Lovely Planet Review

Wow, Lovely Planet is bright. The kind of bright that makes you watch Casablanca just to get your eyes back to normal. After fifteen minutes of playing, rather than ignore the medical advice printed in manuals, I actually took it and rested away from the screen. This is the first game from QUICKTEQUILA and even their website says you won’t know what hit you, when you load it up in Steam. The story is apparently so abstract that it doesn’t exist, you’re just flung into a hundred worlds of first person shooting.

The graphics are simplistic and bright, that bit I’ve made clear, but the nature of the game itself is harder to quantify. It looks like a first-person shooter but plays like a puzzler - you have to reach the goal as well as shoot the enemies that are in set positions, in the quickest time possible. It’s made harder by the fact some of the enemies look like the scenery, others are holding hostages and some of the platforms you require will pop out of place if shot.

The game may look like something a madman created - then you realise it’s Japanese. So a madman likely did create it. Every enemy killed results in some kanji (Japanese text) floating up, there are several other instances of it - however I don’t know the translation. The music has a vibe very similar to LocoRoco or the Katamari series, very energetic and upbeat; although it doesn’t detract from the annoyance of having to retry a level.

The difficulty curve is quite manic, to put it nicely. The first world - Village - will have you trying a few times on occasion - the last level was moderately challenging. However it couldn’t have prepared me for the first level of world two - City. There is an enemy that is basically an apple which gets launched across an area - if it hits the ground, you fail the level. Village levels have one apple at a time. The first level of City has three apples launched in quick succession, requiring you to hit the first, turn a corner to hit the second and leap over some spikes between some rocks to hit the third. This is after two other apples and before another one. And it doesn’t get easier.

It’s not a bad game by any means, just very niche and gets incredibly difficult very quickly. If you like to prove you’re the best, the most recent update brought worldwide leaderboards - so if you can beat a level in less than nine seconds (unlike my 32 seconds) then you’ll do well. However, if you like to take your time and enjoy a bit of a storyline you should definitely look elsewhere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEBvOVrhnuA