Puppeteer Review

[xy_game]Puppeteer is a 2.5D platformer that is presented in a way that it’s like you’re both watching and playing in a theatrical performance. But it is a show that’s worth the price of admission, or should you save your money?

You take control of Kutaro, a young Japanese boy who is abducted by the Moon Bear Kings’ minions and soon thereafter gets beheaded. His soul is then trapped within the body of a puppet and he can use a myriad of replacement heads that are just random items such as a rocket ship or a skull in the game, and you can have up to three heads at a time – lose ‘em all and you have to restart that scene. With the help of your replacement heads, and the Enchanted Scissors, you have to help the Moon Goddess save her kingdom from the usurper Moon Bear King.

Gameplay in Puppeteer is very casual and it shouldn’t be a challenge in terms of picking it up and having to learn how to play. Anyone in the family should feel pretty much at home as soon as they begin to play the game. The game is pretty fair when it comes to saving as each level has a moderate amount of checkpoints available as well.

Each stage has its own style of backdrop and these can change totally on-the-fly as you play. There’s a ton of hidden secrets if you were to slow down and take the time to explore in more detail, but you can always go back and do this another time if you just want to pay through the story. Using your sidekick, Pikarina the pixie, you can discover just some of the secrets and bonuses hidden in the levels. Got a friend? Hand them controller #2 or a PS Move wand and they can actually control Pikarina for you.

Combat isn’t what you’d call challenging for the most part and most enemies can be eliminated in the same fashion, and this may be the games’ biggest downfall as the combat could come off feeling stale after a short time. Boss fights are very satisfying compared to the rest of the games’ combat experience, and while not excessively difficult, the battles boast a fun time for the player.

Puppeteer offers about eight to ten hours of playtime on the first run, but there’s definitely more time required if you want to unlock all of its hidden secrets, not to mention unlocking all the trophy (yes, there is a platinum one). If you’re into platformers, Puppeteer is definitely one of the best ones out there, and it hardly has enough people talking about it – so do yourself a favor and pick this one up, it’s a phenomenal experience!