Thimbleweed Park is a masterpiece of puzzle design. Many people think the adventure genre covers any game that combines a story with any old kinds of puzzles, but I have never believed that. A true adventure game entails puzzle-solving through deductive reasoning from the premises provided by the story and gameworld. This game does exactly that, only that, and brilliantly. Every puzzle is organic and can be solved by following the story and thoroughly exploring the gameworld. Here there are no non-contextual puzzles, no minigames, no moon logic.

The story is also terrific, so long as you take to heart this line from the game's description: "In a town like Thimbleweed Park, a dead body is the least of your problems." Not every detail gets wrapped up into a little box with a bow on top. If you need that kind of complete closure, then you might conclude, illegitimately, that the story is flawed. It is not. The story is something anyone with the ability to embrace nonconformity will truly relish.

The only "negative" I noticed is that getting to the main menu requires an odd key-combo rather than ESC, but, you know, see above re: nonconformity. ;-)