Potata: Fairy Flower Review

Platformers have been popular since time began well before the Mario and Sonic days. With various technological advancements, the platformer is probably one of the core genres that has been left behind somewhat. Games have become a lot bigger with players being able to do a lot more than just jumping, running and puzzle-solving. It’s generally left to the indie market to make and release games that wouldn’t look or play out of place from 20 or so years ago give or take an upgrade in graphics. The latest platform puzzler to make it’s debut is Potata: Fairy Flower, a very cute looking title that may bring players back through nostalgia.

Potata: Fairy Flower starts off with you playing as Potata in her house having the fetch something for her mother to help her sick fox. Potata is a young witch who likes to live an adventurous life. Unfortunately, things go wrong when she pick a special flower and this means the forest gets into trouble and she has to save it. Potata: Fairy Flower is effectively a platforming puzzler with a bit of exploration thrown in for good measure. Potata: Fairy Flower is a side-scrolling puzzling platformer that also requires a little back & forth exploration.

The jumping and exploring in Potata: Fairy Flower is quite a pleasant experience. Bigger jumps are performed by holding the jump button for longer but outside of that it’s fairly straightforward. There are plenty of blue tokens to collect that act as a currency and also numerous other food or forest-related items that move the story along. In Potata: Fairy Flower you have 3 hearts for your health, you’ll lose them if you get hit by an enemy or land on something like a spike, if you fall off-screen then that’s instant death. Luckily there are numerous save points dotted around the stages but these cost money so it’s something to think about if you want to risk going further saving your tokens or play it safe. As you progress in Potata: Fairy Flower you will uncover new ways to fight that will make it easier to beat the various enemies you encounter. The levels themselves are quite small, you will be doing a lot of jumping to higher areas then backtracking to complete the objective.

The platforming and fighting enemies part of Potata: Fairy Flower isn’t particularly challenging however the puzzling element is where the difficulty lies. There are generally two kinds of puzzles you will need to find a solution for. One of the puzzles is particularly difficult to get right without a lot of help, maybe that’s why you are able to choose to buy your way out so to speak, but it’s one of the most frustrating puzzles I’ve come across in a long time. Potata: Fairy Flower comes across like a children’s game but it requires a certain degree of patience and determination for you to reach the end. Potata: Fairy Flower depending on your patience and skill level will probably take you around the 10-hour mark but it’s unlikely you’ll go back to replay it again.

Graphically Potata: Fairy Flower is a very colourful and boldly bright title. It aims to present a magical forest and fulfills that aim pretty well showcasing a child-like quality with cuteness that fills up every scene. Potata: Fairy Flower wouldn’t look out of place as part of a Disney movie and that endearing quality really shines through, it’s just a shame the levels are not particularly large and some of those simple looking puzzles may make you not appreciate the graphical qualities. Musically Potata: Fairy Flower matches it’s graphics in terms of adorableness. The sounds of animals sleeping or the many noises produced by jumping on the environment is quite a calming experience.

Potata: Fairy Flower is a reasonably fun platformer with vibrant graphics and an excellent score. The fairly simple mechanics ease you into Potata: Fairy Flower quite quickly. It’s just let down by the backtracking through levels and some quite infuriating puzzles littered throughout. If you’re looking for a cute looking but mentally taxing platformer then Potata: Fairy Flower ticks those boxes for you, if you’re aiming for something a little less taxing then you may want to stay away.

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.