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  • This is a time when people get sick. This is also a time of year when people buy a lot

  • of video games. All the big hits. The sequels, the shooters, the...shooters. The holiday

  • season is the season, for the gaming industry. But if the world were fair, and if we bought

  • what was fun instead of what was hyped...you'd hear less about sequels and shooters and more

  • about games like this.

  • It won't be in your little shopper's guide, and it doesn't have unlockable testosterone

  • rifles or squad-based kill sessions. But Puppeteer is creative, it's cool, it's memorable. And

  • it's fun.

  • That still counts for something, right?

  • And you know, it's also pretty straightforward. At least, in terms of its mechanics. This

  • is a platformer in that classic 2D style. You're jumping on platforms, mashing an attack

  • button to dispose of the bad guys...there's nothing you haven't seen before. Only you've

  • never seen anything quite like Puppeteer. It takes the familiar and gives it a whole

  • new spin.

  • So if you like games with style, you're gonna love this. You play as a little wooden boy.

  • His name is Kutaro, and right off the bat, he loses his head. No, literally, his head

  • falls off. When some evil Oogie Boogie lookalike tears him apart. And so poor Kutaro sets off,

  • with only a strange floating cat thing to keep him company...to find a new head.

  • Or heads, I guess. If you look hard enough.

  • In fact, that unfortunate accident sets up Puppeteer's central gameplay element. You

  • can use lots of thingsskulls, bugs, bananas, even guillotinesas heads. So you can store

  • up to three heads at a time, each of which gives Kutaro a special ability and, more importantly...act

  • like hearts. Or lives. Lose a head, you better chase it down. Otherwise? Down to two.

  • Lose that head, and you're down to one. Lost that one...no more heads.

  • And so, in addition to just being awesome, the cool thing about the heads is that...there's

  • an element of management there, as well. Certain heads are going to be more useful than others

  • at certain times. So you might stumble across a giant panda in the background. At which

  • point, it'd be a good thing if you had the panda head.

  • Wearing the right head at the right time unlocks secret areas, so you want to be careful which

  • heads you're using and which heads you're saving in the inventory. The...inventory of

  • heads.

  • So it's largely familiar 2D platforming, plus the whole heads thing...but there's also another

  • element to Puppeteer. And that's Kutaro's magic pair of scissors. So he can use them

  • as his weapon, right? You mash the attack button, you slice fools up. But the scissors

  • are also an important means of transportation. If you see something you can cut, whether

  • it's cloth or magical leaves or whatever, you can slice through and ride the scissors.

  • And Puppeteer's puppet-show theme means there's lots of different material. It's all over

  • the place. In fact, it kind of reminds me of Kirby's Epic Yarn. There's always something

  • to slice.

  • But you know, as fun as the gameplay is...it's the theme that really steals the show. It's

  • the aesthetic. Puppeteer really looks like a puppet show. The characters are all wooden

  • puppets, with buttons sewn on and cloth stitched to their bodies...and the game takes place

  • from the perspective of an audience. They laugh, they applaud...and each level is like

  • a new act.

  • It's just an incredibly cool concept, and it looks absolutely gorgeous.

  • This game isn't doing anything crazy. What it does do...is take what is arguably gaming's

  • most familiar genre, and dress it up with a style so creative and elegant, you almost

  • don't recognize it. It's a game that's as fun to look at as it is play...and holy crap,

  • is it fun to play. Platforming fans will love that there's actually some clever platforming.

  • Tim Burton fans will love the game's style...it's like if Beetlejuice were a puppet show.

  • And fans of games, the ones with creativity instead of hype, will love Puppeteer.

This is a time when people get sick. This is also a time of year when people buy a lot

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