Completely Stretchy Review – Swing And Stretch Around A Open World In This Wildly Quirky Adventure
Completely Stretchy is a quirky 3D platformer with eccentric characters, stretchy mechanics, and a groovy soundtrack. Find out why it’s one of my must-play indie games this month.
Hello everyone, and welcome back for another Good Game Lobby review. Today, we are stretching around the first-person exploration and 3D platformer Completely Stretchy. Can we find all the missing Elektros while swinging around the Grombi Isles? Let’s find out! Thanks for being here and supporting my work make sure to like, comment, and subscribe. Your support means the world to me!
Odd Future
Let me give you the premise of this wacky game.
You are a worker for a lab and running a bit late. As you throw your alarm clock against the wall to turn it off, you gather your belongings and head to the train to work. Arriving at the laboratory, you find your boss, Dr. Grimble, frustratingly waiting for you. After putting down your belongings and starting work, an incident at the laboratory knocks you out.
You wake up all blue—like Tobias Fünke from Arrested Development—and with the ability to withstand electricity and stretch your sticky arm around. The best comparison is one of those sticky hands you’d get from a gumball machine at the supermarket. You are tasked with collecting all the missing Elektros that have been scattered around since the explosion and bringing them back to the laboratory. Now the real fun begins.
Before getting into the gameplay, I have to talk about the people of this world. They are hilarious, naked-looking people with large eyes that follow your movements. For example, if you head into the coffee shop, everyone is staring at you—and for good reason: you’re blue, stretchy, and a total outsider in this already odd world. Some characters have an arm sticking out from the top of their head. Others are tall, short, round, or even so big they fill the space of an entire room. The hilarious visuals of the characters you meet, paired with the fun dialogue, make it a real treat with a great sense of humor. Honestly, it feels like I just wandered into a TV show that would appear on Rick and Morty's Interdimensional Cable episodes.
Now let’s get into the gameplay and how you will get those Elektros back to the laboratory.
How to Stretch 101
You have a blob in the left corner of the screen that shows how many times you can stretch and grab onto something before falling. By completing main quest objectives and odd jobs for NPCs, your blob gets upgrades. For example, I earned six blobs by the time I beat the game. It makes for exhilarating gameplay, offering a thrilling sense of freedom as you swing across the open map. In fact, sometimes I’d just stop an objective to climb as high as I could, jump off a building, and swing around.
You have three unique areas to explore in Grombi Isles: the main city, an industrial plant, and a park/forest area with gardens.
Each area offers new challenges, where NPCs reward you with more Elektros. These are hidden everywhere—sometimes in plain sight and other times in hard-to-reach places. You can explore almost anywhere since doors open freely, making it a truly fun experience as you catch the people of this world in all sorts of weird moments.
The eccentric characters you meet and the comedic banter you experience are a nice touch, helping you better understand this odd world. Daniel Ferguson, the developer of the game, mentioned in 2020 that it was heavily inspired by Sludge Life. After watching a trailer for that game, I can see the similarities—and it also made me want to play it ASAP. You can play basketball and are told about a mysterious hidden basketball on the island which gives you more intentions to search every single area of the game..
Oh, and you can fish in Completely Stretchy—which is always a bonus in any video game!
I Just Blue Myself
I already touched on the characters’ visuals, but I wanted to get into the graphics. It’s a first-person game, and I always go for the highest field of view. I highly recommend it because it makes the stretchy grabs and flying around the map so much more fun—and funny. Especially when one of the characters you talk to is on the edge of the screen, their proportions stretch out even more, making them look funnier than they already did.
This is a fully 3D platformer with a style reminiscent of a cartoon show. The colors add depth to the world with slight shadows that provide just enough definition. While it’s not exactly a style like Sable, the graphics feel like they belong in a cartoon show. The simplified design makes it easier to spot Elektros and see far-off destinations you want to travel to.
Groovy Wonky Future Vibes
The soundtrack by Rupert Cole is honestly so good. It feels exactly like what this world should sound like—a retro synth sound in an oddly futuristic setting. Though I loved the main theme that plays as you swing, climb, and stick around the Grombi Isles, the residents’ radios feature the weirdest jams. Bleeps and bloops with heavy bass make it feel like music someone would listen to high in a club in Blade Runner—or in a club on the Grombi Isles.
Here is the club song FAIR WARNING it gets wild check your volume control. 😂
Here’s one of the main themes that plays throughout the game—I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Dedicated Teamwork
At one point during my gameplay, I was stuck. Something had been updated visually, and while it didn’t break the game, it confused me. Gaz, the Lead Designer, was kind enough to clarify that it was just an asset update and not a bug. He nudged me in the right direction, which led to one of the funniest parts of the game: unlocking the watering can. This series of weird events solidified the game as a must-play.
Without giving away spoilers, as you complete the main quest, a bigger story unfolds—which I was shocked to discover. I was fine with doing odd jobs and laughing at the funny dialogue from the Grombi residents, but this extra layer added a nice touch to an already stellar game.
Must-Play
With a uniquely satisfying world full of opportunities to swing, climb, and explore, Completely Stretchy offers a stellar combination of creative design and a groovy soundtrack that makes it a must-play for 2024. The main game took me around four hours to complete, including a variety of side quests, but there’s still plenty to do. I’m particularly excited to track down the remaining hover bike pieces and ride it across the Grombi Isles.
This is a game that keeps you hooked with its quirky charm, hilarious characters, and endlessly entertaining gameplay. If you’re looking for a goofy adventure, this one shouldn’t be missed!