Horrid things, puppets. They hide in plain sight with leering faces and dead eyes, just waiting for you to turn your back, and then smiles creak across their little cruel lips. Awful. But, Sony's Japan Studio will let you fight the blighters on September 10 in third-person puppeter Puppeteer. But to beat the puppets, you must become a puppet. Or were you a puppet all along?

Puppeteer is actually quite a pleasant-looking action-platformer for PlayStation 3, taking place on a charming stage with sets changing around you. The story's about a boy kidnapped and turned into a puppet by the Moon Bear King, who then eats the poor lead's head. To recover your noggin--your actual noodle, for you'll find and wear several along the way--you're armed with every puppet's worst nightmare, scissors.

Sony revealed the release date yesterday during a demo at GDC, Joystiq reports. It's coming to PlayStation 3 as both a physical and downloadable release.

Yesterday also saw the revelation of another Japan Studio game announced alongside Pupeeteer, Rain. After a lengthy silence, Sony released the ghostly stealth-puzzler's first gameplay trailer. So go watch that, after a reminder of what Puppeteer is: