Flower

So, recently I have purchased [for $10] the newest indie game Flower, from that game company, creators of the PC experimental game Cloud, and the single celled organism game flOw. Flower is exclusively available on the Playstation 3, but the PS3 and PSP provide a myriad of media available via the free online service known as the Playstation Network [PSN]. You can sign up to PSN via the PSP’s web browser, the PS3’s startup menu, or the PSN site. Now, to Flower, one of the newest games available on PSN.

Flower is beautifully rendered and modeled. The intuitive use of Sixaxis control on the Dualshock 3 controller flows seamlessly with the games story basis — what would a flower’s dreams look like? The game works by controlling the direction of a single flower petal, and the gusts of wind that push it along. There is no failure, no words, no levels, and no text onscreen while playing. There is no tutorial, and the controls are different for most people. Tilt the controller to move, press any button to blow wind, pushing the petal through space.

Simply running through the flowers prompts a sound [depending on the color], and an extra petal added to your magnificent chain of flower petals, gliding through the world together, as a strange colony of sorts. The flowers goal is simply to restore peace and color to the world, and it does that by getting wind to power wind farms, destroying terrifying metal structures, painting them silver at times, and finally collecting flower colors to paint cities colors. The levels go from happy to heartbreaking as the dirty, dangerous reality finally catches up with the flower’s euphoria; spacious skies, colorful plant life, other flowers, trees, rocks, clear water. The flowers, of course strike back against the corruption brought to their dreamlike landscape, and in the end prevail. Here is a video so you can see what I am actually describing, in action.

In other video game news, next up on my list are Noby Noby Boy, flOw, and FFXIV.