Bumping this due to posting at the end of the last page...
When someone in this thread described the game as feeling like Wave Race, Pilotwings and Pikmin combined, and another person pointed out it costs as much as a couple trips to McDonalds, I decided to buy Flower.
Let me start by saying I'm a person prone to buyer's remorse. Heck, I even felt buyer's remorse with LittleBigPlanet, and that was a Christmas gift! (My problem with LBP were the finicky controls, for the record).
But I feel no remorse with Flower. Only joy. I'm trying to think of how to explain it, how I would've explained it to myself if I could go back in time, how I'd describe Flower to a person who nearly didn't pick it up due to the lack of a demo.
I guess I'd start by explaining what it is. You begin with a petal floating in the wind. Just one single petal. You then press any button -- any button at all -- to blow the wind. This causes your one petal to fly forward, whipping along in the wind. You tilt the controller to steer, and the motion-sensing is superb, detecting the slightest inclination of the controller so that you can move around by tipping the controller as gently as possible. It's fast, precise and effortless, quickly becoming second nature. Take it from a Wii gamer; it's as good as it gets.
The first level, the only level I've played so far (and I've played it several times, spanning a couple hours), is set in a grassland. Spread about the grassland are flower buds. By flying near each bud with your wind, it bursts into bloom, rumbling your controller (which is very satisfying), making a musical note and adding another petal to your breeze. As you fly about the landscape making flower after flower unfurl, your stream of petals grows longer and more colorful, and the music builds. Blooming patchs of flowers restores color to dry patches of grass and causes more buds to appear, often in trails leading to the next big patch. And so it continues, with no time limit and no HUD telling you what to do or where to go, although brief in-game cutscenes direct your attention toward key spots.
It really does feel like Wave Race, Pilotwings and Pikmin combined. Wave Race, in that soaring over the hills and skimming the rolling waves of grass feels like slicing surf on a jet ski. Pilotwings, in that the world is vast, mysterious and endlessly explorable, the sounds of the rustling grass and wind crisp and atmospheric. And Pikmin, in its reverence for nature, the sheer lushness and vibrancy of a living, breathing landscape, not to mention the addictive thrill of blooming more and more flowers, often in speedy chains as you whiz along, the world growing stronger for it.
The graphics are incredible, easily among the best I've seen this gen. No HUD or distracting text; just wilderness spreading as far as the eye can see, rippling in the wind as clouds pass overhead and cast shadows. The music and sound is incredible too, truly sucking you into the world and suspending your disbelief. The overall experience is haunting, some indescribable blend of existential melancholy and a true buoyancy of spirit, and the whole range of emotion that entails.
They really ought to release the first level as a demo. Flower is an experience not to be missed, and it's money well-spent given how endlessly replayable the first level alone is.
When someone in this thread described the game as feeling like Wave Race, Pilotwings and Pikmin combined, and another person pointed out it costs as much as a couple trips to McDonalds, I decided to buy Flower.
Let me start by saying I'm a person prone to buyer's remorse. Heck, I even felt buyer's remorse with LittleBigPlanet, and that was a Christmas gift! (My problem with LBP were the finicky controls, for the record).
But I feel no remorse with Flower. Only joy. I'm trying to think of how to explain it, how I would've explained it to myself if I could go back in time, how I'd describe Flower to a person who nearly didn't pick it up due to the lack of a demo.
I guess I'd start by explaining what it is. You begin with a petal floating in the wind. Just one single petal. You then press any button -- any button at all -- to blow the wind. This causes your one petal to fly forward, whipping along in the wind. You tilt the controller to steer, and the motion-sensing is superb, detecting the slightest inclination of the controller so that you can move around by tipping the controller as gently as possible. It's fast, precise and effortless, quickly becoming second nature. Take it from a Wii gamer; it's as good as it gets.
The first level, the only level I've played so far (and I've played it several times, spanning a couple hours), is set in a grassland. Spread about the grassland are flower buds. By flying near each bud with your wind, it bursts into bloom, rumbling your controller (which is very satisfying), making a musical note and adding another petal to your breeze. As you fly about the landscape making flower after flower unfurl, your stream of petals grows longer and more colorful, and the music builds. Blooming patchs of flowers restores color to dry patches of grass and causes more buds to appear, often in trails leading to the next big patch. And so it continues, with no time limit and no HUD telling you what to do or where to go, although brief in-game cutscenes direct your attention toward key spots.
It really does feel like Wave Race, Pilotwings and Pikmin combined. Wave Race, in that soaring over the hills and skimming the rolling waves of grass feels like slicing surf on a jet ski. Pilotwings, in that the world is vast, mysterious and endlessly explorable, the sounds of the rustling grass and wind crisp and atmospheric. And Pikmin, in its reverence for nature, the sheer lushness and vibrancy of a living, breathing landscape, not to mention the addictive thrill of blooming more and more flowers, often in speedy chains as you whiz along, the world growing stronger for it.
The graphics are incredible, easily among the best I've seen this gen. No HUD or distracting text; just wilderness spreading as far as the eye can see, rippling in the wind as clouds pass overhead and cast shadows. The music and sound is incredible too, truly sucking you into the world and suspending your disbelief. The overall experience is haunting, some indescribable blend of existential melancholy and a true buoyancy of spirit, and the whole range of emotion that entails.
They really ought to release the first level as a demo. Flower is an experience not to be missed, and it's money well-spent given how endlessly replayable the first level alone is.
). Best downloadable game i've played.
