I often play games while my girlfriend is somewhere in the apartment, completely disinterested in what I'm doing. She's just not a gamer, and when it comes to sitting down and playing, she typically leaves me to my own devices. But Puppeteer is the first game I can recall that captured and held both of our attention almost from the start. It’s such a charming and creative platformer, with a delightfully playful style to it, that she declared it “my favorite game I’ve seen you play.” A few frustrations to its design keep me from praising it quite as highly, but it’s certainly a memorable game that’s easy to love on many different levels, for the hardcore and the casual alike.

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Standing strong... with a strange head.

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Cutting it up.

Puppeteer’s faux stagecraft style is a big part of what makes it so accessible and, in turn, so endearing. The action is viewed through the lens of an unseen audience, with their laughter, gasps, and occasional applause complementing everything you do. While the periphery of the stage and its red curtain can at first be quite frustrating to look at – it does cut off parts of the screen, after all -- I quickly come to realize that it’s all part of Puppeteer’s charm. Its presentation is unorthodox, and as such, it’s unlike anything I’ve played before.The main character is just as unusual. Our protagonist is a wooden boy named Kutaro, and he has a bit of a problem in that he’s quite literally lost his head while held prisoner by the ever-dangerous (and strangely cute) villain known as the Moon Bear King. But this gives Kutaro an opening to try on other heads for size, and it’s here, with this cursory plot, that half of Puppeteer’s novel gameplay mechanics come to the fore.Kutaro can toggle between a trio of heads at any given time, and each head has a special (usually innocuous) ability associated with it. There are scores of heads to find, and a majority of them are well hidden. Heads range from the inane (a hamburger or a spiked ball) to the insane (a banana or a guillotine), and while each can be used in practical ways, the more overt use for them is to act as Kutaro’s health. When he’s hit, he loses his head and has to either retrieve it or use another head in his arsenal. It’s kind of like Sonic’s rings, but on a considerable amount of digital acid. I love the duel-layering of form and function with Kutaro’s array of borrowed skulls.The other half of Puppeteer’s gameplay revolves around a pair of magic scissors – yes, magic scissors – called Calibrus. Their obvious function is as a weapon, though outside of boss battles, Puppeteer’s combat is actually fairly straight-forward, and perhaps even a little bland. You’ll do battle with the same enemy-type over and over again on the quest to free the souls of children, and it’s definitely disappointing that there isn’t more variety. But Puppeteer is much more about using Calibrus to move around than it is to fight with its sharpened blades.When you encounter any number of objects in the environment, you can wield Calibrus as a mode of transportation. By cutting through paper, cloth, smoke, water, and just about anything else you can imagine with these mystical shears, Kutaro can move through the air, up, down, and around hazards, and much more. Moving around in this way is a delight; it’s Puppeteer’s calling card and it’s an incredible amount of fun. It’s used in overt ways and to solve simple puzzles alike, and in this respect, there’s nothing else like it. This mechanic is as clever as it is enjoyable.Where combat shines is in battles with bosses, which are a hodgepodge of combat and cutting. Moon Bear King’s diverse set of animal cretins really showcase what Puppeteer is all about. Some things get overused during these battles a bit – prepare to cut through cloth capes on more than one occasion – but for the most part, these frays are quite gratifying. I just wish they didn’t typically end with quick time events, since they inherently feel a bit anticlimactic. Still, these fights marry the various elements of Puppeteer together very well, and bring a litany of sub-weapons (like bombs) and special skills (like blocking) into play.The colorful and imaginative environments Kutaro snips his way through vary wildly, too. You’ll work your way through castles, forests, fields, deserts, water, and more. Every area floors with its quick-moving set changes and outright gorgeous graphics. Colors pop, animations are fluid (and oftentimes comical), and there’s a layer of whimsy on, over, and around everything. Accompanying narration and voice acting adds an extra layer to appreciate, as both are well executed.Puppeteer simply refuses to take itself seriously, and as a result, it plastered a smile on my face, one that only faded slightly when I was occasionally frustrated by a cheap death or spotty hit detection. Puppeteer stresses story more than your typical platformer, however, and its seemingly never-ending cutscenes sometimes get in the way. They can be skipped at will, thankfully, but when a game is so fun, I want to play it more than watch it, even one that’s so easy on the eyes.Expect to spend nine or ten hours with the story, and much more if you choose to really explore each of the 21 stages strewn across seven worlds. With a slew of collectible heads to find, bonus stages to uncover, and a number of other secrets to stumble across, Puppeteer can keep you very busy. And that doesn’t even to begin to discuss its insane Trophy list, complete with a staggering 58 Bronze Trophies. But whether you choose to organically play through once or see every corner of every level, it’s uncommon to find so much great content in a PlayStation 3 game for a budget $40 price.And even though its art can occasionally be dark and frightening in a Nightmare Before Christmas sort of way, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Puppeteer to anybody of any age. It’s like those classic Disney movies you watched when you were young, then watched again as an adult and got something totally different out of it because you notice the winks and nods to the parents watching. Either way, you don’t have to have hardcore sensibilities to get a kick out of Puppeteer, or to understand why it’s special.