It’s a rare case of substantial, emotional meaning supporting gameplay – Papo & Yo just leans too heavily toward its message to service the actual interactions. The problem with this is that Papo & Yo sacrifices the player experience for the sake of proving a point. The alcoholism and abuse metaphor is clear as day when Monster hurts the boy after eating irresistible frogs he’s addicted to, and, once again, we’re back to father/son issues. This is an especially compelling case when he meets Monster, a big beast who exists to restrict Quico’s progress. One could make the argument that the tedium represents Quico’s struggle. Unless you're too fast and confuse the camera, or can gauge your jump distance without the help of your shadow, it's tough to miss simple jumps as well. Puzzles are about process, not challenge, so there’s no sense of reward for what you accomplish. Doors open because you press triangle when instructed. Each switch you flip serves only to open up another switch that needs flipping, only now it’s up a set of stairs that wasn’t there before.
Solutions reveal themselves instantly, and it becomes less about problem solving and more about your patience for pointless push/pull puzzles. Maybe it’s because we’re living inside the mind of a child, but the problem solving in Quico’s life isn’t terribly interesting to me as an adult. Inconveniences keep Quico from getting through doors or to high ledges, which is where Papo & Yo’s puzzles come into play.
We pick out games of a similar PEGI rating to further hone these generated suggestions. This includes games from the Platform, Narrative, Puzzle, Adventure and Traversal genres. Twist, walk, pull, twist, walk, jump, push. These are games of a similar genre mix to Papo and Yo.
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