HomeVideo GamesGAME REVIEW | A Shooting Gallery Diversion In "Lovely Planet Arcade"

GAME REVIEW | A Shooting Gallery Diversion In "Lovely Planet Arcade"

GAME REVIEW | A Shooting Gallery Diversion In "Lovely Planet Arcade"

Lovely Planet came out about two years ago on Steam for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems, but it's finally made the transition to consoles this year. It was only a matter of time for a follow-up game was released, arriving this year with Lovely Planet Arcade. However, this spin-off is a very different game. It's not bad, but those wanting a true sequel will be waiting awhile.

The original Lovely Planet was a pastel-colored world with a stripped-down but adorable-looking visual style. Its geometrics and characters actually could almost be mistaken for those seen in Katamari Damacy. (Indeed, as the game also has a Japanese motif to go along with it.) The goal of Lovely Planet was to traverse a small map while running and jumping about a level, avoiding hazards by shooting enemies and dodging pitfalls & pools of acid or magma. Getting hit a single time means death, forcing you to restart the level.

LovelyPlanetArcade1

There's pretty much no story to the game, but there is a ton of levels to play through. Burst-session play comes highly recommended, lest you want to get burned out with the repetitive nature of the game. Lovely Planet is a fun game to play, but the control scheme for the console versions is such that the better option is to just get it on the PC and playing with mouse and keyboard controls.

The above paragraph just described the original game. However, Lovely Planet Arcade is a bit different. Instead, the game has further been stripped down, and it's now more of a shooting gallery. You can jump, but it's pretty useless and isn't used to traverse the levels. While the game is still about speed-running through the levels for the fastest times, your character is slower. The levels are even smaller, meaning a lot more things will kill you as everything is closer together.

LovelyPlanetArcade2

Its bomb hazards do seems to have a broken and blown up hitbox, as you have to blow them up or they will kill you no matter how close you are to them. Good thing they only activate once you are close to them. Lovely Planet Arcade is still a fun game, but more condensed. It's a bit repetitive, but for $6, it's not a bad pick-up. Gamers wanting a more substantive experience can pick up the original for the same price on Steam though.

VERDICT:

The Good: A fun little diversion to be played in quick bursts.
The Bad: You can jump, but it seems pointless.
The Ugly: The blast radius for the bombs seems off.

SUMMARY: Lovely Planet Arcade is a fun but repetitive frills-free first-person shooter from QUICKTEQUILA.

FINAL GRADE: 

Review code provided by tinyBuild Games

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