I decided to blow the dust off my PS Vita, and finally purchase a game I’ve been meaning to for some time. That game being Tearaway. It was not too much of a costly game and fairly easy to pick up, something that you wouldn’t associate with the Vita usually as you can’t find any games or if you do they cost a small fortune.
I’ve contemplated getting it a few times, but I saw it for cheap on my travels and just went for it. This won’t be a long review, nor will it have any pics or vids like most of my usual posts do as I don’t have a PS TV which is my next target I wish to purchase. Even if I did I’m not sure this is one of the titles that’d work on it.
This game comes from the studio that bought us the original Little Big Planet trilogy. So it’s jam packed with all the charm and whimsy of that series which I was always a big fan of. The game here is pretty simple, you play as a letter in the form of a sealed envelope who appeared in a world and given the task of delivering to the sun that has appeared. That sun is you that uses the front facing camera to input you in to the game world. Along the way you have to fight off the evil scraps that have also appeared, and collect confetti scattered throughout the levels. You use this confetti to unlock camera filters, camera types and pre-made unlockable stickers you can stick on Iota (you) or other characters you meet along your travels.
Each level is phenomenally designed, they all look fantastic. All unique and papercrafty which you can effect certain parts of it by using the highly unique in game paper cutting mechanic. It’s all fairly linear and the camera is fixed for the most part. Dotted throughout the levels are a few collectibles. You have the hidden gifts, which you open using the touchscreen pulling the bow apart. You have the extra things to do, usually a small mini game or sticking a specific sticker to yourself or the character you are talking to. Finally the white paper-craft pieces that only regain colour once you use your in game camera to take a picture of and restore it. The real cool part of the paper-craft ones is though once you unlock them you can actually access an online guide on how to actually make them which you can still access, which is pretty fuckin neat.
Something that Tearaway does incredibly well, is something that I’d argue the 3DS and the Switch didn’t. It utilises every neat little feature packed into it’s hardware. Unlike the Switch where every game forgets it has a giant usable touchscreen and it irks the living shit out of me that no one utilises it, anyway back to what I was saying. It uses all the unique features of the Vita, every level is littered with little touchscreen required actions. Pulling down ramps, flicking/crushing the enemy scraps. Using the back touchscreen to move objects, bounce off boards, gyroscopic functions to move platforms, the constant use of both back and front facing cameras. It really adds to the experience in a positive way. It showcases how dirty Sony did the Vita by just deciding to put it on the back burner without a light and waiting for it to die. The PSP was great, the Vita was the successor it deserved, but it never got the chance yo shine. Here at least this game is so well done, that even coming up a decade later this game is so fresh and fun to play. You easily forget it’s a handheld game, it plays so well it could easily be a full console game that was ported rather then being the other way round. Now they did release an expanded version on the PS4 which I was considering getting. I’m not saying it will but I imagine the true way to play it would be on the Vita as I reckon it’ll lose something without all the cool little design features that come conveniently and neatly packed on the Vita itself.
Playing this game just makes me want Sony back into the handheld market this time only with a plan and too at least to give it a fair chance. I’d argue so far this is the best game I have so far played on Vita. It’s truly fantastic.
I’d rate this game a near full marks, at an incredibly high 9/10 Pure Tasty Gaming. It’s fun, easy to play and endlessly charming fully utilising the often overlooked gem of a console that is the PS Vita.
Released 22nd November 2013, Sony PS Vita
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