I adore Tearaway on the Vita. The art direction, animation, music, characters and storyline all felt so beautifully crafted and so clear in their vision, it was tough for me to even imagine human beings making it (which might be a little ironic given its purposely handmade look and feel). The clever use of the hardware really made you feel as if you were holding a world in the palm of your hand, which made the conclusion all the more moving... few games have pulled at my heartstrings as sincerely and warmly as Tearaway did.
So it feels strange that I'm rating Tearaway Unfolded, the expanded "remaster" of the earlier title, only four stars. I consider Tearaway a five-star game, and all of that game is in here. It just feels tougher to get to.
In the original Tearaway, you'd be staring at the screen and all of a sudden your face would somehow appear. You'd be presented with a cutting board, which you could touch with your fingers to craft little paper designs. You could push your finger against the rear touch pad and have it tear through the world therein. All of this stuff just kinda happened, so it all came with a genuine sense of surprise and delight.
In Unfolded, there's a degree of separation between you and the world. The game constantly reminds you how you could get the full experience if you had the PlayStation Camera, or if you were using the PlayStation App on a second screen, or if you had a microphone connected. These compromises are probably the best options Media Molecule had for accommodating the different hardware, and they're all mercifully brief, but they serve as nagging, consistent reminders of how cohesive the original Tearaway game was in comparison.
To their credit, Media Molecule have done their best to add enough new stuff that makes use of the DualShock 4 specifically. Most, like the mechanic of throwing objects between Iota/Atoi and The You, work really well. Some, like the paper plane, are novel concepts that suffer from poor or glitchy controls. The additional levels are mostly fun, but they make the plot (particularly in the last section) feel a bit more meandering and stuttery than the original.
With that in mind, I can recommend this game to the following groups of people:
Those without a Vita who have never played Tearaway. Either version is probably the best game Media Molecule has ever made, and a really original and awesome platformer to boot.
Those who want a unique co-op experience to play with their kids. The "Second Screen" stuff is particularly great for kids.
And finally, those who love the original Tearaway so much that they're hungry for a "Director's Cut"... even if some of it could have stayed on the cutting-room floor.
