More People Should Check Out ‘Tearaway: Unfolded’

I recently played through Media Molecule’s Tearaway: Unfolded and absolutely loved it. It’s a 3D platform-adventure game that has the player play as a “messenger,” a literal postage letter that has come to life, as they travel through a world made of paper to save it from evil Scraps and deliver their message through a hole in the sky. It was originally developed for the PlayStation Vita but was eventually ported to the PlayStation 4.

The game is filled with unique mechanics like throwing an object “through your TV screen and into the controller,” and using the controller’s touchpad to launch it back. You can also use the touchpad to blow gusts of wind, use the motion controls to shine a spotlight to trigger environmental reactions, and press the touchpad to wind up drum-like launchpads, among many other creative gameplay mechanics.

The one-of-a-kind gameplay is just part of why I loved my time playing it. At first, the game feels like a cross between LittleBigPlanet and Paper Mario, but it’s actually so much more than that. Not only are the characters and the world around them imaginative, but the game allows the player to be just as inventive. As the construction paper world would imply, the player creates things throughout the game to help out NPCs, customize themselves and their surroundings with stickers, and even take some awesome pictures of it all.

On top of all that, there’s a delightful story that ties it all together that gets insanely meta. It’s honestly one of the most meta video games out there. Characters throughout the game reference the “You,” which is the person playing the game. The villains supposedly find their way into the PlayStation to force you back to the menu screen. There’s even a level that takes place inside of the controller itself. It’s a pretty fun idea.

Tearaway is a fantastic game, but it seems to have flown under the radar. During my playthrough, whenever I mentioned to someone that I was playing it, no one I spoke with had even heard of it. The game was unfortunately a commercial failure due to poor advertising, so it looks like not very many people actually played it in general. It’s pretty devastating that so many people have missed out on this gem.

More people need to check this one out if they ever get the chance. It’s fun and easily one of the most creative and unique gaming experiences around.

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