Puppeteer

Well, here's something a little different to see out the last days of the PS3 as Sony's primary console. The game is a weird, off-beat platformer that, despite some clear influences from LittleBigPlanet and other corners of pop culture, feels quite different to anything else on console.

In it, you play as Kutaro, a child turned into a wooden puppet by an evil king who has also just gone ahead and eaten Kutaro's noggin. And the noggins of other youngsters. Kutaro, however, has realised that heads are not the only things that can be used as... well, heads. So it is that, with the help of a strange (massive) witch, Kutaro steals the king's magic scissors and sets about righting some wrongs.

Puppeteer's greatest strength - its weird aesthetic. The textures and crafty feel certainly have a LittleBigPlanet vibe to them, but Sony's Japan Studio has taken the raw materials of LBP's visual design and used them as a springboard to build something all of its own. There's a dark, folklore-ish aura to the game that gives it the feel of a Tim Burton project which Neil Gaiman would nod approvingly at.

The platforming, while being of the scrolling variety, moves in different direction and, with a stage framing everything that happens on screen, Studio Japan's inclusion of 3D is a smart move.

The odd aesthetics permeate the levels. Scaling a vertical level is just so much more pleasing when you're going up a waterfall that looks like a textile collage of a Japanese illustration.

Fans of the weird and wonderful will find a lot to love here.