In a world made entirely out of paper, a shadowy being enters with the power of fire.  That’s pretty dangerous in a world like this, so it’s up to a living sheet of paper and his weird friends to stop the shadow presence and save the day.  Papetura is a 2-D puzzle adventure game where everything was made from paper in real life, then scanned into the game so it’s very artistic.  It’s available on Switch and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

As a piece of paper, you really can’t do much.  You can move left and right with the left control stick, and interact with nearby objects with the A button.  You’ll know what you can do because picture cues will pop up.  At some points in the game, you’ll be able to aim with the right stick and fire projectiles with the right shoulder button so you can hit faraway objects.  You’ll solve all sorts of switch puzzles and fetch quests, but if you don’t know what to do, you can press a button to get a vague hint.

The vague hints are one of the many problems I had with the game, as in many cases I still couldn’t figure out what to do and had to consult a guide on the internet.  I was also able to beat the game in around an hour, so it’s way too short.  I read somewhere that the guy who made this game took five years making the paper background models, so why not show videos or pictures of that in the game?  Might’ve made me appreciate it more.  But as it stands, so matter how long it takes to make a game, when you can beat it in an hour, I fail to see the value in it in most cases.  As far as paper-based games go, I much prefer Tearaway or Paper Mario.

Kid Factor:

Papetura is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Crude Humor and Mild Fantasy Violence.  I really didn’t notice any crude humor, but you can make paper creatures eat paper bugs and stuff.  If you get caught by something dangerous, the screen just turns to black and you start back nearby where you died.  Reading skill isn’t needed for the text, but younger gamers may still need help with the vague puzzles.

Tags: Game Reviews