Genre: Adventure, Art Game
Year: 2009
Developed by: Thatgamecompany
Published by: Sony Computer Entertainment
Platforms: PS3, PS4, Vita, iOS, PC
#90
Feeling Like: Daydreaming
Years ago when I started the 500, I had to begin with the rankings themselves on the Almighty Spreadsheet. Some entries were no-brainers; if you know me at all, you can predict my number 1 with ease. Some were tricky, some involved some merging, as it didn’t make sense to include all three Guitar Hero games, for example. Or for the three StarCraft 2 campaigns which came out as separate games but are now presented as a single game.
I attributed each a score out of 10 immediately after completing them, but times change and feelings are fluid. I’m heavily influenced by recency bias, or maybe I was just swept up by the novelty instead of properly analyzing the mechanics and gameplay. That’s why I have the ultimate cop out – the 500 isn’t a list of the best games I’ve ever played, it’s a list of the best game experiences I’ve had.
When I was moving games up and down the list, no game surprised me more with its placement than Flower. It just refused to budge out of the top 100.
There’s no other game like it on the 500. It’s a relaxed ride. I’ve heard it described as the first “poetry” video game, and it certainly invokes feelings that are absent with other games; it’s a zen experience, almost meditative. I used to boot up Flower and play the Sailing on the Wind level just to relax before heading out for work.
It’s a visual and musical cavalcade based on the premise of controlling a flower. You start out as a single petal, branching off the home stem. You can accelerate and move, no other abilities or power ups exist here. That’s not what Flower is about. You pick up other flowers along the way, eventually creating a conga line of color and sound. Each time you pick up a particularly significant petal, there’s a short vocal burst of confirmation. It’s not gaining an extra life, or defeating any kind of enemy, but that auditory signal is about as satisfying as any other checkpoint in a game I’ve played.
And that’s it. You hover around various levels, which are appropriately brief, trying to find other flowers as you listen to the music and gaze upon the gorgeous landscapes. I loved it.
Flower would be nothing without the soundtrack. It’s the star of the show. It’s one of my all time favorites.
“Lazy Daydream” encompasses what Flower is all about. Taking a moment, smelling the roses and appreciating the world around us.
I used to listen to “Purification of the City” while going running with Katrena and Kiersten at Neverblue. Affiliate Marketing is the complete opposite experience of Flower, but that song in particular can get me through anything. Even when I was dragging my slow ass trying to keep up with K & K along Dallas Road, I could close my eyes and picture myself as a petal floating on the wind. It’s twelve and a half minutes of pure bliss.
“Splash of Color” is downright transcendent. Listen to the change in tone at 3:30, then the accompanying piano. Only a master can create this kind of art.
“Peaceful Repose” is exactly what you want in an end credits theme. It soothes you, ensures you that you’ve done well. Time to rest.
Composer Vincent Diamante deserves every accolade possible for this soundtrack. There are only eight songs on it, which may be the shortest collection of music for a game I’ve played since the NES days, but it’s quality over quantity.
Flower won’t be for everybody. It’s not overly challenging and the motion controls on the PS3 were a bit wonky to deal with. You won’t spend more than a few hours with it from start to finish. It feels like a tech demo, or an experiment that would lead to the “real” game being made. No doubt, Thatgamecompany did take some lessons from Flower when they created Journey (similar feelings emerged on that playthrough).
It’s not the kind of game I can go on and on about without repeating myself. I’m still mildly surprised it got this high on the 500, but when I recall how I felt while playing it…blissful. That’s the best word for it. As the level ends and you see your trail of flower friends float into the sky with the windmills in the distance and the song fades and the screen goes to black, it’s pure video game magic.
The 500 