McPixel does perhaps the most audacious thing of all: embrace the idea that joy in gaming comes in equal measure from knowing what you're doing and having absolutely no clue. Betting big on the concept that games aren't simple tests of what you can already do, but tests to see how much you're willing to learn. And hey. It doesn't hurt that Sosowski packs every scene with video-game related in jokes, pop culture references, and intertextual nods to earlier characters, improbably crafting a world one twenty second scene at a time.