TinyBuild Games is at it again with their latest offering in Lonely Planet. Hitting the Wii U eShop, Loveley Planet is a first-person shooter, something already a rarity on the platform, that uses a very simplistic looking world of colorful shapes to hide a very intense experience. The game looks to draw visual inspiration from games like Katamari Damacy, but while that game is a more relaxing stroll through a weird world, Lovely Plant brings near Super Meat Boy level difficulty to the experience.
You control a character wielding a sort of bow and arrow like weapon that must rid each level of baddies. Pink blocks will shoot back, bouncing balls need to be popped before the reach the ground, dangerous perils must be avoiding and much more stand in your way. Level are all nice and short, but will require to memorize the patterns of all the enemies on display. You can bet that Lovely Planet will have you restarting to a frustrating level, even in the early levels.
This isn’t to say that the experience isn’t a whole lot of fun, but Lovely Planet is poised to be a high-sore/speed-run type of game rather that telling a story, or providing innovative gameplay. It’s all works fine in theory, but the Wii U gamepad seems to really lack the precision of a mouse and keyboard, or even that of one of the other counterpart consoles. You’ll quickly find the lock-on button will be your best friend during the 100 or so levels Lovely Planet tosses at you.
Controlling your character feels very floaty (although this does seem to be intentional to the world) and aiming is sort of clunky. In a standard shooter this is less an issue, but in a game where speed and precision are key, it really hurts the experience. Aiming feels a little slow from joystick move to onscreen action, but this could just be me. Lovely Planet is all about speeding through, so tight controls are a must. You can, of course, take your time during each level, but since there is no story here, it makes little sense to do so as you won’t be advancing the plot in any way.
Visually Lovely Plant is very colorful and relaxing and which fits great with the games title. The art-style invokes Katamari Damacy mixed with a sort of Easter color scheme. The almost voxel like world is fun and helps to mitigate ones anger that will arise from restarting a level half a dozen times. Everything runs really smooth, but as this isn’t a demanding game, even for the Wii U, this is to be expected. Just know what you are getting into here as the visuals beguile a much more demanding game than initially lets on.
Sound is also on point with a number of fun and uplifting melodies that play throughout the games many levels. While it may not be soundtrack worthy, the music does help to complete the experience.
Lovely Planet is a fun distraction from time to time, hence why it took me a while getting to this review, but it one that is better served on other platforms. Add to the fact that there are no online leaderboards (what year is this again?) and you will be playing the game against yourself. If you like the rinse and repeat style of speed-running that the YouTube kids love, then Lovely Planet may be up your alley. But you are probably best served with a version of the game on another platform.
*A copy of the game was provided for this review*
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