By Jennifer Tan AKA Mrs Fett
Anyone who knows me knows I have a borderline stalker obsession with Little Big Planet. So, when Media Molecule (creators of Little Big Planet) came out with Tearaway, I bought it. I also bought a PS Vita, JUST to play Tearaway. And it was worth it!
You play as a You. Not you as in YOU, but as THE YOU, which is the name these little creatures give to humans. Ok, so you’re the You, helping your character, either Atoi, or Iota, who is a tiny character made of a message. A message to be delivered to You. As you help your friend deliver their message to You, you run into creatures called Scraps, which are nasty little things that run around stealing colors and pieces of crafts from other creatures.
Now for the fun part! You use every, and I mean every, part of the Vita for this adventure. Your front facing camera captures you, and you are always seen through the sun as you are playing. You REACH, (not literally) your fingers through the game, using the back sensor pad, to squish scraps, roll logs, and bang on drums. Your messenger was given a mic? Great! Let’s hear you yell at your Vita like a crazy person, to scare off scraps, and lower bridges. Feeling a little crafty? Great! Jump into crafting mode, grab some scraps of paper, and make yourself an awesome…something! I made a cupcake, and a unicorn horn, that I proudly wore the rest of the game! Draw your shapes, cut them, layer them, and stick them anywhere! This is your world too!
The game took about 5 hours to beat, but the fun didn’t end there. Looking for more ways to enjoy this amazing title, I turned to their paper crafting adventures. While you run around the land of Tearaway, you use a camera, given to you by King Squirrel, to take pictures of characters that lose their color. Of course, the first material I replaced on a white moose was my Star Wars sheets. After you restore color back to these creatures, it saves a blue print for you to print, and bring to life the creatures from your game! Go ahead, build them all!
There is really nothing negative I can say about this game. The world is “crafted” to perfection, in all of its papery glory. The music is uplifting and fun, and makes your adventure whimsical, instead of tedious, and stressful. The only drawback to the game was that it was only 5 hours long. The game scored 9/10, losing 1 point for not lasting the rest of my life.
