GAME OF THE WEEK:7 cert, EA/Over the Top Games, Xbox Live (also PlayStation Network) ****

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from almost three decades of playing videogames, it’s that I should get out more! No, I kid, it’s that gameplay is paramount.

At first glance, The Fancy Pants Adventuresmay not look like much. Brad Borne's award-winning Fancy Pants character (think a stick-man with baggy trousers) debuts on consoles having nabbed a number of development awards.

This is a platform adventure similar – at least superficially – to Mario and Sonic. You can sometimes bounce on the heads of your enemies like the famous Italian plumber, and you can gather momentum and whip around the screen like Sega’s hedgehog. But the levels’ maps are a lot less linear than other 2D platform games, leaving you free to roam around and find bonus levels.

Most of the game involves swashbuckling quests: thwarting pirates, vanquishing nasty animals and so on. You can run, jump, slide swim, and defend yourself by swiping at enemies with your sword. And there are bonus levels, based on combat, time trials and the like. The multiplayer option is especially endearing, with up to four characters competing or working together.

There are other nice little touches. You can play against friends online and customise your characters’ appearance (I’ve never really seen the appeal in that, but many gamers love it).

The hand-drawn animation is charming in ways that more hi-res games are not. Indeed, with the stick figures dashing across the hand-painted backgrounds, it feels less like a videogame and more like an animator’s sketchbook. Our hero has a lovely fluidity to his movements, with graceful animation for his running, jumping and swimming and a nice flow of hair to accentuate his momentum.

The Fancy Pants Adventuresmight be a low-fi game in some eyes; others will see it for the gently addictive and well-crafted game that it is.