Tearaway Unfolded

Going through the videogame backlog, I've been playing Tearaway Unfolded for the past few days.

It's not a difficult game and it may not even have enough challenge, really but this is an excellent time to talk about how the sum of the parts give you more than the individual bits.

Because Tearaway is, above all other things, charming as hell. It has a great aesthetic and a lighthearted storyline-it's very much in line with Media Molecule's other games (Little Big Planet, Dreams).

But it's also all over the place-there doesn't seem to be a primary gameplay loop for me to focus on: combat isn't really a thing, taking pictures doesn't bestow any novelty beyond doing that action, drawing is fun only so long as I don't care about it, because while you can draw goofy stuff, you can't draw anything well. Collecting packages for confetti (the game's version of currency) is nice, but it isn't necessary since there's nothing for you to upgrade, except for aesthetic choices like: What camera filter you have or number of shapes to use to decorate things with. However, one could just ignore that and use the defaults and do fine.

And all of those things make Tearaway sound like it isn't very good. Except, I keep playing it. It's a lovable puppy that just wants you to like it, and sure it's messy but I'm still having a nice time.

Fun might be too strong a word. But engagement? Yeah, it's got me there. I like making a pattern for a snowflake that looks like a blind drunk hobo did it, and then seeing that pattern manifest itself in the game world. It's enjoyable to tap the gamepad to make drums thump or swipe to make the wind blow-it really does give me a sense of the game world responding to what I do.

I've surprised myself by finding what look like little secret entrances-twice!-to small rooms. It's neat!

It's not a heavy experience and maybe right now, that's perfect.