When I reviewed Tearaway on PlayStation Vita back in 2013, I loved it, giving it a score of 9.3 (‘Amazing’). Here’s what I wrote:

“Tearaway is a joy. Whether it was riding a pig towards the sunset or playing basketball with a super-powered accordion, it never failed to make me smile. It sincerely believes that imagination really is the most important faculty... It does this by using every aspect of the Vita, crafting an experience that I can’t imagine being realised elsewhere. It might be short but it’s very special.”

Tearaway Unfolded

One thing that definitely benefits is Tearaway’s striking and unique art style, which looks better than ever. On a bigger screen, running at a higher resolution, it’s easy to appreciate just how well-executed this world made entirely of paper really is. Tabs of glued down paper flutter in the wind, or bounce up and down as you run by. Step in a pool of water, and a ripple of jagged, torn paper will appear. It feels hand-made, a world shaped by scissors and glue. But it’s not just decorative; paper is folded in surprising and smart ways to create environments and obstacles. It's not just a superficial choice, but one which informs every aspect of the world.

With this arts and crafts ethos, it's unsurprising that Tearaway’s biggest message remains the celebration of creativity, and as such you’re often asked to design small parts of this landscape. These range from relatively ordinary requests, like outlining the silhouette of a snowflake, to far more surreal commissions, like designing a majestic crown for a theatrical squirrel. This is all done by sketching on the DualShock’s touchpad. It’s surprisingly accurate, but given its limited size it’s tricky to realise more detailed designs. I often found my sketch prematurely coming to life because my finger had accidentally slipped off the touchpad. The PlayStation App on phones and tablets can be paired with Tearaway Unfolded, giving you a far bigger canvas. Either way, seeing your design for a snowflake suddenly appear in the world – multiplied a thousand times, fluttering down as a you scale Gibbet Hill – is still a magical experience, and one few games offer. Similarly, you can use the PlayStation camera (or a device running the PlayStation App) to import a texture into the world. I transformed an albino stag using the carpet design from Stanley Kubrick’s Overlook Hotel. Again, that's something you don’t get to do all that often.

Similarly, I've yet to play a game that makes better use of the DualShock 4 and its more unusual features. Light bar, gyroscope, touch pad: each one is used as the basis for a new mechanic. The light bar, for instance, is used to illuminate the darkness and interact with plant life, creating new platforms, while the gyroscope grants precise control over a certain type of platform. Swiping a finger across the touchpad creates forceful gusts of wind, capable of erecting new platforms, blowing down others, and whisking away enemies. Each mechanic is given its moment in the spotlight, but occasionally, these new control schemes combine with more familiar ones to create original and surprisingly demanding sections of gameplay.

'Unfolded' is an interesting word when talking about adaptation. Of course, it immediately brings to mind some sort of expansion, and there's plenty of areas in Tearaway that really benefit from this approach. It's the same experience, but it just feels like it's taking place on a bigger scale with a bigger budget. Familiar areas, like Maypole Fields, have more depth and detail, and more jolly NPCs to carry Tearaway's festive spirit. But 'unfolded' also implies that something is being revealed, and Tearaway Unfolded doesn't disappoint with several new areas to explore, from moors and laboratories to spooky swamps. In fact, I recognised very little from the final third of the campaign. This would be great, but it’s not seamless expansion – the fold lines are still visible, and old and new design fail to really connect.

The Vita version focussed on a messenger delivering a special message to you, the player. Tearaway Unfolded retains this overarching design, but in the interest of offering new content – and presumably a ‘bigger and better’ experience – it takes several detours into new content. There’s a whole subplot regarding your enemies, known as Scraps, building their own DualShock controller. It’s great, and gives rise to some delightful breaking of the fourth-wall, but ultimately it’s a detour. In fact, a lot of these new sections, including my favourite which takes place entirely within your controller, feel bolted on or squeezed into the frame of the original – a way of extending the length of the campaign but one that doesn’t really serve the underlying story.

In fact, these new sections while fun introduce pacing problems which undermine the overarching story. And this certainly isn't helped by levels being broken up by frequent scrap battles which can't be avoided. Instead of enemies just inhabiting the world, they ambush you in areas which suddenly become fenced in. Before continuing, you must defeat wave after wave of scraps. The execution and frequency of these encounters make them feel more like a chore than a platform to play with abilities.