Topic: Review of Lovely Planet

Review of Lovely Planet

An out of this world FPS!

When I think first person shooter I visualize mowing down hundreds of enemies in a blaze of gory fun. What I don't imagine is shooting enemies that are cubes and triangles with a semi-automatic stick in a world reminiscent of that of Katamari Damacy. The latter thought is Lovely Planet, a surprisingly good mix between a platformer and FPS where instead of hiding behind walls to dodge bullets that could mean certain death, you must rely on fast reflexes, precise aim, and the motivation to muddle through countless sessions of trial and error to even think about reaching a completion over a singular level.

Lovely Planet orbits around an unnamed silent protagonist (Gee, where have I seen that before?) who is journeying to reach his desired titular destination. Players will have to guide this yellow-skinned character across five worlds each consisting of about twenty levels each. In order to beat a level, players must defeat EVERY baddie that comes their way. This is no easy task as players must overcome heat-seeking purple enemy projectile thingies, red balls that make you restart after they hit the ground, slime that kills you upon touch, platforms that disappear after being stood on for too long, shields that kill you if you stay in their vicinity, and enemies that twirl fast enough to make the level restart! Although there is a challenge to be had with these components, there are frustrating controls that make difficult levels not so fair!

Despite the Dualshock 4 suiting Lovely Planet well for comfortable controls that make it easy to pull off the 360 no-scopes needed to complete each level, the lock-on feature manages to make Lovely Planet take a step back from a fair challenge perspective. By pressing R1 on the remote, a white dot will appear and automatically lock-on to an enemy. However, the accuracy of this mechanic is highly questionable as when attempting to shoot enemies such as the red balls, the dot aimlessly follows a moving target such as that, making it incredibly difficult to get the three stars needed to fully complete each level. Thankfully there's a fantastic art-style and soundtrack that calms me down from this high level of infuriation.

As stated earlier, this game looks like it came right out of the world of Katamari Damacy. Meaning, the game has vibrant graphics with a refreshening cartoonish aesthetic in a usually gritty genre. Admittedly the graphics look too much like its inspiration in the way that they look literally rough around the edges and generally outdated. The soundtrack on the other hand consists of fantastic songs that make use of various Japanese instruments to create a lighthearted collection of music.

Lovely Planet is a well-needed refreshment to the first person shooter genre. With its lighthearted tone and out of this world components, it fulfills that statement completely. Newcomers as well as veterans to the FPS genre may find it hard to get engrossed in this experience. Newcomers might get held back by the somewhat unconventional controls and veterans by the overall change of tone for the game. However, rest assured in knowing that Lovely Planet delivers a fantastic experience that no one should pass off.

@Ultimategamer132 I'm just going to reply to this one thread before I lock all the ones you just made, but PLEASE do not create a thread just to post a review, you can share that on the OP thread for each individual game.

Please and thank you.

EDIT: and just a reminder, if you create another review thread it will result in you being banned from the site.