Flower
Flower is a game that delivers a new and refreshing approach to what constitutes a video game. It's a concept that doesn't really involve a story, any main characters or any assigned missions or objectives for that matter. Thatgamecompany takes you on a nice, soothing journey were the background becomes the foreground while you control and change the landscape around you.
Flower sets the opening scene in a grungy looking apartment in what appears to be a large metropolitan city such New York. A lonely looking droopy flower stands alone in its pot by the window. To begin the game, you tilt your controller and the camera zooms into the flower. Once you hold on to any button for about 2 seconds you're whisked away and the game play begins. You're suddenly in a large field and you start off as a single petal. By pressing the X button, a small gust of wind pushes the petal along while you tilt your controller either clockwise or counter clock wise to move left or right or you rotate the controller towards or away from you to float up or down. Very simple and intuitive controls allow you to parade around the huge open fields collecting other flower petals that join your long train of petals in the wind. It's fun and simple and can be very addicting. Anyone can pick up the controller and within seconds you're navigating your surroundings like a pro weaving all around.
In order to move onto the next stage, you simply need to locate special flowers that haven't bloomed yet. They're relatively easy to spot as they are surrounded by a similarly coloured globe surrounding the flower bud itself. Once you fly through a set amount of flowers, the land around you will change into a fresh, lively patch of land instead of its previous 'dead grass' appearance. You continue on with this pattern in order to progress to new areas. Other times you fly into the flowers to open up areas that were once inaccessible.
The graphics are very lush and detailed. Every single blade of grass moves on its own and will react accordingly to the wind that is pushing the petal(s) around. The petals are extremely vibrant and colourful, especially when you do a mid-air U-turn and can see the hundreds of other multi coloured petals that have joined your 'blowing in the wind' parade. Flower treats us to a spectacle of lights and vivid colours while managing to do it with such simplicity and grace.
The sound track and effects are perfect for the overall feel of this game. The music is straight out of a day spa adding to the soothing and relaxing feel of the game play. Whenever your 'touch' another flower a small chime is heard that blends perfectly with the music adding a very nice touch. If you manage to hit several blooming flowers in a row, the chime will either increase or decrease in pitch making it seem as if you are playing your own melody in tune with the ambient background music. Everything is just so darn easy and pretty it's hard to put the controller down.
I recommend this game to anyone that has recently thrown a controller or screamed an obscenity at the top of one's lungs while playing a hard core game designed to frustrate the living hell out of you. Flower is simple, short, fun, addictive and is truly a breath of fresh air. It can be purchased at the Playstation store for $9.99 so there's really no reason not to take this great conceptual game out for a spin.
