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In addition to these two characters, Quico himself also has a great degree of control, since the world of Papo & Yo takes place in his imagination. In addition to Monster, there is also the robot Lula, who functions as a jetpack (while she rides around on Quico’s back), and as a guided projectile to hit certain buttons and levers. If a wall is too high to get over, Quico simply feeds Monster coconuts until he falls asleep so he can use Monster’s height and trampoline-like stomach to jump over the wall. When a button is too large for the player to push, it’s time to lure Monster over to it with a coconut and make him stand on it. The gameplay in this title is incredibly smooth, and the title is paced in such a way that the player is always pushed to keep exploring around the next corner or past the next puzzle. Throughout the game, players will have to learn to work with Monster (and other characters the player will run into) in order to complete puzzles. Monster is an aptly-named, hulking pink beast with razor-sharp teeth. In Papo & Yo, the player is Quico, a young boy who, along with his friend, Monster, solves puzzles in a surrealistic South American shanty town. When the game releases on August 14, no doubt it will look to some players like nothing more than a simple puzzle platformer. But after going hands-on with it, it’s clear that this game is much, much more. Its unique art style is what caught most people’s attention. The soon-to-release Papo & Yo, from Minority Studios, was one of the most distinctive games shown at this year’s E3.
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