Buy Lovely Planet

Abundant with Japanese text and whimsically oversized bric-a-brac, the nonsense world of Lovely Planet could easily be mistaken for the
latest project from Katamari creator Keita Takahashi. Indeed, as a homage to the Japanese director’s work it is reverential to the point of plagiarism, complete with his trademark pastel colours, a nefariously catchy soundtrack and a font lifted straight from Noby Noby Boy. As it turns out, this initial ruse is just the first of the many traps and pranks that developer Quicktequila has gleefully threaded throughout Lovely Planet, constituting a debut effort that loves nothing more than to make a complete fool of the player time and time again. Be it a slyly hidden enemy or that moment when, mid jump, a fatal patch of goo conveniently slips right under your feet moments before you touch the ground, one thing’s for sure: Lovely Planet doesn’t let you get comfy.

It’s not that the game’s particularly complicated. On the contrary, Lovely Planet is about as rudimentary a first person shooter as you’re likely to find in 2014, its blocky geometry and utter dismissal of narrative ambitions rounding off what is essentially a back to basics re-evaluation of the genre. Restricting the player’s abilities to running, jumping and shooting, the game thrusts the mechanical core of first-person shooters to the centre of the agenda, cutting straight to the pavlovian delight of squeezing a digital trigger and amplifying it through increasingly frantic and difficult challenges. Unlike most modern video games which introduce perks, upgrades and additional abilities as the game unfolds, Lovely Planet equips the player with all the tools they’ll need at the get go, consecrating the player’s raw skill as the sole means and measure of their progress. As such, there’s no back doors when it comes to the more challenging levels – it’s a case of get good or give up. This axiom holds true not just across the game’s hundred or so stages but also at the level of individual enemy encounters. Players scarcely have more than a few milliseconds in which to eliminate targets and in later sections of the game, each of these small victories is swiftly interrupted by another incoming missile or deviously placed obstacle. Such hostility affords very little room for improvisation, fostering a highly prescriptive style of play in which just one correct approach to each level seems possible: some levels might as well include a driving line of the likes seen in Forza or Gran Turismo given the dearth of wiggle room available. Thus, Lovely Planet often plays like a puzzle game, the player fumbling towards each level’s “solution” – jump there, shoot that enemy first, then dodge that bullet, etc – through trial and error.

It is in this sense that this cutesy, ostensibly kid-friendly shooter is actually a close relative of Dark Souls, both games offering experiences characterised by copious rehearsal and meticulous execution, not to mention crippling difficulty. But where the layers of complexity in Dark Souls afford the player a certain amount of agency – be it through the choice of weapons, experience point allocation or class selection – Lovely Planet is significantly more restrictive. In some ways this works to the game’s advantage: with just one variable to consider, it’s always clear to the player that their own physical ability is the only barrier to success, making for a more accessible experience than navigating the many esoteric and ambiguous systems which notoriously turn newcomers off Dark Souls. By the same token, however, Lovely Planet is also a less mentally stimulating affair. From Software’s game teaches the virtues of patience and critical play, prompting players to continually question and re-evaluate their approach in response to the situation at hand, cautiously attending to a multitude of competing factors. They become unstuck not through brute force repetition but by examining every angle of the problem until something clicks, reaching a bespoke solution all their own. In Lovely Planet however, there is little mystery about how a level should be beaten, with enemies often approaching you head on or placed helpfully within your immediate line of sight. Thus, the player’s only option then is to run through the level over and over, until finally they perform each step of the developer’s dance with absolute precision. As with real life choreography, the end product is often breathtaking, and with enough practice the player can find themselves pirouetting through levels, dispatching foes with delicate touch of a virtuoso. But such flawless runs are possible only after long sessions of arduous repetition, and at the point when the player’s interaction with the game has become entirely automated. Simply put: where Dark Souls is a mindful experience, Lovely Planet is often a mindless one.

As difficult and repetitious as Lovely Planet gets however, rarely is it frustrating. It’s hard to hold a grudge against a game so whimsical,
especially when it delivers even the most nefarious of its tricks with such stone-faced innocence. Indeed, it’s the wealth of charm exuded throughout Lovely Planet in tandem with its highly simplified mechanics that solidify it as a thoroughly accessible introduction to the “masocore” genre, capturing the cathartic rush of accomplishment that draws players to such punishing games while avoiding the usual dark imagery and reams of potentially overwhelming minutiae. Indeed, it’s dichotomies like this that define Lovely Planet – the balance of frustration and satisfaction, the interplay of skill and memory, the cuddly visuals disguising hardcore difficulty – and hence amount to an inevitably polarising experience. While the ecstatic hit of finishing a particularly tricky level is certainly satisfying, whether such fleeting contentment is worth all the preceding effort will vary from player to player, as will the entertainment value of a experience which relies so much upon repetition. Still, players will undergo a very palpable sense of growth, able to pull of feats of skill seemingly impossible when just starting out. Whether or not this transformation carries any meaning outside of the game itself is debatable, but more important is the feeling it evokes, coating Lovely Planet with a sugary sweet sprinkling of gratification that some will find hard to resist.

It gets so frustrating. I ♥♥♥♥ing hate it. 10/10

Although I got this game for free in the BundleStars giveaway, I am planning on buying the game for friends. This game is incredible for people who have played FPS games for a while on PC. You can truly test your movement, aiming, timing and puzzle skills because believe it or not, this game's got it all.

The game is split up into five worlds, with a varying amount of levels in each world. You'll be getting around 90 levels with individual leaderboards for Global, Friends and Your own scores. If you have a group of friends who love to be competitive, you could have a semi-multiplayer experience, with that one guy getting like 2 seconds ahead of everyone else's times and nobody knowing how.

The idea of the game is to shoot the red box people, which the game refers to as 'baddies'. Once all of them have been defeated, you need to walk into a purple pole to submit your time. The major point of this game for me is how although there is a set out route for general play, there are many shortcuts that you can find. Some are massive whereas some may only shave 0.5 seconds. It's a gold mine for competitive players who want to best their friends. The only rules in this game are that you start at x and you need to reach y having defeated the baddies.

For not even £5, this game is worth it. It took me approximately 10 hours or so to 100% the game, but with leaderboards, if you're serious enough to try topping them you could spend much more time than me on it. I don't know how people who class themselves as 'casual' fps players would handle this game, as World 4 and 5 get pretty intense and can also get quite frustrating.

The game has a 3 Star rating system. The three stars are Blue, Green and Yellow/Gold which are obtained through:
Blue - Shooting all the baddies and completing the level.
Green - Clearing the level quickly.
Yellow/Gold - And achieving 100% accuracy.

Although you can achieve all 3 stars in one run, you don't need to in order to 100% the level. You can run through it with bad accuracy in order to get a good time for green, then run it again much slower to achieve the yellow/gold star for accuracy.

If I'm not mistaken, when you get a time on the leaderboard and you didn't get all the stars, next to your name you will have a square. However if you get all the stars, your square will be a star shape instead, showing everyone who sees you on the leaderboard as having achieved 100% accuracy along with your good time.

Even if you were casually picking up this game, it's a good way to improve at many things you would need to improve at other FPS.

If I had one complaint, it's about how if you walk too close to an edge, instead of walking off it, you walk down it, causing yourself to screw up a jump and potentially end a nice time.

(100% Completion)

Get ready to "git gud m8", and if you can't get ready to do just that... well then this game might not be for you. This game will sharpen you reflexes and make you twitch that mouse like you never have before! So crank up that DPI, hold your breath, and NEVER STOP MOVING FORWARD!

I once failed to ACE a level by les than 1/100th of a second.

Verdict:
REPLAY/10
(Highly Reccommended)

The soundtrack makes me happy so I don't scream at enemies with homing attacks or mines.
You get to airshot apples it's basically quake!
But really the soundtrack is A+

your kids should play Lovely Planet !! not CS :GO

Weird japanese but okay.

Nice polished relaxing yet infuriating platformer. 5*.

An incredibly fun, simple, light-hearted FPS with a look, feel, and vibe VERY reminiscent of 1995, 1996 era Sega Saturn and PlayStation 1 games. If those games were the tapestry of your childhood (or in my case, the high school years), then this game should give you the warm feelings - besides just being a lot of simple, easy fun! Not a deep and immersive game, but for the price, I can't recommend it highly enough!

If, like me, you have a past of fast paced FPS (Quake 3, Warsow, HL, etc.) you will like this game. To climb the global leaderboard you need to be fast and smart. The musics are also great, especially the one in the City levels. Add me to your friend list and try to beat my times.

Good luck!