The incredible luxury of watching a blockbuster movie is that every second costs tens of thousands of dollars in production costs. Every minute, millions of dollars of extravagant production pours into the flicker of your eyeballs while you stuff your flabby jaws with popcorn. Papetulas are just that, and not at all.
Papetura, largely produced by one creative, Thomas Ostafin, jumped onto crowdfunding site Indiegogo in 2015 but fell short of its funding goal. But after four more years of refusing to be discouraged, the game came to Steam in 2019. If there is a clearer example of a gaming passion project, I don’t know what it is. The animations, every puzzle, and every scene are made up of pure, highly concentrated grafting. And it feels like a luxury and a privilege to play.
What makes the screenshots of this novel graphic adventure so appealing is that they are made entirely of paper. All assets are carefully captured paper constructs, atmospherically lit, animated, and embellished with effects, button prompts, and image-based character his dialogue. The endless complexity of these richly textured physics objects is a unique delight, especially on the big screen. The degree of sophistication is admirable, and the calm yet varied tones are sublime.As a result, while reminiscent of ’90s stop-motion gems, Neverhoodless dirty and more calm.
The simple story is based on the hero scroll Pappe and his sidekick Grab Tula. Beginning with Pap’s prophecy/demand to save the paper world from fire, the two traverse several bizarre environments, encountering briefly sketched characters along the way. More like your average blockbuster movie.
Papetura is a point-and-click game on Steam, but of course it comes with the controller ready for Switch. But instead of feeling like a compromise, using a controller turns the game into something else. Its puzzles feature frequent action elements, with tests of skill that can occasionally fail (quick and easy to restart). For example, you may need to dodge falling obstacles or time your cast and reel to catch fish. Tula acts as a cannon that shoots out small projectiles like Yoshi in Super Mario World 2, and some puzzles involve careful targeting or trick shot planning.Combination of left stick movement and right stick aim and fire trigger largely Occasionally makes me feel like this Switch version simply Moments like an action platformer. However, some unfortunate scenes where it’s not clear which direction you can move in, combined with Pape’s sloppy roads, can make exploration difficult.
Papetula is a far cry from a blockbuster movie, but it shares the same sense of intense energy and technology that is distilled every second of game time. Every crease and crumple of its scenery and characters shines with Ostafin’s passion. Nothing completely obscures the presentation.
