What is it with Nintendo and arts & crafts materials? Over the last years we’ve been graced with games like Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Yoshi’s Wooly World, and most notably, Paper Mario. Thankfully, one thing they all had in common was that they were all great games to play (well, except maybe one or two entries in the Paper Mario series…). Ninty sure takes their paper games quite seriously when it comes to quality, and their newest IP, Snipperclips, developed by small British studio SFB Games, is no exception.

Snipperclips consists on cutting your characters into whichever forms you can imagine in order to solve whichever puzzle is thrown at you, whether you need to carry a basketball into a hoop, emulate the shape of a bee, catch some fish, come up with a track for a minecart, among many many others. The game doesn’t force you to come up with just one correct strategy for each puzzle, letting you be as creative as you can possibly be in order to solve any of the 60 short-but-sweet levels available.

The game shines in its co-op gameplay. No single puzzle can be solved with just one character, therefore planning a strategy with a friend is vital. Multiplayer sessions are a blast to play, given how inventive the game is, and above all, how easy it is for anyone to learn its mechanics and start playing it. It took just a couple a minutes for friends to learn Snipperclips‘s basics and help me with the solutions, always with a smile on the faces of all present players. Snipperclips might be one of Nintendo’s best co-op attempts ever created.

And then there’s also the main problem with Snipperclips: while it’s actually awesome to play it with friends, the game allows you to also play it solo, and it is actually incredibly annoying if you do so. Given the fact you have to play as both characters, and you can only control one of them at any given time, you have to constantly press a button to change which one you’re controlling. Given that Snipperclips is all about precise cuts and physics, you will be constantly changing characters back and forth in order to adjust every single movement. It might not sound that bad on paper (no pun intended), but I cannot stress how infuriating the experience became. It also slowed the game’s pace down a lot. Snipperclips shines as a co-op game, so always have someone to play it with you whenever you feel like tackling its levels.

It’s always good to see Nintendo investing in new IPs, even if they’re just a small indie like Snipperclips. Just like nearly everything Nintendo has done, its main strength is how creative and simple to play it is. That being sad, I wouldn’t recommend getting it if you don’t have someone to play the game with. The game was a blast to play when I had someone to co-op it with me, and incredibly boring when I was playing solo.

And now, let’s just wait for the inevitable Snipperclips level in the next Super Smash Bros.