Commander Cherry’s Puzzled Journey Review

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There are several titles out there which make you wonder how exactly a developer makes a decision on what will be their next release. Sure you get hits like Rocket League which is a mesh of football, cars and rockets but then you get Commander Cherry’s Puzzled Journey which can in its most basic form be described as a yoga platformer yes you read correctly a platform game that requires the every day essential that is yoga. Maybe the team meeting went a little like this;

“Hey Steve you know what I was thinking of last night when I was at the gym?”, “No Paul, what were you thinking?”, “Well Steve, you know we like making platform games?”….. “Yes Paul, we like making platform games.”….. “Well Steve, when I was at my yoga class last night I thought why don’t we incorporate yoga into a platform game?”….. “That’s not a bad idea Paul, but how do we do that?”….. “Ah Steve, someone was taking pictures at my yoga class, and I thought why don’t we use the players yoga poses become part of the platformer?”….. “How do we record the poses Paul?”….. “Steve, what’s that gathering dust in the corner?”….. “PS4 Camera!”

Commander Cherry’s Puzzled Journey is a platform game where it follows the usual tradition of jumping across platforms to progress. However there will be points where there doesn’t appear to be a way forward. This where the camera comes into play, you are asked to perform a manoeuvre to ‘bridge’ the gap. That’s essentially Commander Cherry’s Puzzled Journey in a nutshell. The unique selling point is the camera which unfortunately has enough issues to make Commander Cherry’s Puzzled Journey less entertaining that it is and more frustrating that is should be. You will need to wear light clothing if you want the camera to register your poses, not a major issue on its own. However, the camera seems to pick up other things in your room so you’ll need to clear your room of lots of objects if they happen to be in view. When the camera works then Commander Cherry’s Puzzled Journey is enjoyable to an extent to play, when the camera doesn’t you’ll simply stop taking part.

If you enjoyed the Wii then playing Commander Cherry’s Puzzled Journey will bring back similar feelings, but the game doesn’t have enough variety to make it worth recommending. There is a section where you pose becomes a vehicle to sit upon as it moves, a few more ideas like this would have increased the longevity. There’s a simple levelling system which adds some depth to Commander Cherry’s Puzzled Journey but not a lot. You can play with someone else, one of you control the character whilst the other performs the moves, it’s not quite as much fun as it sounds.

Commander Cherry’s Puzzled Journey is a relatively charming title for all its limited functionality. The graphics are functional if a tad on the basic side. The characters are reasonably designed, but they lack flair, for such a simple design you would hope more effort would be spent on character design. The soundtrack is what you would expect from your average platform game, it suits Commander Cherry’s Puzzled Journey and its lacking in detail backdrops.

Commander Cherry’s Puzzled Journey is aimed at a niche market although it’s hard to determine who and where this yoga platformer is meant to be aimed at. Commander Cherry’s Puzzled Journey has a limited fun value but it can be entertaining for an hour or so but that is dependent on how flexible you are, how much space you have in your living room and how much lighting you have. If you want a unique experience then Commander Cherry’s Puzzled Journey is something of a novelty and if you have the PS4 camera then you may actually get some use out of it. Hopefully there will be a few more titles along this vein in the future but based on what Commander Cherry’s Puzzled Journey has to offer right now, it’s a journey you’ll be cutting short very quickly.

Bonus Stage Rating - Below Average 4/10

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Sony Playstation 4 code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.

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