Lovely Planet (PS4)

Geoffrey Wright | April 22, 2016 | Review | No Comments

Do you ever dream of a colourful world full of happiness full of bright colours and no enemies to fear? Well to bad, this is the real world and I don’t think you will find this statement anywhere in the real or gaming world but what if I could offer you a slice of it? How about the bright colourful world with a funky fresh soundtrack added in for a bonus? How could that be ruined in anyway what so ever I hear you ask. Well Lovely Planet will show you how,

Lovely Plant is a speedrunners dream that is set in a very plastic world inhabited by a lot of red things. Sounds odd but there is a point to items being red. You see, red items are bad and red enemies are even worse (sort of). In Lovely Planet your goal is to finish each level as quickly as possible whilst destroying every red enemy (or item if you feel like it) in the quickest time possible with your magical bow & arrow (bows are cool at the moment). Again, like a few indie titles that have come and go, a very simple formula that becomes difficult and more addictive the more you play it. If you touch a red item (enemy or environment) you fail and will have to restart. so now you see why some items are red.

As you progress through each level the enemies & environmental obstacles will become more difficult to avoid or traverse. Enemies being by doing nothing other than standing in the way but these will be upgraded to projectile firing enemies very quickly. As soon as you have got the hang of this, Lovely Planets ups its game and places them in horrible places like on a platform you are jumping to or hidden around the very final corner of a difficult level. The best obstacle has to be the random apples that come flying towards you. If they hit the ground before you hi them you fail the level and sometimes they are nearly impossible to hit, especially when you are in a mid jump.

Even though you can fail a level in a few ways, whether it being not completing the target time or being hit by an enemy, it’s saving grace is that you are thrown back to the start instantly without any delay. In encourages players to jump right back in until you complete it right or beat a time. If there was too much of a delay I believe you would notice how often you have failed in what ever you are attempting to do but this way it does not feel as punishing.

Lovely planet is another example of a YouTube style game. It not as bad as other culprits like goat simulation as it does require some skill to master. Even as a novice player you will find a lot of fun with lovely planet as it offers a lush world, a Katamari style soundtrack with very fluid movements and controls. It is an easy pick up and play game that is perfect for you if you’re in the mood for an arcade shooter style of game. It may not be everyone’s game of choice as the only real end game goal is to beat high scores of strangers on the Leaderboards but some gamers love this style of challenge and Even if you fail a level or do not beat your time, you will find it hard to get mad at lovely game that is lovely planet.