puppeteer is extremely charming with its humor, set design and self awareness that managed to capture my attention when i was a kid that makes me kinda sad i didnt enjoy it as much as i thought it would. i think puppeteer is beautiful in its presentation but fails to allow players to stop and smell the roses in terms of appreciating its set design, storytelling and dialogue. there's so many fun quips and background details to focus on but most of the stages require you to zip past them in a way that, at least for me, made me zone out instead of truly enjoying my time with it. it is very fun though, and later on i might replay for finding secrets like all the heads i missed during my gameplay. i just wish i could've enjoyed my time with it more.

I last played this game nearly a decade ago not too long after it came out. I got it for cheap on PSN, though for the life of me I can't remember what prompted me to pick it up in the first place, or how I even came to know about it. That was probably the case for most people, really, since late 2013 was quite a busy time for big releases, and Puppeteer just got lost in the shuffle despite being so good. It's something I've been meaning to replay for a while, and now I finally have~. This is yet another game that doesn't count your playtime, so my rough guess is that I spent like 7 or 8 hours beating the main game, and then I spent about that same amount of time achievement hunting because I just didn't wanna stop playing x3

Puppeteer is the story of a little boy named Kutaro. The moon was once a peaceful place where the souls of children went when they embarked on their dreams, but that was before the powerful Moon Bear King stole the dark moon crystal, smashed the light moon crystal, and sealed away the moon goddess. Now the moon is a frightful, totalitarian place run by the Moon Bear King and his generals, where they steal away the souls of earth children to eat! Kutaro is one such child, although he escapes the fate of all the other lost souls even once the MBK eats his head! He's given a new head by the helpful Ying Yang the cat, and with the help of the moon witch, he steals the MBK's magical scissors Calibrus, and sets off on a quest to set the moon kingdom right again.

Puppeteer has the plot of a children's story book, and that's absolutely intended. The whole thing is literally laid out like a puppet show, with little wooden you running across a stage as you interact with other craft-made characters, enemies, and objects as you hop from scene to scene. It's a very tongue-in-cheek silly story full of wacky characters for Kutaro and his pixie friend the sun princess to bounce off of. Some of it sadly does wander into the area of casual racism and homophobia, but it's of the very casual "culture as a costume"-approach for world/level design that so SO many games do, so it's not really experience ruining. It doesn't really have any larger themes its exploring, and is mostly just here to give a good silly time, and it does a pretty bang up job at that.

The gameplay of Puppeteer is a platformer that a lot of my friends who saw me play it compared immediately to Little Big Planet. I think that comparison is quite apt, though Puppeteer differs in that there are no planes to swap through and it also controls much better. There are a couple dozen quite long levels to go through with very generous extra life amounts and checkpoints present. There are also lots of fun boss battles that are really well put together as well. You snip and fly through the air by comboing hits with Calibrus, and it makes for a really fun and quick-paced way to fly through levels if you're so inclined, and it makes for a really snappy action-platforming experience that's admittedly much more platforming than it is action at the end of the day.

The story and mechanics of Puppeteer are fun, but the presentation is one place it shines very VERY well. Very much like one of the more recent Paper Mario games, the attention to detail in bringing a world to life that still looks like its made of stage props is SO well done it does an amazing job of really bringing the whole "stage play" aesthetic to life. The voice acting is also really campy and well done, and adds a ton to that pantomime-esque feel as well~. Many of my friends were surprised to hear that it was a PS3 game with how nice it looks, and the music is also absolutely excellent to boot.

Verdict: Highly Recommended. A lot of people slept on Puppeteer because of when it came out, but that's a darn shame! It's a really excellent action/platformer with really fun writing and a great aesthetic. It's pretty easily picked up for cheap these days too, so it's totally worth tracking down if you want a memorable and fun way to spend a weekend on your PS3~.

Usually I wait until I finish each game I review, but wow this game.
I brought this because it was an exclusive ps3 only hidden gem, and went in blind.
I was very impressed with what I saw... The unique setting, great graphics, quirky gameplay and an amazing sound design.

When I finish the game I'll do an actual review with a score, but my first impression was very positive.

In the 2013 video game Puppeteer, a breezy and simplistic yet charming 2.5D platformer that justifies its 2.5D more than the bulk of games in that style ever have with its stage show aesthetic, your character Kutaro is a wooden puppet. A big part of the game is collecting puppet heads which act as hit points

There are a total of 104 heads to collect across the whole game. Every single one of these heads has a unique animation associated with it if you can hold onto it in the right spot. Could be a unique contextual moment within the game to take a shortcut, get rewards, skip a boss phase, or reaching a bonus stage. Beating the game will give you a head that can perform the contextual action of any other head to see the work put in, but there’s still that desire to find which heads you missed to see their distinct sense of character.

That is a level of soul and dedication you really only see from developers incredibly passionate about their craft and appreciating their effort a decade later it’s a damn shame to see Japan Studio shuttered now when it could be the perfect gap material between Sony’s mega blockbusters.

An incredible game that is just so charming, well written and is a blast from start to finish.

The narration, dialogue and soundtrack are superb. The level design is fantastic overall (some levels may drag on a tiny bit too long) and incorporate the perfect amount of horizontal and vertical traversing in a 2D platformer.

Some mentioned they disliked it, but personally I loved the witty banter between the characters (especially the narrator, pikarina and the villains) and the 4th wall breaking moments were excellently done too.

While I'm sad that this game is stuck (and probably permanently so) on PS3, I do genuinely think that this was the perfect swan song that celebrated a console that put creativity at it's forefront (littlebigplanet, modnation racers, PS Home, etc)

It took me three attempts to beat this game; I kept bouncing off the game as it never clicked with me. I think the reason for this is because the game wouldn't shut up and let me play. Characters are frequently talking and bantering with each other as I progressed through the level, which frequently got interrupted as I progressed through the levels. Some of the cutscenes feel like they go one for some long minutes too. I get the game wants to give context with what’s going on/what’s happening, but I think brevity would have allowed me to better enjoy the first few opening levels.

However, I did really warm up to the game and found myself having a good time. Once I progressed far enough to have unlocked all the mechanics, I had a fun time making my way through the different platforming challenges. I like the concept of collecting different puppet heads that unlock secrets throughout the level, but I wish they did more with it; it would have been cool if there was a selection of heads that mixes up the way that you play, like a power-up mechanic.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Puppeteer and I’m glad that I’ve finally done a full playthrough of it. I can see myself revisiting the game to unlock the remaining trophies I have yet to earn. Scanning through the reviews on Backloggd shows there's a lot of people who really liked this game, so it’s a shame that the game never got a port or remaster for the new PlayStation consoles.

They never let the gameplay breath with nearly constant dialogue. It makes it incredibly hard to focus on the platforming and combat when these characters won’t pipe down. It’s remarkable for how much they talk, how stale the actual narrative is and where the story goes.

The art style is decent but it clearly was meant to sell Sony 3D tv’s given how often shit flies at the screen. It’s pretty cheap visually and hurts the presentation of the game. The music is good but many songs repeat.

The boss fights were hit or miss. Some were recycled earlier ones and others were unique and interesting. The rat boss fight with the trees stood out.

The scissor cutting mechanic was very satisfying with how it reacts to your cuts in an accurate way. But there wasn’t a lot of depth to it. The gameplay also doesn’t evolve in meaningful ways past act 3. It’s too easy most of the time and relies heavily on these spam square button moments and qte’s to make it more cinematic. Swapping heads was a gimmick and was there to extend the runtime by requiring backtracking and tediously holding onto them until the precise moment they’re needed. I liked all the unique animations for them though.

The whole game was a mixed bag. Some gameplay areas were really cool, others are boring. Same goes for music, voice acting, story, and art. A lot of cool ideas here, just terrible execution.