Flat Kingdom Paper’s Cut Edition from Ratalaika Games and Fat Panda Games is a charming platformer on PS. Check our Flat Kingdom Paper’s Cut Edition review!

 

Flat Kingdom Paper’s Cut Edition from Ratalaika Games and Fat Panda Games is a charming platformer on PlayStation. A while ago, the titular Flat Kingdom was threatened by the evil Third Dimension. When it seemed that all hope was lost, a sorcerer created six magical gems that allowed the dimensions to stabilize, thus restoring peace to the kingdom. Unfortunately, a masked thief named Hex ends up kidnapping the Princess and taking all the gems! You must, therefore, rush behind the king to try and save the Princess and the Kingdom.

You’ll move your character with the left analog stick or the D-Pad, jumping with the X button. Shapes are an important part of the Flat Kingdom Paper’s Cut Edition experience, so you’ll need to change the shape of your character in order to progress through the game. Pressing the Circle, Square, and Triangle buttons will transform your character to the corresponding shape. You’ll then need to remember that Circle beats Square, Triangle beats Circle, and Square beats Triangle.

 

On top of this, the shape of your character will give you access to additional abilities, which will be needed not only for defeating enemies but also for solving puzzles. The Triangle shape allows you to move at a much faster pace. The Circle form will allow your character to perform a double jump – which is going to be a must if you want to get access to some otherwise out-of-reach platforms. Transform into a Square, and you’ll be a walking tank, being able to take a lot of hits as you slowly walk towards your objective, while also being strong enough to push heavy objects.

You’ll also get to learn some abilities, such as Flatbullet, which will change what the game throws at you. Flatbullet is gained after defeating the second boss in the game – Arachne, which as the name suggests, is the gigantic spider queen. Once you’ve obtained the Flatbullet ability, you’ll be able to combine the Triangle and square shapes to unleash a new powerful attack! Just use the triangle shape to get a running start, and then change into the Square shape so that you can quickly launch yourself forward as the square, so that you can destroy obstacles!

 

While the game will start easily by having you take on a short tutorial segment with enemies that need to be defeated by using one shape, some of the enemies introduced a bit later in the game might need you to use more than one shape in order to defeat them. Take, for example, a walking carnivorous plant. Since its head – which is trying to take a bite out of you – is a triangular shape, you’ll first need to jump on top of it and change into a Square shape to knock it down. After this, switch to the Triangle shape to poke its circular belly, and it will be defeated!

While exploring each segment of a stage, you’ll be able to collect a bunch of coins on your path. Some of them will be hidden at spots that will be a bit harder to reach, or that you won’t be able to reach until you collect the rest of the special abilities. You can use the coins you collect to purchase extra hearts, which will boost your character’s health bar, so that it can take more hits before getting a game over. At least when you do lose, you will respawn at the last checkpoint you reached.

As for the trophies, Flat Kingdom Paper’s Cut Edition has a full trophy list with a Platinum waiting for you, and you’ll only have to work on obtaining one Silver trophy and 11 Gold trophies. The objectives to complete include beating a circle enemy, beating a square enemy, and beating a triangle enemy, so that you can make four trophies pop. After that, you’ll get another trophy for being defeated once, for activating a checkpoint for changing shape ten times, defeating an enemy with two shapes, obtaining your first special ability, and defeating the first two bosses in the game.

Flat Kingdom Paper’s Cut Edition is a charming platformer with a colorful presentation that makes it look like a pop-up book come to life. It features fun gameplay mechanics as you switch between forms to solve puzzles and take on enemies and bosses in order to rescue the Princess, recover the gems, and save the kingdom. Flat Kingdom Paper’s Cut Edition is out as a Cross-Buy title, which means that your $7.99 purchase will give you access to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of the game, with each one having a separate trophy list with a Platinum trophy.

Disclaimer
This Flat Kingdom Paper’s Cut Edition review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Ratalaika Games.