Review: Flower

Chances are you have never played a game quite like Flower. It involves no shooting, no leveling up, no coin collecting. It is a truly unique experience and one that you absolutely should not miss. Created by Jenova Chen (fl0w), Flower takes you on an emotional and colorful journey to turn the grey polluted world into a verdant wonderland.

In Flower, you embody what is basically the wind. Upon entering a level you pick up a flower petal form a nearby flower and you are on your way. Using the Sixxaxis controls, you can steer up and down or side to side and with the press and hold of a single button, accelerate to a dizzying pace. As you fly through the world, you will see loads of unopened flowers that you can open merely by flying through them. Opening the buds creates musical sounds that add to the beautiful chill out soundtrack. The more buds you open, the more others appear and there are even special hidden groups of flowers to open. Passing through the buds also adds petals to your form and eventually you are trailing a long tail of multicolor flower petals in your wake.

Despite the above description, Flower does have some structure. Each level begins in your apartment which starts off rather grey and dingy. The various levels of the game are represented by flowers in pots. As you complete one, another pot appears with a new flower and level to explore. Also, with each passing level, your apartment becomes brighter and more cheerful and receives a bit of a makeover. As I mentioned earlier, there are three sets of hidden flowers on each level. Finding all three sets causes the flower in the pot to fully bloom, thus completing the level.

The various levels all have different requirements and while they seem to start off easy, they do ramp up a bit in difficulty and variety. Some levels require you to move very slowly while others find you encircling various objects to bring them back to life. They also vary in location from far reaching fields to inner city playgrounds. And despite the easy going nature for the game, there are some dangers although I will let you find those on your own.

The social statement here is obvious: man is destroying the world and only by preserving nature can we save it. A simple message for a simple game. But just because it's simple doesn't mean it's ineffective. Flower works on so many levels but for me, it is the most relaxed I have ever been playing a game. Whenever I am feeling stressed out, I turn Flower on, turn my brain down and just go with the flow (no pun intended). But to merely describe Flower doesn't do it justice. It must be played to be appreciated.

Flower is now available for download over the PlayStation Network and is well worth the $9.99 it will cost you. An absolute don't miss for lovers of video games that aren't afraid to go beyond the conventional.

10 out of 10