Flower and Zen

Beauty blows in the wind

It is rare to find a game with a heart like Flower. The game has been mentioned many places as an incredible innovative game, a true inspiration to indie developers, as a art game, and the list goes on. I have only just gotten my hands on it, and i must say that the game has blown me away (no pun intended). It left me not only with a feeling of having experienced something fantastic, but also with a motivation and a feeling of inspiration for what the game medium can do.

The game itself is simple. You control the wind to blow around leaves, collect more leaves, solve small tasks consisting of blowing the leaves in special patterns or into structures. Its simple, it sounds boring, but its not. From a usability perspective the one thing that this game does so very well is give the player an incredible sensation through the game controls. The Playstation 3 six axis controls come into its own with this game, and that fact alone makes the game stand out. If you want to try a game where the controls are done perfectly, then this is the game to try.

However the game works on so many levels. Not only does the controls give you a fantastic feeling, but the visuals are so darn incredible that they will leave you breathless as you watch the sun go down across the field where you invisibly watch through the eyes of the wind.

Even though the game doesn’t try to vibrate the controller to give you a false feeling of flying through the grass, the mere visuals combined with the inhertit knowledge of how grass feels, will make you shiver as you fly through the night time grassy fields.

The game caters to all the senses, and yet it also manages to communicate a purpose and a message. This would be my only critique of the game. Perhaps ThatGameCompany should leave behind the raised eyebrows and pointing fingers, and just focus on what they do so damn well for their next project. That being, making incredible games where the borders between the player and the game are torn down, and you just want to float in that unique world of Zen that Flower provides.

I’ve found a new love, and its name is Flower.