Former PC exclusive, Lovely Planet has now been ported to Xbox One
One of my personal favourite games of 2014 and one of the most enjoyable games to have come out of India, Lovely Planet has just made its debut on the Xbox One. The former PC exclusive by local developer QuickTequila has been ported onto the Xbox One thanks to publisher TinyBuild Games, however in moving to the console the game may have lost some of its core features.
Lovely Planet is deceptively simple, so much so that people probably won’t even give it a second look; but those who do find an unforgiving world of speed runs, time trials and tricky manoeuvring that make Lovely Planet an indie classic. While most indie developers try too hard to do something fancy or out of the box, Lovely Planet thrives on simple gameplay with simple instructions in the most abstract yet charming world. Run, Jump, Dodge, Shoot. That’s all there is too it, and yet you will fail time and again. The game brings back brutally difficult levels, the likes of which would fit just right in back when arcades drove gamers mad. The game’s charming soundtrack and pastel world complement the minimalist theme and go a long way in making Lovely Planet feel like a complete package.
While the game itself is quite amazing, the Xbox One port unfortunately doesn’t live up to the PC version. With snap aim quick keys, and built in sticky aim to compensate for a controller as opposed to a mouse the game doesn’t feel as intense and gets a bit ‘clunky’. While the PC version had leaderboards added after hundreds of fans requested the feature you’d think it would make its way to the Xbox One launch, unfortunately that isn’t the case. Players still have only the star rating system to judge their own performance with no means of comparing it to friends. This, I feel is a major let down, because for a game so hell bent on making you go back just to shave off that fraction of a second it really needs to let you show off against your friends and the world. With Lovely Planet on Xbox One beating tough puzzles and stages still has that dark souls-esque sense of satisfaction, however without leaderboards I for one am not satisfied with looking at 3 stars all by myself.
