I think Annette is doing the review on GA. I’m only three levels in and I can say that it’s quite extrodinary. There is nothing about Flower that is typical. The title doesn’t even fit in any game genre that I can think of.

In Flower you are the petal. Eventually you are a stream of petals. You race through landscapes making sure you tap each flower or group. You are succesful when the flower opens up and you hear a note. Each flower seems to have it’s own note which adds to the classically simple and beautiful score.

By holding down x you can increase the speed of your petal or group of petals. At times I found I gained too much speed and I would suddenly halt causing all the petals to swirl all around me like a moment in American Beauty. To be honest, I did this a few times just to watch it.

The beauty in Flower is that it’s almost not a game. There is an objective, but no time limit, forced path, enemies to fight. It just exists. Flower is a place for you to explore, no right or wrong. As someone that stresses all the time about anything, the stressfree environment of Flower almost seems wrong. Like I’m cheating.

I look forward to playing it again when I get home tonight. I hope that I don’t finish it all. I really enjoyed flOw from ThatGameCompany and they have accomplished something special and unique with Flower. Playstation Network seems to be a breeding ground for experimental, original, and beautiful games. I hope that Sony is able to continue to encourage such original creations in the future.

Now back to hoping it’s 5pm so I can play Flower.
Trina ^_^