Quick Look: Puppeteer

At first, I was like "Hey, this looks kinda neat" then I was all like "Hey, maybe I'll bookmark that game and get it later in the year" and by the end of the quick look I was "Hey, it's only £25 on Amazon and if I preorder I get the soundtrack, done!".

The power of a Giant Bomb quick look is a frightful thing. Also, I am now super hyped to play a game I knew nothing about an hour ago :D

I love how every aspect of this game plays into the concept of it being a puppet show, from the graphical design, the silly voice acting, the melodrama, the curtain framing, the audience cheers, the way new stages pop in, it's all absolutely creative and delightful. On top of that, it's modestly priced!

Fun quick look. The best Brad QLs are the ones where the other guests berate him with gameplay advice.

I'm pretty sure that girl is the only one pronouncing his name right. She's saying it more like Cut-aro, rather than Coo-tar-o. Which makes sense, since he cuts things with his scissors.

This looks like some crazy ass Sony game.

woooooah made it six minutes in thinking this was supposed to be tearaway, that was super confusing XD

Sounds like Vinny had some Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder when watching this. Flashbacks of all those horrible kids shows he had to watch with his kid. I've been there before...

what he said

UHHHHHH as the guy who played this game, I would have to disagree with you.

Reminds me of a Double Fine game for some reason.

Brad always has the best reasonings for his arguments.

Wait... I thought this was that clay carving thing from Media Molecule. And thus I had no interest.

Ah, it's a play on "cut", that makes sense, I was wondering about that.

That said, seeing as his name is clearly Japanese-ish, I have to imagine it follows the rules of Japanese spelling, which is made up of short syllables. Ku-ta-ro ( くたろ ) would make more sense than Cut-a-ro then.

There's also the "taro" part which, as I understand it, is a common Japanese name that's also associated with the names of fairytale heroes Momotaro (Peach Boy) and Kintaro (Golden Boy) so I suspect that, that is the inspiration for his name. Not sure if his name is really suppose to invoke "Cut Boy" or if there's some other interpretation I'm not aware of, but it sounds plausible.

Forget looking for Moon Stone pieces. I wanna hang out at the White Castle and get a crave case like the Moon lady.

In all the years I have watched Bard play and talk about video games. I've never actually gotten frustrated.... Until this Quick Look.

Looks great.

Watching Brad play a game is just to painful, he's lack of awareness on games is mind boggling, from his voice to his ability to articulate words or explain anything (not to mention his ability to play a game), everything about Brad pisses me off on these QLs. I bet he's a cool guy but damn...

Sorry Brad, I love giantbomb and I bet you're a cool guy, but you're just not fit to entertain people this way in my opinion.

Knowing everyone here is a huge GiantBomb fan like I am, I'm sure people will defend Brad, but most of my friends agree with me on this one, so I know I'm not that wrong.

Sorry, I just can't finish watching this quick look. How about we let someone other than Brad play platformers from now on?

Jeff is completely right all the time on everything. Sorry Brad.

Jesus Christ this game is grating

Is Brad playing crappily in this video? Is he aiming the rocket launcher at their feet like you're supposed to?

I love the presentation, but the game itself looks goddamn tedious.

Everytime someone mentioned Moon Bear King I thought of Man Bear Pig like serial.

Is there supposed to be a Vita version too? All that cutting stuff looks like it was made for touch screens.

I can only take so much whimsy

Brad is always playing crappily and never sees the obvious.

I'm guessing the guys are unfamiliar with panto?

oh but god the game is entirely 4th wall breaking from the beginning, right from moment one. heck, even during this ql it was self-referential before brad said. blergh.

I like Brad, but I find it increasingly difficult to respect his opinion on games. He just always has a really negative and cynical outlook and a general incompetence that makes it impossible to take his opinions seriously. He constantly blames the game itself for his own poor ability and refusal to just pay attention.

It's just getting to the point where I wish he wasn't driving Quick Looks anymore because I know that a) the comments are going to be full of complaints about how terrible he is at the game and how he doesn't show the game off well, and b) the comments are totally right. I was really looking forward to a Puppeteer quick look because I'm on the fence about the game, but because I can't trust Brad's opinion, this didn't help me at all.

Like I said, I like what he adds to the site on podcasts and office videos and as a companion for gameplay commentary, but not as the driver.

This game looks awesome. Never seen anything of it before, but this put it on my radar for sure. I might have to get this before Rayman.

Totally bought it on PSN. It was $35 with PS Plus and it looks way cool. SO MANY GREAT PLATFORMERS THIS YEAR!!

Yep, same here. I feel like Brad used to piss everybody off to no end. Like, I'd actually get mad watching him play games sometimes because he's so terrible and just blaming the game the whole time. And usually the comments would be exactly the same way. But now I feel like the general consensus is a lot less angry and lot more like a collective sigh.

Brad was pretty insistent on the heads doing nothing even though he was wrong.

I love the violent movements when the scene changes, so the new environment lunges into the foreground. I can just imagine someone yelling SCENE CHANGE! every time it happens.

@whatisdelicious: Well, I must admit I feel much more relieved now with my comment, I see it's not only me but in general everyone agrees that Brad is just terrible at this, and it's not only his game-play skills that suck, it's his general view of the games and his melancholic, boring, negative attitude about almost every game he plays, even when he likes a game I can't feel that association with that excitement because of how messed up his way to express himself is.

I can never, ever watch a full quick-look when Brad is involved, something that should be entertaining and explanatory just becomes unbearably boring and frustrating.

Everytime I heard moon-bear king I thought man-bear-pig...

I'm guessing you watched a few Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs before this one.

Wow... this reminds me of going to the theatre in London to see a play as a kid....

Also anything else thing the voice of the annoying sidekick sounds like Mila Kunis?

Its totally intentional.....the director doesnt allow one character to mispronounce things for the whole game unless its on purpose. Its her character.

i agree with you yet again, brad is easily the most jaded one out of the bunch.

this guy above also sums up how i feel as well.although i can still make it through QLs with brad,

Sheesh Brad...you don't think the V/O director would notice the mispronunciation? It's his main job...

Wow, there's a lot of negativity in the comments. D:

Anyway, weighing in on the pronunciation thing, I'm with Brad on this one, with the understanding that the main character's name is Japanese. Most of the characters were saying ku-ta-ro, with each having the same amount of stress. The princess was saying ku-tar-o, with stress on the middle syllable. Normally in Japanese, any stress added is a stylistic choice or for emphasis. They don't have the stresses built in like most European languages. I agree with Jeff and Vinny that it was an intentional mispronunciation, on the part of the developers, and meant to be taken as being unintentional on the part of the princess character's actor in the play. It's preeeeetty meta. :P

this game looks great!

How does Brad ever finish games?

@mrnood1e said:

Actually, if the last year+ has been any guide, he seems to rarely do so.

Brad "Oh God" Shoemaker.

He doesn't

He put a game he didn't finish in his top 10 last year. Which is kinda ridiculous.

This game seems kind of annoying.