Lovely Planet 2: April Skies

I have a soft spot for games that wear candy-coloured clothes while hiding real teeth underneath, and Lovely Planet 2: April Skies is exactly that kind of quietly devious little thing. On the surface it is all floating pastel islands, bubble-letter menus, and a wand-like star-tipped weapon that fires pink projectiles at red blocky enemies. It looks like a children's toy. It is not. The moment you start chasing three stars per level - one for completion, one for finishing under a target time, one for perfect shot accuracy - the game reveals its actual personality: a precision time-trial machine that has more in common with Super Meat Boy's retry loop than with any traditional FPS. The structure is clean and uncluttered across five distinct worlds containing over one hundred bite-sized levels, each one lasting fifteen to thirty seconds at most. You run, jump, and shoot red enemies to clear a path to the purple exit pillar, and the instant-restart-on-death system keeps the momentum alive even when you are failing repeatedly. What complicates this friendly-looking setup is a set of rules that escalate through each world: blue cube enemies are allies - shoot one and the run is immediately voided. Apples launch into the air when nearby red blocks are destroyed, and you must shoot them before they hit the ground or the level restarts. There is no crosshair. You aim purely by muscle memory and spatial feel, which takes getting used to but ultimately clicks in a way that feels genuinely satisfying once it does. Bombs drop from the sky in later stages. Teleporters and jump pads rework how you route through levels. The game is constantly adding one small complication at a time, and it does so without ever pausing to explain itself well - a real gap in onboarding that frustrated more than a few reviewers and will likely frustrate you too, at least briefly. The soundtrack by Calum Bowen is the emotional backbone of the whole experience. Upbeat, slightly zany, Japanese-inflected electronic music - described by more than one critic as reminiscent of Katamari Damacy - keeps the energy high without ever feeling pressured or frantic. It is the kind of music that hums in your head an hour after you have closed the game, and that quality of sound design matters enormously for a title where you are going to hear the same level's audio loop many times over. The art direction holds up the same way: intentionally rough polygon shapes, oversized real-world objects scattered around levels (giant CDs, archways, rocket ships), and solid block colours that make enemies immediately readable even at speed. It is a minimalism that serves function and mood equally, though some reviewers noted that the five worlds do not diverge visually as much as you would hope. Two unlockable post-game modes, Yin-yang (extra enemies layered onto existing levels) and survival (complete as many levels as possible with only three lives), push the replayability further for anyone who wants it. Controller support includes a soft aim-assist snap to enemies, which is a thoughtful accessibility touch. The honest caveat is that casual players who run through levels without chasing star ratings can finish the whole thing in around two hours, and the game never fully disguises the fact that it is a more polished remix of the 2014 original rather than a genre leap. Veterans of that first game who wanted a harder, weirder sequel may feel the reduced difficulty as a let-down. For everyone else, especially anyone new to the series, the lower friction is actually a feature: it lets the beautifully tactile feel of the shooting and movement take centre stage without brutalising you into quitting. If you are the kind of player who restarts a level twenty times chasing a gold time, the loop here is genuinely addictive. If you want a story, depth, or variety across more than a couple of hours of commitment, this is the wrong pastel island to visit. Kai, Scout Team

Valve rates this game Steam Deck Playable.

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