Papo & Yo Makes you Think Outside the Box - Preview
by Karl Koebke , posted on 13 June 2012 / 3,187 Views
Everytime I get to play a new version of Papo & Yo at an event it's both one of the best and worst moments of that event. Best because it has some of the best atmosphere in the industry and I love the idea of a video game trying to tell the creator's story. Worst because it's one of those puzzle platformers of the Ico ilk which tells you next to nothing and you have to explore and try different things in order to progress, and that is not conducive to a conference environment, to say the least. Nothing makes you feel dumber than floundering on something with a captive demoer audience. That said, once I get past my shy nature (yes, I am indeed a delicate flower), it's impossible not to enjoy Papo & Yo for what it is.
The puzzles I played through this time involved making a snaking bridge out of houses, and a cup game with a key prize. The first thing I noticed is that Monster is there right from the get go as I walk into a small courtyard between the walls of houses. By picking up coconuts from the ground I can lead him around, but at the moment there's no where to lead him to. That's when it's time to explore. Chalk keys appear on the sides of some houses. Interacting with these houses makes them sprout wings and they join a single stack of houses.
Walking up to the stack I notice a lever that allows me to bend the houses in all four directions with a surprising degree of freedom. I use this to get to previously unreachable houses to each side and increase the length of my house bridge more and more. After a couple of iterations of acquiring more houses and using that to reach even more houses I finally get enough to make a bridge to the next area. Monster can't follow me over the bridge, but there's another, shorter route I can use to get him across the gap.
The next area seems even more obtuse. Ripples in the ground make openings into a clear white space that I hadn't seen in previous Papo & Yo demos. Jumping down into this space I'm confronted with a wall of white blocks with three keys. One of these keys glows, they all float up into the air and jumble around, and then they return to their general positions. You get one chance to choose the right key or a wall of blocks moves forward to crush you Indiana Jones style. Obviously the first time this happened I was too busy watching the pretty keys float around like a toddler so I didn't actually keep track of what went where and randomly chose poorly. When the wall was nearly at the point of flattening me Monster reached down and pulled me from danger. It's a nice reminder that he isn't just an impediment in the game but can also be a protector.
Once I figured out the key puzzle my demo was over, but as always I left very optimistic. The platforming could use a bit of tuning, but Ico is still one of my favorite games and I love any title that has a similar philosophy for its puzzle mechanics. Hopefully when I finally get to play it in the comfort of my own home, I can forgo the awkwardness and just immerse myself in this fascinating world.
