3# Don't Underestimate What A Cube Can Do.

Physics Journey is a game created by lavalinn

I�m sure everyone on the forums at east has an idea of who lavalinn is. Although his games aren�t exactly amazing, I feel like he made an extra special effort to make Physics Journey as good as it can be. And I think this really rubbed off onto the game. Hello everyone! As I�m sure you know, I am articuno360, your fellow reviewer, who is going to go over lavalinn�s Physics Journey game. When I heard of Physics Journey, I had no idea what to expect. I thought about how the player would avoid enemies, smack into buttons, jumping over chasms etc. I didn�t expect Physics Journey to have such different levels. In my opinion, every level was a little minigame, and not at all what I had in mind.

Review

Physics Journey may seem pretty simple when you start this game off. I guess that first level did give me an impression that this game might really be all about a little cube exploring temples, caves, skies and oceans. But instead, as I advanced through the game I found some really interesting twists to the levels which forced you to play it strategically, otherwise you�d be knocked off by enemies or burnt in lava. This game really makes you do something you would never do in a different game. But this is no ordinary game. Every second of it, you are doing something. Whether it is avoiding a spike being shot at you by a stalker cannon, or quickly jumping over lava accurately so you don�t over-jump, or get hit by the fireballs coming your way. However, something annoyed me. This was the incredible height that you can jump in one simple tap of the up arrow. Although it has its benefits, jumping up onto high platforms for example, it also has its flaw, which I feel that negatively affected the game. Whenever you need to jump on a platform of a low height, you would bash the cubes poor, abused little head on the ceiling. However, the fact that the cube hurt itself doesn�t matter. You often have to attempt to jump many times before you can actually get up there. Not only is this annoying, but it also means that on the levels with a time limit, this simple little flaw can screw up the player�s experience.

Scenery is a massive factor of this game. Scenery is the main thing which really gives me a sense of incredible amounts of effort put into this game. The scenery of this game was different on every level, some of it may not have been amazing, but some bits literally gave this game one of the best atmospheres ever. Most PPGs that I have come across just have a basic background, whether it was the PPG graphics or the actual creator�s graphics, the background and scenery were normally very basic and simple. But this game is on a different league to those on the terms of aesthetics. Lavalinn has really made an effort to make an atmosphere either mysterious, exciting, scary or fast-paced using just the scenery. Now, I don�t know how good lavalinn�s graphics are, but his usage of the PPG graphics were brilliant. He would put a window somewhere with plants and nature which really takes the player�s attention. But on some levels I didn�t get this feel of lots of effort put into the scenery. Sometimes a level was just a level of simple walls and the colours of the background in the PPG. However, when you have been given such a great first impression of the scenery, you tend to just feel that the scenery box has been ticked, and you tend to focus on other factors.

This game is fairly difficult, especially as every level is different on top of the fact that you have to change your strategy every time you progress. The placement of enemies and hazards is alright, but on most levels it is nearly impossible to get past an area without losing a life which you can�t regain with a little extra life. Most levels in this game have a time limit. A few of these limits are necessary to make the level to be what lavalinn intended for it to be, but some are pointless as these levels only take the player approximately 40 seconds to beat the level - if you aren�t pounded by hazards - instead of one minute. Also, I feel like some hazards were pointless. Spikes which could be easily avoided due to an excessive amount of elevators and sliders. If only we were forced to be more careful by placing spikes at the end of a small platform which we had to jump on. Although the levels were pretty hard, they didn�t exactly stop us from proceeding through the levels.

OVERALL SCORES

Gameplay: 3.5/5

Scenery: 4/5

Difficulty: 3.5/5

Puzzles: 2/5

Overall: 3.5/5

So, this game is pretty cool, featuring some interesting ideas. Lavalinn made a game which, may not be feature worthy, but does show me what lavalinn is capable of. With an impressive PPG like this under the lavalinn games page, I�m sure to expect some feature worthy games in the future. Good effort lavalinn, and good luck making some amazing games in the future!

Thanks for reading everyone! See you around!