Lovely Planet lands on Wii U, but is it as lovely as it seems?

Lovely Planet drops you into a beautiful dream-like world surrounded with surreal floating sharks, machine guns and folding fans. Running, jumping and shooting your way through this colourful wonderland, your task is to gun down enemies and reach the goal in the fastest time possible whilst also making sure to not shoot any good guys (unless you want to hear a hearty scream).

Starting in the City, you’ll find yourself traversing an upbeat world with a J-Pop style backing track, surrounded by floating milkshakes, fish and hand bags. Each level in this world is fairly easy and introduces you to water bombs, red-faced cubes and different coloured platforms.

Red-faced cubes are littered around the world, and play the part of the typical enemy, the Goomba of Lovely Planet. They come in different forms; some shoot out blocks, others are elongated and do nothing, some fire out homing bullets and others come in the form of moving goo similar to 1958's The Blob. With an unlimited supply of arrows you have to take these enemies out before they do the same to you. Thankfully you’ll be introduced to these enemies gradually throughout each of the worlds... until a bit later on, that is. Also be wary that there’s a blue variety of the cube men that act as ‘good guys’, they let out hilarious screams when shot, so it is tempting to kill them, but it also sends you back to the start of the stage.

When you’re not taking out the vast array of cube-type enemies, you’ll be hurriedly jumping from platform to platform and shooting deadly water bombs in mid-air. Platforms come in blue and red colours, both of which disappear when shot. Red platforms will cause instant death when touched, so you have to be careful to shoot the red platforms away without also shooting the blue platforms that you’ll be using to continue the level.

The platforming and cube men can be troublesome, but they don’t come close to the water bombs which launch into the air with a firework sound effect when you approach them and hit the floor with a big splash - You’ll get transported back to the start of the level if you don’t shoot them before they land.


I’m not particularly well-versed in FPS games and whilst initially I thought that could be a problem it may have actually worked in my favour, as this doesn’t play like your typical FPS title, despite how things may look. Less of a gun and more of an bow and arrow (despite shooting purple cubes), the game is more like an extreme, fast paced and colourful version of archery. 

Aiming with the left stick and moving with the right, it controls as an FPS should, but with no reticle you really have to get to grips with your weapon and become as one. Acting like arrows as oppose to bullets, your shots will slowly descend the further you shoot them, and with water bombs in the distance needing to be taken out, it will initially be quite daunting trying to shoot them with no reticle and an arrow-like trajectory, but you’ll get the feel for it eventually and know the perfect place to shoot no matter how near or far your target may be.

You’re able to lock on to enemies with the L button, which is perfect when you’re surrounded by enemies but is useless for the water bombs, as the lock-on trails behind them just a bit too slow and when you mix that with the trajectory of your arrows it means you’ll never be able to get them without your own input.


There are 5 worlds in Lovely Planet, each containing around 20 levels. Every world uses the same general assets, with the colourful platforms and planets being a constant, but each has its own individual floating decorations, music and subtle style changes that make them stand out from each other.

World 1 introduces you to most of the basic principles of the game, with the following worlds concentrating on specific things. For example, World 2 has a mixture of the aforementioned enemies but concentrates mainly on the water bombs, which are suddenly a huge headache, springing up at the worst times, only giving you a few seconds to take aim and shoot, whilst World 3 concentrates on jump pads and light spheres. The jump pads launch you high into the sky and require you to take out enemies and bullets mid-air whilst the light spheres turn on when you get close and cast light over an area, giving you a short amount of time to escape before death gets a hold of you.

Each world has its own feel, with concentration on one or two particular enemies/gimmicks per world being the general rule, but not exclusively, as later worlds begin to use the wider range of enemies and gimmicks that you’ve seen throughout the entirety of the game, creating a hectic mid-air shooting, platform popping, light sphere dodging nightmare.


By the time you’ve worked your way up to World 4 you’ll be inundated with enemies to take out. The homing missiles will be following you everywhere you go, tall demons will be hidden in the middle of two balls of goop and the dreaded water bombs make a return, popping up in every direction possible, next to a swarm of things that want to kill you, requiring the most precise, perfectly timed shots, along with juggling the game of survival all of these moving blobs and homing missiles put you through.

The game records the amount of time you take to complete each level, tasking you with completing levels as fast as possible but even so, you’ll find that you can’t really do things at your own pace anyway. Want to take it slow on the levels and worry about a fast time later? Sorry, the enemies won’t allow it. Thanks to the spheres of light that you must escape within a certain time and the water bombs that you must shoot before they hit the ground, you’ll find that 95% of the time you’re required to soldier on as fast as you can just so that you can kill everything that moves. It’s certainly a clever way of giving you a fast-paced and exciting experience without the usual premise of having to complete a world with a set timer.

This need to do everything as fast as possible, with pin-point precision on your shots, perfectly timed jumps and knowing the level like the back of your hand makes for an extremely hard game, though. I thought World 2 was a struggle and wondered if the game would stay at that level of difficulty, but no, it goes on to require Mega Man and Super Meat Boy levels of skill, and had me gunning down enemies like a pro speed-runner by the end of it.

The difficulty is both a good and bad thing. From the outside and even just from playing World 1 you could be fooled into thinking this is a quirky and laid back shooter that you can simply play for the experience thanks to its cute music and visuals, but as you get further into the game, the difficulty gets so extreme that you really need great patience for it.

I found myself spending half an hour or more on a level that technically takes 25 seconds to complete thanks to constantly dying whilst learning the exact set of jumps, shots and places to run that I needed to do in order to complete the level. Whilst it takes time, it's extremely rewarding when you complete a level that is hard as nails and it’s pleasing on the eye too, as when you know a level inside out you’ll find yourself spinning 360 degrees to shoot a mid air water balloon, spinning back around to shoot a missile that’s right in your face before jumping, gunning and running on a platform, looking like a true pro in the process. The journey to those exhilarating and impressive moments is a hard and sometimes frustrating one but it’s worth the dedication it takes to achieve it.

Whilst the extreme difficulty can prove to be great fun for hardened gamers, a lot of people will be put off by this. In the same way that Super Meat Boy is a fantastic title but not for everyone, this is the same, and I can’t see a large percentage of people finding the patience to work past even the second world.


With around 100 levels and the extreme difficulty of the title, there’s hours and hours worth of content in this game, but for more replay-ability you can go back and try for 3 stars on each stage, with a star rewarded for great time, killing all enemies and good accuracy, something that is sure to be incredibly hard with those pesky water bombs. There aren’t any online leader-boards though, which seems bizarre for a title all about getting the best times possible, but it’s not a huge problem as this game is as much about completing the levels and going on a journey as it is getting the best scores.

The style of this game is fantastic. With its N64-type polygonal models, simple textures, pink and blue colours and floating objects, it gives off a true feeling of being in a relaxing dream state. It’s full of quirky little touches too, such as one section with huge letters written on the wall saying ‘Wrong way’ or ‘I Love You’. But whilst I personally love the look and feel of it, I can see how the low-poly aesthetics wouldn't be for everyone.

The game runs fine for the most part, but there are times when surrounded by water bombs, homing missiles and enemies that the frame-rate takes a hit – It doesn’t happen often but it is noticeable in a game as fast paced as this.

The music fits perfectly with the general feel of the game and is so fun and catchy, from the quirky J-Pop vibes of World 1 to the Vaporwave feel of World 4, though with one song per world the game could have benefit from a few more tracks, as you'll find yourself listening to the same song for quite a while. As far as atmosphere is concerned though,The Swamp levels are especially impressive and feel so eerie and melancholic thanks to the music that I initially didn't realise that the world is using pretty much the same assets as World 1 but with a fog overlay.

Lovely Planet is a refreshing experience and easy to pick up but hard to master. Whilst the difficulty is part of its charm, at some points it can be unforgivable to the player, so you have to consider whether you have the patience and time for a title such as this. If you can handle the steep difficulty though, you’ll be in for a wonderful, fast-paced and highly rewarding time.