Once again super late to the party, but Planet of Lana is really good. And I say that as someone who generally doesn’t play side scrollers.

Every day I do a bunch of things for Microsoft Rewards points, which I then use to pay for Game Pass. One particular task is to play a game on PC, the catch being it only ‘counts’ if it is something you run from the Xbox app. Because of this I’m always looking for games that seem easy to get into and that don’t take a huge amount of disk space. A while back I downloaded Planet of Lana, not because I expected to like it, but because it was small and seemed simple.

The fact that I find myself really enjoying the game probably gives some merit to Microsoft nudging us towards playing games every day.

Here’s the thing: I’m really not a big fan of side scrollers. To me they’re ‘retro’ and I’m pretty retro-averse since I lived through the retro days and generally have no interest in going back to those times. But Planet of Lana is a different kind of side-scroller. There’s no combat and so far at least, there are no sections that require fast reflexes and perfect timing. As a senior citizen anything that requires precise timing is kind of beyond me. My brain and fingers aren’t as well acquainted as they once were, you see.

Instead Planet of Lana is mostly a puzzle game. You play a little girl named Lana whose planet has been invaded and you’re looking for your people, or something? I dunno, the narrative is all pretty vague. You’re accompanied by a little vaguely cat-like critter (I think of cats because of the way it twitches its tail before making a big jump) who you can give basic orders to. Go here, follow me, stay put, activate that thing. The little critter can jump higher than you and can crawl through spaces you cannot and you need to use these abilities to make your way across levels.

Lana doesn’t speak any recognizable language but after a while you start to identify certain words like follow/stay etc. Not that it really matters but if just lends a little layer of satisfaction to the overall gameplay.

The puzzles are along the lines of moving crates, climbing ropes, turning on/off contraptions and so forth. Sometimes you need to solve these to get past physical obstacles and other times to get past aliens that’ll kill you. There’s a decent amount of playing around with lights, as some creatures are light-averse, and other times you’ll be moving through levels that are completely dark until you find a light and a way to turn it on and keep it on (usually by getting your companion critter to sit on a switch).

There’s no leveling or skills or anything like that; it’s a pretty pure game in respect.

It’s also quite a lovely game. The graphics are fairly simple but really pleasing, with most of the levels I’ve gone through having you pass through forests and small villages.

All in all, this was a just a pleasant surprise and I’d recommend it to anyone who doesn’t demand hardcore difficulty from their platforming games. My only caution is that (according to the Internet… I haven’t finished it yet) it’s a fairly short game and is currently $20 on Steam, so this might be one to add to the old Wishlist and wait for a sale. I played it on PC Game Pass so cost didn’t really figure into things for me. If you happen to have Game Pass I’d recommend it even more strongly!