giddytailor33: Puzzling Platformer 'Paper Moon' Panders to Our Penchant for Papercraft

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Puzzling Platformer 'Paper Moon' Panders to Our Penchant for Papercraft

No, your monitor isn't broken. While this week's crop of games have been drained of color, they're just as ingenious as their more vibrant brethren. Inspired by doodles, noir cinema and silent films, this batch's stark graphics present curious mechanics and clever adventures. Their addictiveness is as simple as black and white.

'Paper Moon' is a side-scrolling adventure that stars a young boy living in a charming, papercraft world. Your diminutive protagonist traverses a chiaroscuro landscape with only the arrow keys to guide him. While the game's shoebox-theater aesthetic is adorable, it also directly affects game play. The world consists of both foreground and background, and objects can be switched between these two fields by using the space bar. This object-shifting ability is the only method you have of dispatching enemies and overcoming time-based platforming sections -- so you'll need to master it quickly. While puzzle elements abound, the key to making your way through each level briskly is knowing how to deftly jump and fluidly shift objects. With the game's tight time limit, each level is wonderful to look at, but not so good for lingering.

Gallery: Paper Moon