It particularly reminded me of Mario vs. Donkey Kong. Admittedly that's the only game/series that comes to mind right now, and I'd consider it more of a puzzle game than a platformer, but I'd probably say the same of this (since there's no direct control of any character). I don't really see this as an unconventional platformer, but more as a puzzle game that happens to take place in a platforming engine, if that makes any sense. If you had guns shooting the players along or something, that would've felt more like an unconventional use of an object to me.