Puppeteer

Puppeteer tells the story of a boy named Kutch, turned by the Moon Bear King into a headless wooden puppet, who journeys through a theatrically stylized world ruled by this tyrannical king. Along the way he obtains the magic scissors Calibrus, which let him cut through scenery and enemies alike and swap his own detachable heads for different abilities. SCE Japan Studio, under the creative direction of Gavin Moore, created a visually unique platformer styled as a living puppet theater, complete with visible stage sets, curtains, and audience commentary, giving the game a distinctive, fairy-tale yet at times dark atmosphere inspired by classic Brothers Grimm tales.

The scissors were not just a weapon but the main tool of movement: cutting through fabric, sails, and paper backdrops let the player climb and move forward, clearing gaps that a simple jump could never cross. A system for collecting and swapping heads with different abilities during combat added a layer of strategy beyond ordinary jumping and unlocked hidden detours in already-visited scenes. Battles against fantastical bosses played out like theatrical set pieces with shifting backdrops, and a soundtrack composed as a full theatrical score reinforced the sense of watching a live performance rather than playing a video game.

Critics praised its artistic originality and inventiveness, though commercially the game got lost among bigger titles at the end of the generation, which later made it one of the most underrated games on PS3. Puppeteer is retrospectively valued today as an example of the bold, artistically ambitious design that Sony's internal studios could afford even amid mainstream competition from big action blockbusters, and it belongs among the titles players seek out on the console precisely for their uniqueness. Few platformers of the era managed to tie a visual idea so naturally to how the game actually controls.