REVIEW: Tearaway

Tearaway sets the standard for creativity and platforming on the PS Vita. Upon booting up I didn’t imagine that I would be so enthralled by this cute paper cover world. The folks at Media Molecule have woven a tale cute enough to connect with a younger audience, but challenging enough that the more mature gamer doesn’t feel alienated.

Tearaway focuses on Iota, a mysterious messenger who has something to deliver to the hole in the sun. The hole mysteriously appeared one day, and in it a giant and terrifying face. The face in question is yours of course, because you are, “The YOU”, and the front facing camera for the Vita ensures that your face is in the sun through the adventure. Your mission as the player is to take Iota through the brilliantly vibrant world to the sun, while solving the mystery of the evil scraps that have begun terrorizing the locals. The story itself takes about 6 hours to complete, and it took me a total of 15 hours to get the platinum trophy accomplished. 

Photo: A Hidden Mummer

The music in Tearaway blends the experience flawlessly to your situation and ranges from marches using the oddest sounding of instruments to a symphony rallying your hero as he climbs a mountain towards the sun.

Controls in the game are incredibly concise and the Vita has every inch of its hardware used without feeling like an overplayed gimmick. The back touch screens are used to trigger drums that can trampoline Iota to high reaching places, or your fingers break through to move around objects in the world. The touch screen squishes certain types of enemies (scraps), or manipulates parts of the environment that may need moving. You then, of course, control your character with the left thumb stick, move the camera with the right when applicable, and jump and interact with your usual buttons. Even with portions of tough platforming the controls were responsive enough that I was able to navigate my way through them without too many problems.

Visually Tearaway is absolutely stunning. The bright and vibrant world, made completely out of paper is constantly astounding. It only gets brighter when you are allowed to integrate your own creations into the world. For example, at the beginning of a level you are asked to create a snowflake. You are taken to the craft screen where you can draw, cut, and paste together pieces of multi-colored paper, once your creation is finished your snowflakes fill the sky while you explore the treacherous mountain. Certain creatures in the game can also be customized by adding different mouths, stickers, custom shapes, and some can be skinned by taking a picture with the Vita’s camera. My elk (pictured below) is the result of Googling an image of neon swirls and photographing that for his skin.

 

I rode a pig into the sunset, and that wasn’t even the most amazing part.

Gameplay comes in multiple ways, depending on your style. You can play the main story, which, will take you roughly 6-7 hours if you aren’t hell bent on finding every collectible. This will also require you to take part in some of the creative elements and utilize the “paper cam” to take pictures of yourself and various parts of the world. This story is phenomenal, I think it has already been said, but it’s one of the best parts of the game. Exploring the world and interacting with the stacks of different characters are what makes this title exceptional. I rode a pig into the sunset, and that wasn’t even the most amazing part. Next, you are tasked with taking pictures of items that have lost their color, in doing so you unlock them as a papercraft. These objects are downloadable as a PDF from your Tearaway.me profile, with instructions to build your papercraft project. Finally, you can simply run around taking pictures as artistically as possible utilizing the paper cam and it’s slew of lenses. You can take the game at any angle you want, but it will be a game you’ll play repeatedly, and definitely one you’ll try to platinum. 

Photo: Some of my unlocked papercraft on my Tearaway profile.

Without a doubt, Tearaway is the best game to hit the PS Vita this year.

 

Photo: My newly designed pig, who will soon be my ride.

I’m hoping it will get ported to the PS4, so more can experience its incredible nature. There are few games worth buying a system for, and this is one of them.