Media Molecule is known for innovation. LittleBigPlanet was a huge revolution in creative sandbox gameplay and platforming. Tearaway does the same thing for the Vita, but for the platforming genre. The game is the best looking game for Vita and is the only game out that uses all of the hardware’s features in a very unique and original way.

You play as the messenger Atoi who must reach the sun where a You (the player) has ripped a hole in and are letting Scraps inside the world of Tearaway. The game uses the front facing camera to show you in the sun. You can then control Atoi and guide him using the rear touchpad and touchscreen. There really aren’t complicated puzzles but challenging platforming sections. When you see gray areas with the PS buttons on it (like the rear touch pad) you can poke your finger through in the game. The first time I did this it made me giddy and smile. You can do this to fight off scraps, push blocks around, and bounce drum pads to help Atoi along. You can also use the touch screen to roll out paper and interact with dozens and dozens of various papercraft items.

Just these two major features alone are enough to call Tearaway the best game for Vita, but it doesn’t stop there. You can customize Atoi and characters in the world kind of like LBP. There’s no Pop-It but you can buy items using Confetti you find in the world. There aren’t as many items as LBP, but because it’s a straight-up platformer you won’t really need that many items. Tearaway also has a unique papercraft origami collection you can find and print out online to create your own Tearaway world. To acquire these blueprints you need to find pure white objects in the world and take pictures of them. This adds to the creativity on a whole new level and helps build on this “real world leaking into the virtual world” theme.

Outside of platforming and customizing things there is combat, but it’s very simple and easy. You can’t die in the game and combat never varies from jumping on Scraps or picking them up and throwing them. Some involve jumping in their Springpad and tapping them to kill them. I wish the combat were a little deeper, but what’s here at least works and is fun. There’s a lot of stuff to find in the world like hidden presents, and side objectives where you help out various animals. After you beat the game the only thing you can do is complete the game 100%, but the game is well worth multiple playthroughs.

Let’s talk about graphics. I have no idea how MM got this game to look like a PS3 game but they did. There are no jaggies, no ugly low-resolution textures, the lighting is great, and the animations are gorgeous. Wrinkled paper on the ground can be stepped on and you can watch it depress and raise back up when you walk off of it. All effects are done by paper and no other game looks like it. This is truly the best game on Vita right now and every owner needs to play this.

Tearaway ist schlicht eines der beeindruckendsten, immersivsten Spiele, das ich bislang gespielt habe. Extrem innovativ, und vielleicht das einzige Vita-Spiel, dass sämtliche Features der Konsole sinnvoll einsetzt. Ein Spiel, das mich immer wieder zum schmunzeln gebracht hat, einfach, weil es so nette Spielideen hat. Ich erinnere mich insbesondere an eine Spielszene, in der man als Spieler:in gefragt wird, ein Muster mit der Kamera der Vita zu fotografieren. Da ich das Spiel an Weihnachten gespielt habe, hatte ich gerade Geschenkpapier zur Hand und habe dieses Muster gewählt. Fortan liefen viele Figuren mit der Geschenkpapier-Textur herum und freuten sich. Und es gibt viele weitere ähnliche Momente, die einfach nur schön sind.

While the charming creativity and surprising use of the PS Vita features in the gameplay deserve merit, I cannot deny the fact that it's mechanically too simplistic for my taste. It has really great ideas and I think they would bring much more memorable moments if they were executed with more nuance and time. I was not able to play it straight for hours because I was not fully pulled in; it's an example of a game that is best played briefly, bit by bit.

But it brought a smile on my face and I think that's wonderful.

an ok game that could've been so much better. the 'platforming' is really just moving around from place to place, there feels like there's very little challenge or obstacles to deal with. the art style sometimes looks really great but can often just seem really ugly and messy. the ending also disappointed me and i wish it tried to tug at my heartstrings a little bit more and be a little bit more subversive somehow. definitely made with kids in mind. still, a decent game and will scratch a collectathon itch on the vita if you're a weirdo that wants something like that in your life.

If there was ever a game that could act as the PS Vita's ambassador then Tearaway would be a serious contender. For starters, its story about the journey of a origami-like messenger trying to deliver a message to you, the player, is a tale that anyone of any age can enjoy. Admittedly for older players, the plot won't hold any serious revelations but the message that the game delivers is one that I think people need to hear from time to time.

Then there are the gameplay mechanics. Tearaway just loves to show off all of the Vita's features, from the touch screen to the camera to motion control. In your journey through the world of Tearaway, you will use every element of the Vita. This makes the gameplay rather unique, amongst platformers, howvere some of the Vita's features don't allow for the finer control that Tearaway sometimes wants. This does lead to the occassional death but the overall unique gameplay experience is enough to mitigate teh frustration of the odd death.

As Tearaway is a platformer, it has a number of different collectibles for you to find and collect. Some of these do require you to explore the levels quite thoroughly to locate but , apart from a handful, most were easy to find. By hunting down these collectibles, you will be able to see everything that the game has to offer, as well as it gives you the opportunity to practice the gameplay mechanics before the final levels, which you will be thankful for.

Finally, Tearaway is an absolutely gorgeous game to look at. The choice of a papercrafted world makes it bright and unique. The fact that …

Fun and cute game that utilizes the Vita's features really neatly.

Probably the best Vita exclusive thanks to that.

However, playing it on the PS4 dilutes the experience so much, that it ruins the game.

What a freaking cute game. Man. I want more stuff like this. The creativity that Media Molecule poured in to this is unrivaled. This is one of few games (if not the only one if I'm being honest) that truly used ALL of the Vita's functionality to make the game more interesting. The camera, touchscreen, and back touchpad were all used in a cool way here. (and the mic, I believe?)

Recently news has broken that MM is moving on from and shutting down Dreams. I'm happy about that, because I want them to make actual games again. I miss LBP and this. This might be the best Vita exclusive. (At least until it was ported to PS4).