A Story Unfolds! - Tearaway: Unfolded

Hello beautiful people of the Internet! And not so beautiful ones... hehe. Today Sin and I are going to present to you a spectacular game that fills us both with unparalleled nostalgia. It's a 3D adventure platformer full of collectibles and hidden secrets, a game that truly feels like a classic from the mid 2000's, even though it's much more recent.

Tearaway was a game released for the PSVita in 2013. It was made to show off all the different features of the PSVita from its rarely used rear touch pad to the frontal camera. It offered a lot of unique features for a game, even adding your own face into the sun as you play, and letting you take photos in the real world which will appear on objects and walls throughout the game. It was a wonderful game that was a breath of fresh air for a console that had so far been largely underwhelming. A world made entirely from papercrafts... I'd never seen anything like it.... the way it all came to life was so magical I just... ahhhhh (swoon)

I love the parts when you can ride on Ren's back.
Hey. You calling me a pig!?

Uhhh... So Tearaway Unfolded is bringing that kind of innovation to PS4 at last. When a large hole opens in the sun of the papercraft world leading to your world, the home of the You. It's up to You to guide a little messenger to deliver a message and ultimately seal the hole, whilst fighting off scraps, pesky enemies from your world. As big fans of the previous game Ren and I were super excited to experience a sequel. When we got about three worlds in we were needless to say more than a little bit disappointed... it had been so long so we didn't realize before but the new game is almost exactly the same as the previous one. It all started getting so familiar we just couldn't help notice it.

You really wouldn't think a world made entirely of paper could look this beautiful...
You're saying a world of paper looks just like me?
No. No I'm not...

Although it's true the majority of Tearaway Unfolded's beautiful papercraft locations are just the exact same as it's predecessor. Let's not forget this version does contain a few new locations and collectables, so there is a some extra content for first game veterans,with the new worlds specifically designed to compliment the brand new features. I'm still disappointed it wasn't a full new game! I feel cheated... But Sin hey Tearaway Unfolded is on the PS4, so it brings a number of brilliantly implemented brand new mechanics to the table. While opening presents with the PS4 controller's touch pad doesn't feel quite as good as using the Vita's touch screen to actually pull it open, it still feels good to use and works as a system, the same goes for tapping it to use the bounce pads. It also introduces the 'guiding light' a light you can shine on the screen with the controller, pointing and moving it using the motion controls. You use it at certain times to guide the enemies to their doom, but it's a largely unnecessary feature. I quite like it though, it's one of those things Tearaway does that immerses you in it's game world, let's you feel like you're truly in control. The motion controls are (limited and very small scale) fluid and make you feel like a direct influence on the world as an outside force. Heck you can even have your messenger throw stuff out of the screen into your controller and you can throw them back. it feels really good to be involved like that and it's something that games just don't do these days.

Shine the Guiding Light on papers taken over by newsprint to restore their colourful glory.
This is such a slow and dull mechanic I wanna shine a guiding light on the guy that came up with this and throw him off a cliff!

That's all well and good hey sure, but let's not forget some of the more poorly implemented features. The main one being the drawing parts. Tearaway on the Vita used the touchscreen to allow you to draw parts and accessories to attach to characters, it was fiddly at times but oh god it is IMPOSSIBLE to draw anything remotely good looking on the PS4 controller's touch screen, it's small and obviously doesn't leave a mark for you to use as a reference, so you're left to basically guess how your drawing will look: you'll struggle to join the corners of shapes, they'll look horribly deformed and just... just so... ugh... We also don't have a Playstation camera to test it with, but I can probably easily say it wouldn't be as well implemented as the Vita's camera too. At least I don't have to see Ren's ugly face in the game because of that, so if you don't want your not so beautiful face to be in the game this time you're probably in luck too! That's really mean Sin... Shut up this is my segment!

In this installment you can use the touch pad to create winds that will blow the paper and create new paths.
All the paper still defies the laws of physics though. I mean come on just look at that picture! Argh!

Overall this is a great game to pick up that really makes use of all the PS4 controller's features despite the fact the controller probably didn't need them to begin with. It'll be a bit of a disappointment for anyone who played on the Vita, but adds just enough that it's worth coming back to... Just... If you don't have a Vita though and you never got to play this before it's definitely an experience you need to have as a game that lets you get the most out of your PS4 and all it's silly gimmicks is going to be really rare for sure. And of course it really is just a beautiful game, worth playing just for the environments and adorable stylisation. Arguably it could be a bit too childish for you... But even this children's kind of story makes a good fun adventure for adults.

I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE BUT I CHANGE MY MIND I AM NOT DELIVERING THAT MESSAGE STOP STARING AT ME LIKE THAT YOU CREEP!

It was a pretty short review we had for you this week. Tearaway is a game that is pure and simple at heart so there wasn't a lot we could do rather than explain all it's unique features. Everything is innovative in some way and i just have to praise the Little Big Planet creators for coming up with this wonderful papercraft gem. Until next time everybody! We l- Sin... What are you doing?

I'm making a papercraft model of me, what does it look like?
But that's the blue card... Why are you using the b-
SH-SHUT UP REN!