Who here hasn't tried playing games with their shadow? It never really works like you hope, as that shady jerk always matches your every move. With Shadow Puppeteer, that old sidewalk shadow-stomp game is taken to a completely different (and cooperative) level. In order to survive in the real world, you have to work with your independently operated shadow who can't leave his two dimensional space. Push crates, ride minecarts, switch lamps off and solve puzzles with your new best friend, all while keeping him safe from the shadow-nomming purple smoke.
Video games have gotten pretty good at playing with the concept of light and dark. One recent example is the 2011 platformer Lost in Shadow that takes place almost entirely in the shade. Instead of looking at iron girders and foreground objects, your attention is shoved to the background where shadows are cast by movable light sources. It flattens your attention out, but at the same time it stretches your concept of two dimensions, as shadows can bend and twist in ways Mario just can't comprehend.
It's a similar situations with Shadow Puppeteer. The game takes place in both the real, three dimensional world and the two dimensional shadows cast by various light sources. Our young protagonist has free movement on his side of things, walking in any direction, jumping and pushing things like crates or carts. His flat buddy can only walk left and right on the shadows, jump and interact with certain objects. But since shadows are two dimensional projections on three dimensional objects, our shadow friend isn't just walking back and forth. He actually travels all over the place, stretching and contorting like shadows do.
With this dual-world set-up going, Shadow Puppeteer proceeds to run your mind through a similar sort of stretching process. Puzzles play on the fact that each character experiences things in his world differently. A great example of this is a tower of smoke rising from a chimney. For 3D people like us, a little bit of dust and air is no problem. But for the shadow that encounters the smoke's shadow, it might as well be the Great Wall. The solution is to slide the solid boy over top the chimney to block the smoke, allowing the shadow boy to pass safely. There are a host of related puzzles, too, such as shoving crates to provide platforms for each character, picking up pieces of wood that serve as movable props and messing around with light sources. Shadow boy isn't always confined to gravity like we are, so things can get pretty strange in later levels.
But let's back up a bit. The story in Shadow Puppeteer is nice and simple and revolves around an evil dude with an evil box that contains an evil purple mist. This mist steals people's shadows, but somehow our protagonist managed to keep his shadow safe. The only logical course of action is to follow that Shadow Puppeteer and get everybody's shadow back. Otherwise... Well, we're not sure what the "otherwise" would be, but shadow is our friend, and we don't want bad things to happen to shadow.
Stages in Shadow Puppeteer are divided into small areas that get longer and more complex as the game progresses. Each one is filled with a handful of puzzles and maybe an action sequence or two, usually with a couple of checkpoints thrown in to cut down on frustration. Shadow Puppeteer jumps back and forth between being a cerebral puzzler and a Battletoads-tough action game. It's a little shocking sometimes to experience the two extremes, and depending on you and your co-op partner's skills in each of the genres, your level of success will vary.
One interesting aspect of Shadow Puppeteer is the fact that the boy and his shadow can't get separated by too much space. A wispy purple umbilical cord shows up when their distance starts to grow too great, and if you continue to stretch that lifeline out, it turns white and eventually snaps, restarting the stage. This doesn't usually cause any problems, as the puzzles tend to be self-contained, but it's something you'll have to keep a wary eye on when one boy starts climbing towers and the other has to wait at the bottom.
Co-op in Shadow Puppeteer is a very natural affair. The game was obviously designed for two players to work together. There's no character switching, just independent people moving independent avatars, plain and simple. Communication is extremely important in a game like this. Puzzles require some planning, which is easy since the game only supports local co-op. The action sequences carry with them that old co-op pitfall of requiring both players to be precise with their movements, often several in quick succession. If one person misses a jump, you both have to start over. Stay just out of shoulder-punching distance and you should be fine.
If you try to play Shadow Puppeteer solo, you're gonna have a bad time. The game just wasn't designed for a single person to complete. It's possible, of course, and the designers made sure there were no puzzles that absolutely required two people, but it's frustrating if you don't have a partner. If you're playing with a gamepad, for example, you'll use the left analog stick to move the real boy, the right to move shadow boy, and the corresponding triggers to jump each character on their own. Simple puzzles like timing a lever press for the other character to ride a platform can get tricky since you have to monitor two parts of the screen at the same time. And when you toss in things like shadow cats chasing one character, it's very easy to want to set the controller down and stare out the window moodily.
The world of Shadow Puppeteer is built with minimalism in mind, but it's the sort of artistic minimalism that gives the game an extra ounce of likeability. The story is told through visuals alone. No spoken dialogue or boxes of text to read, which I, personally, always appreciate. The game even teaches you how to play without ridiculous HEY, LISTEN! tips and tricks. You learn as you play with carefully constructed puzzles that build your skills one by one. This shows a lot of attention to puzzle design and gameplay experience, and it continues to shine even later in the game.
Shadow Puppeteer is built with a lot of care. It suffers the tiniest bit of an identity crisis when it swings back and forth between its puzzle sequences and action sequences, but otherwise it's smartly paced and extremely rewarding. Very few bells or whistles, just straightforward cooperative gaming. If you can get a friend over for some quality shadow time, you're set for several hours of solid puzzle-platforming action. If you can't get a friend over, go out and make more friends, then head back and give Shadow Puppeteer a look. It's worth it.