The PlayStation Vita is a beautiful and powerful device but still lacks a lot of great and original games. Tearaway is the game all PlayStation Vita owners should play. It’s an innovative and fresh journey in a world built out of paper. Tearaway is created by the LittleBigPlanet team and can be considered as the creative little brother of the family.
When you start up Tearaway for the first time, you’ll immediately be sucked into its unique atmosphere and weird story. The story is about a male or female (you can pick the gender at the start) messenger in a world built of paper. The goal of the game is to reach the sun … with your face in it. Indeed, you, the gamer, are the other main character in the game. Thanks to the PS Vita camera, your face will be reflected in the sun, which results in a rather funny scenery. You’ll need to help the messenger to deliver his/her message to you.
This story is without a doubt one of the strangest stories you’ll hear in a game but this is exactly what the creators wanted to achieve. The story telling and cheesy voice-acting never takes itself seriously and mocks with serious in-game stories. The story is told by a cheesy voice in combination with squirrels all over the paper world. Don’t try to understand the story, just go with the flow and enjoy the unique atmosphere.
(Facing some of the enemies)
As said before, the atmosphere is created thanks to unique world you’re playing in. Everything you see consists out of paper, even your little messenger. Just like in the real world, you can fold paper into new shapes and this is what you’ll need to do a lot in Tearaway. In order to advance, you’ll have to change the paper world and fold your way onto new paths. To break the 4th wall even more, you’ll receive some plans to recreate several in-game characters in real life thanks to your origami skills. It’s safe to say that paper is what makes the world of Tearaway go round.
To make your way through this paper-world, you’ll need to use the PS Vita’ unique controls. The front touchscreen can be used to open up new paths by changing the paper world as you want. Not only the front touchscreen is used, the touchscreen on the back is also used for several little tricks. The biggest trick is to tap on the back-touchscreen to let your character bounce on specific platforms. You’ll need this skill a lot to climb your way up in several levels.
Tearaway is without a doubt one of those games that really use the controls to its advantage. Unlike Uncharted, the controls in Tearaway never feel forced or useless. The way you interact with the world is only possible thanks to the two touchscreens. Unfortunately the back-touchscreen doesn’t always work the way you want it to. It’s hard to place your fingers on the right spot if you don’t see them. Interaction with the back-touchscreen therefore is harder and misses the precision you have when controlling the world on the front screen. It isn’t a big problem but it’s a shame the controls aren’t as perfect as you might have hoped for.
The most original game on PS Vita.
What does matter is the level of creativity that can be found in this game. As told before, you can interact with the paper-world thanks to the touchscreen but that’s not all. You can also use an in-game camera to shoot fun photographs or even take selfies to share on social networks. Aside of entertaining, the camera also serves a purpose for the game. Sometimes you’ll find ‘white’ objects in the world, if you photograph those, their color will return and you’ll score some confetti.
The confetti is your money in the game and can be used to buy all kind of decorations. You can buy new eyes, mouth, clothes and lot more to create your messenger or other characters just the way you want. You’ll find a lot of those decorations but you can even draw and cut out your own designs. One squirrel asked for a little crown for example, it’s up to you to draw one and cut it out in the drawing section of the game. Drawing something and seeing it appear in the virtual world is fun and works really great. Don’t expect a lot of precision in your work, you still are drawing on a touchscreen with your fingers but all in all it’s a fun experience!
The experience really is what makes this game stand out. Tearaway actually is a regular platform game with classic elements but all with a creative twist. The world of Tearaway is very cute and colorful but is also filled with enemies. The enemies in this game are called ‘Scraps’ and look like a mix between a present and newspaper.
Tearaway is a lot of things combined into one small package filled with fun. It’s a platform game, it’s an action adventure game, it’s a photo game but above all it’s a creative game. We hope that Tearaway will get sequels in the future because this piece of creativity really deserves to become even better in the future.
Conclusion:
All in all we can safely say that Tearaway is the game the PlayStation Vita needed. It’s a creative and original title full of adventure and amazement in every corner. The controls could have been better but that doesn’t mean the game isn’t good. Owners of a PS Vita should definitely try out this little gem and enjoy their time with it. Tearaway won’t be the biggest system seller out there but I’m sure some gamers are willing to buy a Vita just to try out this unique little masterpiece.
