By Luna Eriksson 25.11.2014
Follie is stranded on an unknown planet where she must revitalise the life force on it by planting and taking care of flowers. While out on one of her usual space trips, something goes wrong and she has to crash land on an unknown planet. Her spaceship is broken and all her seeds scattered on this almost dead world overtaken by evil gnomes. It is up to the player to help her save the day. Welcome to Flowerworks HD: Follie's Adventure on Nintendo Wii U eShop, the update of the original WiiWare release from developer Nocturnal.
Flowerworks HD: Follie's Adventure is a puzzle action game starring a young flower girl named Follie who while on her travels loses control of her ship and crash lands on an unknown planet. The spaceship is severely damaged and all her seeds scatter all over the place, so she has to go and look for them. As she starts exploring, she realises something is not right. Everything looks dark and dead and gnomes block her path. She has to restore the world to its former glory and figure out what is wrong. To do this, she has to plant and take care of flowers to revitalise the planet.
The story is not so much cause for celebration, but that is not the focus of puzzle titles, normally, rather focusing on the gameplay instead. In this title the gameplay is clever and offers a lot more than would appear at first glance. To beat it, there is a need to go around and plant seeds all over the place in different holes to gain access to levels. Then, during these levels, the task is to make sure these flowers get watered and are nurtured. This is done by picking up pollen and flinging it on the flowers. If any pollen collides with other pollen on its way to its target, extra points are given due to a duplication system that means that each additional grouping doubles the score. This builds up to extremely high scores pretty fast, so it is necessary to do this to reach the best points total overall. This must be done as the more points, the more stars, and these stars are contain seeds that are required for unlocking more levels.
That is not all - the pollen flung at flowers must be of the same colour, or a shade that is a mix that includes the colour of the flower. It might sound confusing, but it becomes very obvious and all feels natural after a while. Blue and red, for example, creates purple pollen, which can be used to feed a purple, blue or red flower, yet a blue or red one cannot be used to feed a purple one - only purple itself in that instance. This creates a smart game mechanic that encourages the creation of combos and forces gamers to keep in mind how they can try to aim for creating the best mixes for the highest scores.
Upon finishing a level, two things are offered up. To start with, there is a batch of seeds that are given the first time a level is completed; these are used to unlock new levels by planting them. More seeds can also be found scattered around the overworld. Secondly, there are stars given out depending on the score achieved. These are used to banish gnomes that block the way to new areas that contain new levels.
The overworld itself is open and vast, and has a beautiful world to explore and find levels and secrets within. In this overworld there are many things to be found: the levels, seeds, coins, signs containing clues to the mystery of how the world turned out this way and to how to play, new abilities, and, of course, the gnomes blocking progress. This adds a feel of adventuring and exploring to something that otherwise would just be a simple puzzle title, which helps making the game world feel more alive.
There are issues with this game, however. The most painfully obvious one is that it is not a home console title by nature. Its grading and level design are taken from titles like Candy Crush Saga and the Angry Birds games, all of which are titles that usually work best on portable devices, such as smartphones or the 3DS. Its repetitive gameplay is great for the short 20-30 minute sessions that these mobile devices encourage while on bus trips or doing things like that, but is not as good for when sitting and playing for hours, which is where home consoles by design perform best.
This is a good and solid puzzle title that was, sadly, released for the wrong system. Its repetitive gameplay prevents it for being fun for extended periods of time, which is a huge thing if it is to justfity its existence on a home console. Flowerworks: HD Follie's Adventure would have been a far better experience if released on a portable device due to it having the qualities that make a good 'on-the-go' title, and possibly amongst the best of its genre. For a home console, however, its repetitive gameplay punishes it too hard.
A wonderful 'on-the-go' game, Flowerworks HD: Follie's Adventure was sadly developed for the wrong system. If this game had been released on a portable device it would have scored higher as it is amongst the better in its genre. The problem is that games like this do not do themselves justice on a home console, a place where long game sessions are promoted. This is a title that should be enjoyed in 30-minute sessions on the bus or while waiting for something, not for hours in a living room. However, saying that, the addictive qualities of the game cannot be ignored and it is a real blast, very charming, offering stacks of content.
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