6) + Puff Pack (6)
71. Deadly Vices
Midlife Crisis Mitigator (3) + Glass Cards (6) + Puff Pack (6)
72. Legal Charges
Legal Briefcase (6) + Someone Else's Credit Card (1)
73. Injection
Snake Surprise (2) + Protein Powder (6)
74. Bodybuilder
Manly Trophy (6) + Protein Powder (6)
75. Deafening
Valkyrie Doll (2) + Sonic Boombox (6)
76. Road Rage
Wooden Bicycle (1) + Celebration Bus (1) + Mustache Rider (6)
77. Diseased
Toy Leperchaun (2) + Mystery Seasoning (3) + Book of Darkness (6)
Existence, NOW (7)
78. Chain Email
Drill Chain Thrower (6) + Email (7)
79. Wooden Applause
Lumberjack Hand (6) + Laser Pointer (7)
80. World Adventurer
Flaming Globe (7) + Gentleman Adventurer Doll (4)
81. Learning is Fun!
Celebration Bus (1) + Toy Rocketship (7)
82. Glasses & Staches
Fashionable Sunglasses (7) + Mighty Mustache (6)
83. Before the Internet
Television (1) + Old Timey Radio (7)
84. Sleeping Idol
Sleeping Idol (1) + Triangle Idol (5) + Rotund Idol (7)
85. Ice Planet
Dry Ice Cubes (3) + Mini Pluto (7)
86. Heart and Soul
Cold Metal Heart (2) + Transhumanist Action Figure (7)
87. Yellow Brick Road
Kitty Kitty Poo Poo Plushie (2) + Scarecrow (5) + Transhumanist Action Figure (7)
88. Planes & Trains
Unstable Ordinance (6) + Railroad Xing (7)
89. Robotic Future
Clampy Bot (4) + Mom & Dad Bots (7)
90. Polar Bear
Feelings Bear Plushie (2) + South Pole (7)
91. Cardboard
Imitation Meatboy (4) + Cardboard Sword (4) + Decoy Lady Bug (7)
92. Sausage Factory
Sausage Links (3) + Clone Factory (7)
93. Book Club
The Terrible Secret (5) + Book of Darkness (6) + Creation Science (7)
94. Spam Cloud
Email (7) + Internet Cloud (7)
95. Online Piracy
Internet Cloud (7) + Toy Pirate (1)
96. It's a Sign!
Railroad Xing (7) + This Way Down (7)
97. Sun Flower
Miniature Sun (7) + Instant Seed Packet (1)
98. Mini Milkyway
Mini Moon (2) + Mini Pluto (7) + Miniature Sun (7)
99. Future's So Bright
Fashionable Sunglasses (7) + Miniature Sun (7)
With thanks to allanzelener for the TIMBER! combo!
Posted by: xolotl
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November 19, 2012 10:45 AM