Tearaway Unfolded: Paper craft puns... they're tearable

It’s difficult not to be immediately charmed by Tearaway Unfolded. The colours, the characters, the childlike sense of adventure it promotes and the intuitive way in which you interact with it all combining to create a result that is as enchanting as it is endearing. Like a child with Lego, the resulting construction is a hodgepodge of elements that make sense only when you lose yourself in its innocent ridiculousness.

“ We want to use the unique features of the DualShock 4 to allow you to interact with a tactile paper world ”

This PS4-exclusive is smartly opting to not change all that much from Tearaway’s 2013 debut on Vita, the core idea of a simple platformer set within a digital recreation of a hand-crafted world is still very much intact. Perhaps Tearaway’s biggest draw is that, despite being digital, it feels real thanks to each and every visual element being created from a series of brightly coloured paper cut outs. Henri Matisse eat your heart out.

As on Vita you play as a messenger on a quest to deliver a message to you, the player. If you’ve got a PlayStation Camera you appear, quite literally, on the screen as the shining object of victory waiting at the end of your own journey. It’s all very self-referential, very fourth-wall defying.

 A continuation of the same themes and design concepts as 2013’s brilliant  Tearaway on Vita, Unfolded aims to make the best use yet of the Dual Shock 4’s input options

Where Tearaway took advantage of the Vita’s input capabilities primarily the front and rear touch screen/pad Unfolded is looking to do the same with the DualShock 4. The controller’s own touch pad can be pressed to beat drums that kick your messenger into the air and fling obstacles out the way. It can also be swiped across with your thumb to throw objects that have been launched into the screen and ‘into your hands’, this being an essential means of solving certain puzzles. Elsewhere, the controller’s motion controls give you total command over a beam of light that can stun enemies with a view to creating a safe path although ‘enemies’ is probably a tad too harsh of a term from what are essentially very cute, but grumpy, origami boxes.

All of these controls work perfectly and communicate that exact same attraction as was so powerful on Vita. Where the controls work less well is in the process of cutting out shapes and designs that you can then apply to the world to customise and personalise it. On the Vita, you could simply draw your intended design with your finger on the touch screen, but here you’re disconnected thanks to having to rely on an analogue as a pencil. It’s not ideal, but it works well enough to craft the kind of crude shapes that are in keeping with the vibe of this world.

Trying to cram the ideas of a Vita game into a home console release is always going to experience a few teething problems. The important thing lies in making sure that the required changes remain in keeping in with the core design philosophy of making sure players feel as though they’re part of this handcrafted world.