This review was originally published on 30/01/2016 on our sister site
Lovely Planet is a strange old game. But I guess you can call it original at the very least. A very different take on the first person shooter genre, and I wouldn’t necessarily say that it is aimed at fans of said genre. It is a game that frustrates more often than it delights, but it wouldn’t surprise me if a (very) small niche of people come to love it. Let’s take a closer look at Lovely Planet.
Set in a cutesy abstract world full of pastel colours, at first glance it looks like a kind, accepting and friendly game. And simple mechanics of running, jumping (the mapping of the jump button to LT took a little bit of getting used to) and shooting will mean it is easily accessible to most people, even the quick and snappy 20 second levels means it is very pick-up-and-playable. But I soon came to realise just how infuriating the game become after the first 15-20 levels or so. I wouldn’t necessarily say it is the games fault entirely, as it does a very good job of picking out the flaws in your gaming ability, and rubbing them in your face. Take a look at the video below, the latter section was certainly filled with expletives my end, but don’t worry, the video itself is family friendly (though no doubt it’ll be frustrating to watch!).
You’re equipped with a semi-automatic…..gun? There is a question mark there because depending on your viewpoint I guess it could be a number of things, maybe a wand? Whatever it is, it shoots purple blocks, and you need to shoot the red things. These come in a number of forms, different shaped enemies, some of which are static and do nothing, others shoot purple blocks back at you. At just the right speed where you know you have enough time to move away from said block, so whenever you managed to get shot, you know you should have done better. Couple that with what I’ve decided are red bombs, that will kill you if they hit the floor anywhere (and can be very tricky to shoot down) along with jumping challenges and other bits and bobs the game that looks cute and fun from the outside gets you thinking about a number of things at once. And the once slow looking purple blocks have hit you before you even noticed they were heading straight towards your face. There is no fuss about death either, you are immediately back at the start of the level going again. This constant cycle becomes frustrating in itself, but coupled with the damned music - which has quickly gone from quirky, to the irritating musical equivalent of a child continuously asking ‘WHY?’ to every answer you give – it become a game that won’t spend long on your screen.
It’s it nice that developers are trying new, different and zany things, without them we’d just be seeing the same old stuff over and over. But after the first 10 minutes of playing, I could find little to enjoy in Lovely Planet, and had to turn it off quickly to save my controller from being broken into multiple pieces.
