PUPPETEER!!!

This blog post is about a game called Puppeteer. Why is it called that? They literally designed the game to look like a puppet show. It even has live audience reactions, curtains, a narrator, intermissions (which only happen when you click that pause button), set changes, and spotlights!


LOGO!!!

This game is similar to another game (and I am confidant most of you have at least heard of it) called Little Big Planet. They both have a arts-and-crafts themed aesthetic to them (In Little Big Planet everything is made of stitching, patches, cotton, and cardboard).

Anyway, the difference between them is that Puppeteer is a game that's literally a puppet show. And there are plenty of fourth wall breaks made by a character players meet early on named Pikarina (her dad is the SUN!!! How can the sun have children!? I don't know! I don't want to know!)

This is the story of Puppeteer. Once upon a time there was a magical theater. When the game starts up the proprietor of said theater puts on a puppet show meant to astound the eye and capture the human soul. The show is titled "The Perilous Journey of a boy named Kutaro".


Kutaro!

The story of "The Perilous Journey of a boy named Kutaro" that the titular boy Kutaro is whisked away from Earth to the Moon. Yes. The Moon. There the Moon Bear King (he's a bear. And a King. And he lives on the Moon) rips Kutaro's head clean off and eats it (there is no blood though. This game has cartoon violence. Like Tom and Jerry level violence. Purely slapstick!).


Moon Bear King!

This unfortunate turn of events actually leads straight into a pretty cool mechanic. Kutaro can use almost anything as a Substitute Head (cheeseburgers, swords, toy trains, etc). Substitute heads can be used to interact with what resembles them. They even let you access bonus levels (EXAMPLE: Using the Spider Head near a cobweb summons a giant spider that takes you to the bonus stage).

While escaping from the Moon Bear King's castle, Kutaro steals the Moon Bear King's favorite pair of scissors, which are called Calibrus. They are magic scissors. Very powerful! Yes. Magic scissors is a thing.

Anyway, once Kutaro escapes he, along with a witch named Ezma Potts, a cat named Yin Yang, and the daughter of the sun Pikarina (again, how can the sun have a child!? It makes no sense!) go on a quest to free the Moon from the Moon Bear King's tyrannical rule.

Now on to gameplay. Kutaro moves in a 2D side-scroller fashion. Kutaro can defeat enemies with Calibrus (which is his main weapon) and can also use Calibrus for transport. You see, when Kutaro snips something in midair and keeps snipping, he can stay airborne pretty much indefinitely (provided that Calibrus is always cutting through something).

 
Game-play!

Kutaro also gains new abilities as he goes along, but I won't spoil them (the last one is hilarious and by far the most useful).

Now that we got the facts out of the way, I will talk about my personal experience with the game (a.k.a. a review). Overall this game was a blast. I had fun playing the game from start to finish. My only complaint about the game is that you can only carry three Substitute heads at a time, and you can switch them out between levels, so if there is a head you want to use, you have to replay the level that head appears in just to get it.

The story was really good. It nails the whole "puppet show" theme perfectly. Every character was memorable. Something strange is that the levels are surprisingly long (which is a good thing for me. I personally don't like short but sweet levels, unless they are boss battles). Another thing that surprised me is that every level (and there is 21 in total) ends in a boss battle. And with the exception of one boss, every boss is unique. The only Boss that wasn't unique was General Dog's first form which was literally a copy-and-paste of General Tiger. At least he redeems himself in uniqueness with his second form.

All-in-All, this was a very awesome game. If this blog got you interested in buying it then, by all means, go ahead and buy it (see what I did there?). I would give this game a 9/10 stars. The only thing stopping me from giving it a perfect ten is that this game is somewhat annoying to 100% because some optional areas can only be reached with the right head and like I said, it is annoying replaying a separate level just to get that head you need to reach that elusive bonus stage. But other than that this game is fun, and that is what matters most. So yeah! Go buy this game if you like 2D platformers like Super Mario Bros or Little Big Planet.

For more info please go to the Puppeteer wiki.

Evoland!!

This post is about a video game with a interesting concept. It walks you through the history of gaming. Specifically action-RPG.


LOGO!!!!

Evoland starts out monochrome (and 8-bit) and you can only walk towards the right, But after running into a treasure chest your character gains the ability to walk towards the left.



As you can see from the picture above, the graphics literally improve as you play the game. So do the game mechanics. Also you have to unlock the story. Literally. Because when you start out the game your character (who is nameless, until you unlock the character name feature) is just stabbing monsters with a dagger without any real purpose.



This game is heavily inspired by games such as Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy. They actually say so during the end credits. Anyway, The "Zelda" aspects comes from having the overhead view seen in the older Legend of Zelda titles (in addition to the Zelda staples of breaking pots and cutting grass with a sword to get items). The Final Fantasy aspects come from the over-world exploration and random enemy encounters (complete with turn-based combat).

This game also has tons of collectible stars. You get Stars from treasure chests. You also improve the game itself by opening treasure chests (one the early chests adds colors to the world, for example)

Another funny thing is this game acknowledges and sometimes pokes fun at video game cliches and tropes (EXAMPLE: At one point in the game a box of text reads "Why are there so many kids in video games anyway?").

Only downside of this game is that it's only around 4 hours long. Ironic because it's based off of a genre known for lengthy campaigns (*cough cough* Monster Hunter *cough cough*).

Anyway, you can play this game on Windows. or Mac. Both of which are PC based. You can also get on Steam.

For more info please go to the Evoland wiki.