Tearaway is a creative masterpiece on Vita. You play in a paper-folded world helping a messenger reach you. The game uses all Vita features brilliantly. Unforgettable.
Your verdict
Category
Action Adventure1 player7+
Description
Iota, a paper child, sets out to deliver a royal message in a unique-feel paper world in this Media Molecule action-adventure. Published by Sony, released in North America in November 2013. Action-adventure with sculpted paper world, Vita touch mechanics to shape the environment, musical narration. North American NTSC release.
Tearaway review
MAX
Art direction
★★★★★
"Iconic"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
4/5
Story
★★★★★
"Captivating"
Entirely fashioned from paper, this folded, cut-out world feels like leafing through an animated book beneath your fingers. Warm light, grainy textures and origami creatures compose a tale of unprecedented tactile gentleness. This visual inventiveness, tender and personal, remains one of the console's loveliest ideas.
All gentleness, the music blends acoustic folk, whistling and handmade percussion to dress this paper world in a crafted charm. Each melody breathes the tenderness and wonder of a handmade tale. This sonic identity, warm and inventive, wonderfully extends the visual magic of the game.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"From the very first seconds"
Roaming a world made entirely of folded paper, touching it, tearing it and poking your fingers through the screen to help a messenger: the tactile inventiveness amazes at every moment. The gentleness of the art direction and the surprising interactions create instant magic. Tender, clever and bursting with ideas, a unique adventure that uses the console with genius.
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Guiding a paper messenger through an enchanted craft world and helping it by reaching into the scenery yourself weaves a tender bond that makes you want to discover the next stage. Decorating, folding and collecting revive your curiosity at every step. Short and at times too guided, it owns its gentleness, but its constant inventiveness and its disarming charm hold you to the end.
A Media Molecule Vita exclusive, Tearaway makes the player an actor in Iota's paper world through touch, camera and sensors, an inventive showcase of the studio's craft. In a modest run, it has become a prized piece for fans of the console's exclusives. Its interest combines this singular creativity and this physical scarcity on the format.
A cult cover
Entirely fashioned from cut paper, Iota's world unfolds its folded reliefs and craft-room colours from the cover onward. The paper messenger, head shaped like an envelope, embodies Media Molecule's handmade tenderness. This tactile aesthetic, which makes you want to touch the image, heralds an adventure built for the senses as much as the eyes.
Is Tearaway still worth playing in 2026?
A Vita exclusive action adventure by Media Molecule, Tearaway offers an original adventure in a paper world where the player plays a messenger having to deliver a letter. The absolutely sublime paper art direction, creative use of Vita touch and camera functions and poetic scenario make it an absolutely unmissable reference of the Vita catalogue. For anyone owning a Vita or fond of original auteur games, an absolutely essential recommendation today still without the slightest hesitation truly here indeed for any returning fan.
