Tearaway Review (PlayStation Vita)
1. Story
Tearaway’s story is quite silly but this silliness really gives the game a lot of heart and fun energy. Basically, you play as a messenger whose mission is to send a message to the You, aka, YOU, the player. You jump, roll, and run through the world of Tearaway to fulfill this goal. Not much else to say here, but it often had me smiling and it was very charming!
2. Gameplay
The gameplay of Tearaway is a 3d platformer with lots of interactive elements using the PS Vita’s features. There’s your basic platformer jumps, using the back touchpad to bounce. You can roll in a ball and roll down slopes. You can hold your finger on the back touchpad to raise or lower platforms, and use the touchscreen to move or create platforms. It’s all very intuitive, and it's one of the few games I have played on Vita which actually takes advantage of the console's full list of features. You can use the camera and gyro to take pictures, and the back camera is even used to show the real world sometimes. The front camera also always shows your face in the sun while playing in game, which can be pretty funny! These inputs never felt too intrusive, nor gimmicky, they were often quite precise and worked fairly well most of the game. You collect an assortment of presents throughout the game, and you can also fulfill requests from NPCS. Finally, you can also take pictures of the papercrafts in the game and go on the Tearaway website and actually make them in real life which I thought was really cool. Granted, I never did, but I might someday. One last element of gameplay is combat, where you defeat these little monsters called scraps. Not much to it here, you grab them and throw them and that's about it. The checkpoints are quite generous as well, and you can jump between chapters at any time. The gameplay was overall fun and was pretty enjoyable. It was solid and I cannot really think of anything bad to say here so I will say it gets the Ryan Seal of Approval lol.
3. Music
What does not fare as well here is the music. Most of the time it’s alright, but I think it just is not my style. The style that a lot of songs go for is using a lot of pipe instruments, and other like unusual ones you would not hear normally. It was certainly different, but just was not my style most of the time. Overall, okay, but nothing more than background noise most of the time.
4. Presentation
The presentation of this game is TOP NOTCH. This game is once again evidence that strong artstyle and art direction will always beat good graphics. This game is so creative and vibrant and full of personality. Going with the papercraft aesthetic really makes it stand out even today. You can even make all the papercraft characters and objects you collect in the game in real life! That’s so cool! From fun choices like using glue to explain being able to walk up walls and stick to them, or cut pieces of construction papers used as a track to roll down, or the enemies being made of scraps of newspaper. I just love it! You can decorate your player character, and even make your own creations in game as well. It really feels like it was CRAFTED out of love. Hehehehe. Overall, for a vita game, I say it's one of the best looking games on the system. It hasn’t aged a day since 2013!
5. Completion Process
This game was pretty easy to complete all things considered. It was your usual tasks of collecting everything, doing everything, plus some miscellaneous tasks here and there. Some stages I had to clear without dying once, and some were quite tricky, so that was a bit challenging. Some trophies were also glitched, so I had to redo some stages and really try to see what I missed sometimes. But overall, it was fairly straightforward and not agonizing.
6. Conclusion
Tearaway is a fun, pleasant, and creatively created platformer by Media Molecule. It's full of charm, fun gameplay, endearing story and characters, and the player is encouraged to be a bit creative themselves! The game has a great artstyle with vibrant and varied environments. It was a cute, fun adventure from beginning to end with an enjoyable completion process and I am glad I played it! With that being said…
7. Wrap Up
Thank you for reading! Tearaway is available on PlayStation Vita. (Most people can’t play this version because it’s a vita game, so another option is to play Tearaway Unfolded, an expanded remake of the game available on PS4, and backwards compatible on PS5!)
FINAL REVIEW SCORE: CREATIVE PAPER CRAFTS/10
1. Story
Tearaway’s story is quite silly but this silliness really gives the game a lot of heart and fun energy. Basically, you play as a messenger whose mission is to send a message to the You, aka, YOU, the player. You jump, roll, and run through the world of Tearaway to fulfill this goal. Not much else to say here, but it often had me smiling and it was very charming!
2. Gameplay
The gameplay of Tearaway is a 3d platformer with lots of interactive elements using the PS Vita’s features. There’s your basic platformer jumps, using the back touchpad to bounce. You can roll in a ball and roll down slopes. You can hold your finger on the back touchpad to raise or lower platforms, and use the touchscreen to move or create platforms. It’s all very intuitive, and it's one of the few games I have played on Vita which actually takes advantage of the console's full list of features. You can use the camera and gyro to take pictures, and the back camera is even used to show the real world sometimes. The front camera also always shows your face in the sun while playing in game, which can be pretty funny! These inputs never felt too intrusive, nor gimmicky, they were often quite precise and worked fairly well most of the game. You collect an assortment of presents throughout the game, and you can also fulfill requests from NPCS. Finally, you can also take pictures of the papercrafts in the game and go on the Tearaway website and actually make them in real life which I thought was really cool. Granted, I never did, but I might someday. One last element of gameplay is combat, where you defeat these little monsters called scraps. Not much to it here, you grab them and throw them and that's about it. The checkpoints are quite generous as well, and you can jump between chapters at any time. The gameplay was overall fun and was pretty enjoyable. It was solid and I cannot really think of anything bad to say here so I will say it gets the Ryan Seal of Approval lol.
3. Music
What does not fare as well here is the music. Most of the time it’s alright, but I think it just is not my style. The style that a lot of songs go for is using a lot of pipe instruments, and other like unusual ones you would not hear normally. It was certainly different, but just was not my style most of the time. Overall, okay, but nothing more than background noise most of the time.
4. Presentation
The presentation of this game is TOP NOTCH. This game is once again evidence that strong artstyle and art direction will always beat good graphics. This game is so creative and vibrant and full of personality. Going with the papercraft aesthetic really makes it stand out even today. You can even make all the papercraft characters and objects you collect in the game in real life! That’s so cool! From fun choices like using glue to explain being able to walk up walls and stick to them, or cut pieces of construction papers used as a track to roll down, or the enemies being made of scraps of newspaper. I just love it! You can decorate your player character, and even make your own creations in game as well. It really feels like it was CRAFTED out of love. Hehehehe. Overall, for a vita game, I say it's one of the best looking games on the system. It hasn’t aged a day since 2013!
5. Completion Process
This game was pretty easy to complete all things considered. It was your usual tasks of collecting everything, doing everything, plus some miscellaneous tasks here and there. Some stages I had to clear without dying once, and some were quite tricky, so that was a bit challenging. Some trophies were also glitched, so I had to redo some stages and really try to see what I missed sometimes. But overall, it was fairly straightforward and not agonizing.
6. Conclusion
Tearaway is a fun, pleasant, and creatively created platformer by Media Molecule. It's full of charm, fun gameplay, endearing story and characters, and the player is encouraged to be a bit creative themselves! The game has a great artstyle with vibrant and varied environments. It was a cute, fun adventure from beginning to end with an enjoyable completion process and I am glad I played it! With that being said…
7. Wrap Up
Thank you for reading! Tearaway is available on PlayStation Vita. (Most people can’t play this version because it’s a vita game, so another option is to play Tearaway Unfolded, an expanded remake of the game available on PS4, and backwards compatible on PS5!)
FINAL REVIEW SCORE: CREATIVE PAPER CRAFTS/10