PuppetShow: Porcelain Smile Collector's Edition

[i]PuppetShow: Porcelain Smile Collector's Edition[/i] is an adventure, mystery, hidden object game developed by AMAX Interactive and published by Big Fish Games. It is the 15th game in the [i]PuppetShow[/i] series although, at the time of this review, only the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 15th (this one), and the 16th (the latest release) are available on Steam. You play a character who receives a letter from your friend DeeDee, a university friend, who invites you to her home for her birthday. However, once you arrive at DeeDee's place, DeeDee is immediately kidnapped by a masked assailant. Add in the whole mystery of puppets being at the center of mysterious events happening in DeeDee's town and you get the gist of the story. It's up to you to rescue DeeDee and unravel the mystery. I'll stop my story synopsis to avoid spoilers and all that. As for the gameplay, [i]Porcelain Smile[/i] has pretty much the same gameplay as previous installments of [i]PuppetShow[/i] games. The gameplay consists of hidden object scenes, mini-games, and areas where you have to pick up items needed to progress. In addition, there are collectible bells which represent previous [i]PuppetShow[/i] games as well as morphing cherry blossoms. Although there are no Steam achievements, there are in-game achievements as well as the usual other extras, as this is a collector's edition. Thus, there are wallpapers, screensavers, strategy guide, etc. Now that I've gone over the story and gameplay, I'll move onto my critique. First, I just want to say that I had been holding off on playing this because I had hoped that Big Fish would bring over some earlier installments of the series. However, since there's no telling if we'll ever get those earlier games, I went ahead and decide to play [i]Porcelain Smile[/i]. First, I liked the story. Right off the bat, I found it a surprise that we can choose our main character among 6 possible characters (3 male, 3 female), each with their own backstory. Although which character you choose doesn't affect the story itself, I thought this was a nice addition. The story pulled me in and I sensed that mystery vibe that I like from the [i]PuppetShow[/i] games. Also, despite this being part of the series, [i]Porcelain Smile[/i] serves as a standalone game, so you don't need to have played the previous games in the series to enjoy this one. Next, onto the gameplay. I really liked the hidden object scenes. Of course, there are the usual finding all the items on the list, but there's a new variation where a character will narrate something that happened and the objects you need to find are highlighted in red. I thought this was a nice, new variation, which was a bit challenging but totally doable. Of course, there are the usual mini-games, too, and I enjoyed playing most of them. There were only a couple I found a little annoying due to mouse control issues, but it wasn't too much of a bother. Now, in regards to the in-game achievements, I found most of them doable and straightforward. However, there were a couple that I had issues with, mainly because either they were very vague in how to get them or they would require that you'd have to replay the game since even playing the mini-game in the extras section won't earn you the achievement. It would have helped if the strategy guide included would have this information, but this is a minor issue. Onto other aspects, I totally loved the art in this game. It's just as beautiful as in previous installments and I enjoyed looking at it. I'm glad that the same style has been kept throughout the series. As for the soundtrack, it is beautiful to listen to, with vibes of mystery and haunting. I believe the tracks are new although it has been a while since I last played a [i]PuppetShow[/i] game. Overall, would I recommend [i]PuppetShow: Porcelain Smile Collector's Edition[/i]? If you like hidden object games and especially like the [i]PuppetShow[/i] series, then yes, I totally would. This is a great game with beautiful art and a lovely soundtrack. It does have a couple of flaws although it's more subjective than anything. At any rate, this is a great HOG although at the asking price, I'd recommend for a bit of a sale, as it took me a little over 6.5 hours to complete (and that's including the bonus chapter). However, it's worth getting and I just want to add that I'd be really happy if Big Fish would consider making earlier installments of [i]PuppetShow[/i] available on Steam. ^^

PP Porcelain Smile est le 15ème épisode de la série (Ne cherchez pas à ce jour, la série n'est pas complète sur le Steam) et c'est un nouveau studio qui s'est occupé du développement... Et franchement Amax interactive a réalisé un titre de bonne facture... Appelé à l'aide par votre amie Dee Dee qui semble être menacée par un dangereux maniaque mais à peine arrivé vous assistez à son enlèvement... mais c'était sans compter sur votre entêtement. nann mais pour qui il se prend ce ravisseur? ^^ Si l'histoire est assez classique dans son ensemble, elle apporte quand même son lot de rebondissement qui maintient l'ensemble plaisant à suivre du début à la fin... Porcelain Smile est composé de puzzles et de SOC, on y trouve également des collectibles à récupérer dans les scénes. Pour ceux qui auraient peur de les rater, la carte indique ceux que l'on peut récupérer... Comme d'habitude, il y a trois niveaux de difficultés et en mode expert rien ne vient entraver votre progression. Et si malgré cela vous avez encore des doutes, l'éditeur a intégré la soluce dans le jeu en cas de secours ;) Côté graphisme, il reste tout à fait dans l'esprit des premiers, les poupées de porcelaines aussi mignonnes soient telles sont toujours aussi dangereuses. Tout est joliment décoré, détaillé et coloré... Un jeu que j'ai beaucoup apprécié contrairement au chapitre bonus que vous trouverez dans la section "extra" une fois l'aventure principale terminée et qui est plus que pauvre (le pire étant les mini games sous forme de jeu de plateau... personnellement, j'ai fini par les passer) Comme d'habitude, Big Fish ne s'embarrasse pas avec les traductions, pour autant l'anglais est classique et facilement compréhensible aussi je vous recommande cet épisode de Puppetshow ^^

Very fun Hidden Object game and not too short (like many of them are)! I recommend the entire PuppetShow series. I've loved all of them. Pros: Many different kinds of little hidden object-type scenes. Decent enough story for my tastes, lots and lots of things to find. The actual hidden object scenes were pretty good and some were quite fun. Some of the puzzles/scenes didn't make complete sense, but I'm okay with that for this kind of game. It was fairly linear (not a lot of back and forth or hunting around). Usually that bothers me a bit because I love having to hunt for things, but this game was so fun I didn't mind. (Some people might prefer it.) It didn't have a ton of the standard mini-puzzles, but lots of little mini-mini-puzzles. The Mini-puzzles it did have were for the most part not just the same ones that some developers use over and over (though some might have been similar) For me about the only cons were: If you zoom into something and there is an item you can pick up, it basically makes sure you pick it up. I like having to find them for myself. The other was that some things were a bit too easy, like a little jigsaw puzzle that shows the outline of the pieces as you hover over. (I was playing in easy mode - perhaps they don't show that with more advanced mode.)

All the Puppet Series games are fun!

玩过许多大鱼的解密游戏，PuppetShow系列算是其中最好最记忆犹新的解密游戏系列了。游戏风格偏阴暗恐怖，画面十分精美，背景音乐十分引人入胜。游戏长度也很可观，需要2到4小时玩完整个游戏。游戏还提供美术制作欣赏、壁纸下载和音乐下载。唯一遗憾的是直到现在大鱼都没补全整个系列（还有几个游戏没有加到捆绑包里），也没有上架新的系列游戏。不过整个系列还是十分推荐游玩滴！

for me the best hidden object series

依旧是心中的 puppet show，大鱼也在原有的解密水平上加入了很多新鲜的玩法而不再是很久以前单纯的找单词类型的游戏，期待puppet show接下来登录steam进行售卖，虽说5部之前玩的不是正版，但我会补票的，大鱼加油

5 Stars

Utterly garbage compared to the previous games. The story makes zero sense, is full of plot holes, forgets half of its own story just minutes after explaining it, and it's not even pretty with lots of very low resolution artwork. Has no connection to previous PuppetShow games except for a recurring character, whose story here makes no sense because they forgot what they were even doing with him. And why is there a Japanese theme? This is just embarrassing. My played time is because I had the game up in the background overnight.

Interesting story and puzzles. HOGs are fun.