IGN: NYCC: PlayStation 3’s Hidden Gem, Puppeteer
The Verge
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At first, Puppeteer feels somewhat like LittleBigPlanet in that it’s not about combat, it’s solely about platforming. Eventually, this changes. First, the game begins to throw some enemies at you that you have to dodge and otherwise avoid by jumping and rolling. But after the game’s first boss encounter, Kutaro is given a pair of magical scissors (yes, magical scissors) called Calibris, and these add a unique sort of combat to the game.
Calibris doesn’t only let you attack enemies directly, slaying creatures and freeing the the children's spirits bound to them. It also allows you to interact in unique ways with the environment and with more powerful enemies that aren’t damaged by Calibris’ sharp blades. For instance, sticky, spiderweb-like tendrils can be cut by combining the scissors’ slashing abilities with jumps and dives. When fighting an enraged knight in a boss battle, the scissors can’t damage the armored foe directly, but they can cut and destroy his cloth cape, sending him hurtling to the ground in pieces.
Calibris doesn’t only let you attack enemies directly, slaying creatures and freeing the the children's spirits bound to them. It also allows you to interact in unique ways with the environment and with more powerful enemies that aren’t damaged by Calibris’ sharp blades. For instance, sticky, spiderweb-like tendrils can be cut by combining the scissors’ slashing abilities with jumps and dives. When fighting an enraged knight in a boss battle, the scissors can’t damage the armored foe directly, but they can cut and destroy his cloth cape, sending him hurtling to the ground in pieces.
But he did tell me that the game is long. Very, very long for a title in the genre, in fact. He said that if you blew through the game, avoiding extra stages, collecting goods and other exploration, it’ll still take you 15 hours. But if you find bonus levels, all of the game’s heads and other collectibles and pay attention to collectible Moonsparkles (which give you an extra life for every 100 collected), you can expect to spend far more time with it than that.
And yet, when we were able to play the game for the first time at a Sony event in NYC, the gameplay felt oddly familiar, like a throwback to Ghost n' Goblins or Mega Man. Players control Kutaro, an unfortunate puppet boy who gets his head ripped off and eaten within the first few moments of the game. Ever determined, Kutaro sets off to reclaim his mantle with the help of some magic scissors.
The gameplay focuses mostly on jumping over obstacles. Those who find the physics in LittleBigPlanet too floaty will appreciate that Puppeteer allows for much more direct control over the hero, making it feel more like an old school Mario game.
The gameplay focuses mostly on jumping over obstacles. Those who find the physics in LittleBigPlanet too floaty will appreciate that Puppeteer allows for much more direct control over the hero, making it feel more like an old school Mario game.
But jumping is just part of the forumla. Your head (or lack thereof) can be replaced by other heads found around the level. These heads, like the rest of the game, are odd. For example, you can find one head in the shape of a hamburger. Another was in the shape of a spider. A third in the shape of a banana. Each of these heads has different abilities, so having the right one at the right time might result in accessing a bonus area. For example, having the spider head equipped caused me to get picked up by a giant spider and pulled into her lair, which happened to be filled with valuable gems.
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