The world of make-believe can be quite the realistic place if you let your imagination run away with itself. In Paper Titans, imagination has found its playground—Team Lumo and Blitz Games' "fold-em-up" puzzle adventure features whimsical papercraft-made worlds and adorable characters for your creative thoughts to roam free. With a remarkable 3D interface that you can tilt and zoom and rotate, your eyes get an equal amount of enjoyment as well.
Each of the 45 levels in Paper Titans centers around one goal: collect three stars and an envelope sealed with a kiss. To do this, fold up a team of papercraft pals who work together by collecting, throwing, flying, exploding and shaman-ing their way past obstacles. Controls are incredibly intuitive, as if you were engaging with a true life model; one touch or swipe to move characters along a path, following the arrow where you want them to end up.
When you begin, your first task is to create the collector who is required for gathering up the stars and getting the envelope. To fold, just swipe and move your fingers across the screen as the instructions show; or you can press the fast-forward button in the lower left corner and simply watch as the "paper" takes form. If inspiration strikes, you can even download, print and cut out blueprints to fold up actual papercraft toys.
Back on your mobile device, the collector is able to traverse along any path as long as no chasms or platforms get in the way; this is where the thrower (who helps other characters jump by tossing them up) and the flyer (who flies across gaps) come along. Later, an exploder removes barriers while a shaman will superpower abilities. All these actions can only take place at specifically-marked action spots and, as not all actions are needed at the same time, there is some trial-and-error involved.
The puzzle part of this adventure is never truly difficult, though—in fact it's very easy—with the main challenge coming from having the patience to order about your relay team of titans and waiting as they scamper their way across the stage. This makes Paper Titans extremely accessible to players of all ilks and ages, yet it also poses a possible letdown for those looking for quick action and lots of challenge. It's hard to not want more thought process in each scene, more opening and closing of doors, more places to visit, and more story to go along with our quirky cast. Even so, like Kumo Lumo, the artwork is gorgeously engaging. To those of us who adore distinctive visuals and charming personality, who prefer a more relaxed mode of gameplay, one that you can easily resume after a pause, Paper Titans bursts with imaginative possibilities and is sure to entertain by sight alone.
NOTE: This game was played and reviewed on the iPad 2. Game was available in the North American market at the time of publication, but may not be available in other territories. Please see individual app market pages for purchasing info.
This is an absolutely beautifully built and rendered game and the way the 'extra' elements of printing and building the characters are expressed within the game itself is tremendous however it really should be reiterated how low a skill level the challenges represent. I'd say it's ideal for 5 to 8 year olds. To be honest the slow pace and reuse of levels becomes a tiny bit frustrating for anyone older.
Still, it's an extremely beautiful and considered production through and through, art, music and concept and highly recommendable to anyone with kids.
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