There's something supremely entertaining about a simple, lo-fi game that doesn't aim to complicate its mechanics. Love is such a game, and the developer has outdone himself with the remake Love+. A love song (which makes the title appropriate!) to the era of tough platforming, Love+ is fun, polished, and best of all, available for whatever you want.The graphics of Love+ have a very distinct aesthetic that is best compared to the Atari. However, the Atari never had animations as smooth and beautiful as Love+. The game uses color extremely effectively, with the environment being a single color and items that you interact with being white. The sound is amazing as well, with tracks that range from peaceful homages to 8-bit tunes of yesteryear to excellent IDM songs. All are listenable outside of the game itself, and are fantastic.
The gameplay of Love+ relies to the classic indie formula of making a game as difficult as possible, but simple. You move and jump quite fast, which accounts for the difficulty, as you must make some fairly precise jumps. There are 11 levels of such challenges, and there are only three things you really interact with at all through those 11 levels: jump pads (bounces you into the air), hazards (spikes, lava, whatever; kills you instantly), and the landscape itself. Thankfully, the levels are laid out in such a way and polished to such perfection that it doesn't feel tired or worn whatsoever.
The one gimmick that the game has going for it is the checkpoint placement feature. While standing on the environment, you may place a checkpoint. When you die, you will instantly be respawned at the checkpoint. This makes many of the challenges less frustrating, as you can simply place the checkpoint immediately before trying to tackle it. Death is a relatively minor nuisance, although you only have 100 lives to complete the whole game. We completed the game on our first try with 30+ lives, so it's not too difficult to get used to. 30 of the lost lives were in the first level alone as we were getting used to the controls.
The game's only real issues are breadth of content and resolution. The game defaults to windowed, which is nice, but it needs to be played fullscreen so that you can make those tough jumps. As long as you don't mind pixels (we love them!) it won't be an issue. The lack of content is a simple issue: there are 11 levels, and if you decent at platforming, you can finish the game in about 15-20 minutes. Still, it's a very enjoyable 15-20 minutes.
Love+ is operating under a donationware scheme. You can't get the game unless you donate to the developer, with a minimum donation of $1. In essence, it functions much like a pay-what-you-want sale. As Love+ is an insanely polished and entertaining - although short - game, it comes with our highest recommendations. You can check out the demo and buy the game through the developer's website. Our recommended donation is $5, as the soundtrack alone is worth that.
Verdict:
The gameplay of Love+ relies to the classic indie formula of making a game as difficult as possible, but simple. You move and jump quite fast, which accounts for the difficulty, as you must make some fairly precise jumps. There are 11 levels of such challenges, and there are only three things you really interact with at all through those 11 levels: jump pads (bounces you into the air), hazards (spikes, lava, whatever; kills you instantly), and the landscape itself. Thankfully, the levels are laid out in such a way and polished to such perfection that it doesn't feel tired or worn whatsoever.
The one gimmick that the game has going for it is the checkpoint placement feature. While standing on the environment, you may place a checkpoint. When you die, you will instantly be respawned at the checkpoint. This makes many of the challenges less frustrating, as you can simply place the checkpoint immediately before trying to tackle it. Death is a relatively minor nuisance, although you only have 100 lives to complete the whole game. We completed the game on our first try with 30+ lives, so it's not too difficult to get used to. 30 of the lost lives were in the first level alone as we were getting used to the controls.The game's only real issues are breadth of content and resolution. The game defaults to windowed, which is nice, but it needs to be played fullscreen so that you can make those tough jumps. As long as you don't mind pixels (we love them!) it won't be an issue. The lack of content is a simple issue: there are 11 levels, and if you decent at platforming, you can finish the game in about 15-20 minutes. Still, it's a very enjoyable 15-20 minutes.
Love+ is operating under a donationware scheme. You can't get the game unless you donate to the developer, with a minimum donation of $1. In essence, it functions much like a pay-what-you-want sale. As Love+ is an insanely polished and entertaining - although short - game, it comes with our highest recommendations. You can check out the demo and buy the game through the developer's website. Our recommended donation is $5, as the soundtrack alone is worth that.
Verdict:
The Baconing (6/23/11)
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