Friday, February 13, 2009

Quick Impressions: Flower, Onechanbara

Didn't have a lot of TV time yesterday, but I ultimately did get to download and play through Flower, a PSN title that I'd been looking forward to for an absurdly long time.

There are certainly some comparisons that can be made between Flower and Flow, the previous PSN effort from ThatGameCompany; there's no score, there aren't any "lives", there's no time limit, and both games feature a motion-control scheme that's intended to be as intuitive and unobtrusive as possible. More specifically, Flow and Flower seem to be aiming for a different pleasure center in your brain than what you may be accustomed to.

I seem to recall one of the developers describing the game as being "a flower's dream", and I must admit: the game reminded me very much of dreams I've had in which I'm flying. The motion-controls are a little bit touchy at times but they never got in my way - I was able to soar and loop at will. Each blade of grass appears to be individually rendered, and the sensation you get when you swoop into the ground and the grass is pushed back is just breathtaking.

If you have the means, I highly recommend it. I feel like $10 is just a tad too high, but it's a remarkable experience - if you're open to it.

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On the other hand, I popped in my GameFlown copy of Onechanbara this morning; it is the exact opposite of Flower. Let's just leave it at that.

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