Parents' Guide to Poppy Playtime

As cute and as cuddly as kids' toys and cartoon mascots can be in the light of day, they can equally turn into the stuff of nightmares in the dead of night. Poppy Playtime is the latest horror game to take advantage if this dread from movies like Child's Play to games like Five Nights at Freddy's, because there's just something terrifying about the idea of something so innocent becoming so evil. It takes the silliness of youth and corrupts it into a sinister setting. Sure, you might be surrounded by bright colors and happy smiles, but those blood stained walls and the flickering shadows keep the tension high from the opening moments to the final cliffhanger.

Poppy Playtime relies heavily on atmosphere to keep players' interests. The mechanics are simple enough, with players using the GrabPack's two extendable hands to pick up and pull objects, to act as an electrical conduit between circuits, and in other creative ways. Where the game stumbles is in the progression. Solving the various puzzles isn't necessarily difficult, but the clues to the solutions are often really obscure or even nonexistent. It can be frustrating to be stuck in one particular area simply because you had no idea the answer was staring you in the face the whole time. Another very minor gripe to be had is the episodic nature of the game. This first chapter doesn't take very long to complete and ends on a cliffhanger, leaving players with a slightly diluted sense of fulfillment.