Planet of Lana Review
Don’t you just hate it when your peaceful seaside life in a small fishing village community is completely torn apart by an alien robot invasion? That’s exactly what happens in Planet of Lana, and with her people (and her sister) taken captive, there’s nothing for Lana to do but chase after and try to free them. Luckily she makes a little friend along the way.
Planet of Lana drops into the familiar platforming adventure mould, the ceaseless journey from left to right broken up only by some light platforming, environmental puzzles, and avoiding dangerous creatures and bulbous spider-like robots.
Accompanying her on this journey is the small black cat-like creature that Lana names Mui – all of the animals of this planet are made of pure blackness with little white eyes, but this species is by far the cutest. Bonded to her through a shared moment of peril, Mui quickly becomes an utterly faithful companion, able to leap up to higher ledges to nudge ropes free, plop down among dark tendrils that trigger another creature into some form of action, and even trigger the odd switch for you. On the other hand, you’ll have to work around Mui’s dislike of water…
As you forge ahead, you’ll come across mysterious ruins that imbue the pair of you with new abilities, uncovering some of the world’s lore and backdrop within a wordless narrative. While there are a small handful of brainteasing set pieces to puzzle over, and a slight element of trial and error to get through some of the stealthy robot and creature encounters and instant deaths when caught, the emphasis feels more on the journey than the puzzling here. You’ll spend long sections of this roughly four-hour game simply holding right and running, but then that leans into one of this
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