Developed by pixel.lu, Sir Lovelot is a brand-new platformer that might be inspired by some past titles but brings plenty of fresh mechanics into play to stand out proudly from the other titles. Sir Lovelot is a story of love and what a knight is willing to do to find his true love. Nothing will stop this knight from finding his true love and neither will we stop for anything in order to play this game because it is really good. This is our review of Sir Lovelot in which we cross lava lakes and fight deadly creatures in order to find our true love.
The story of Sir Lovelot revolves around a naughty knight who, instead of fighting and telling others the tale of his bravery, is on a quest to find his perfect love and in doing so, goes from castle to castle to spend the night with different Rapunzel-like princesses. However, scoring with these princesses is not easy and the path to their castles gets tougher and tougher after every night. There are four worlds to explore as you go from level to level trying to find a princess for the next night and with progression, these levels get tougher and tougher for you to collect the flowers which are required for scoring with these princesses.
Sticking true to the concept of platformers, each level in Sir Lovelot comes with its own unique challenges and obstacles for you to cover. These include enemies, traps, locked doors, and general platforming that requires precise timing and quick reflexes in order to progress in the game. Each level has multiple secret areas for you to uncover as well as where you find golden ducks. Apart from these ducks, you can also collect golden coins located at some strategic locations on each level. After collecting the flower, you must find and get to the castle of the princesses who after seeing that you have the flower, will lower her hair for you to climb on and get to her and spend the night with her. A happy ending indeed.
However, our knight’s happy ending ends just after one night as the princess kicks him out the front door and so our knight sets forward in order to find his true love once again and the cycle continues. Each of the four worlds has multiple levels for you to complete before putting you in a final level where a giant skull is chasing you and you must reach the next princess before it crushes you to death. These chase sequences unlock the next world for you to explore. The levels are sequential which means that you must complete one level to proceed to the next level however it is not much of a problem to complete levels in Sir Lovelot.
Right from the very first stage of Sir Lovelot, I was reminded of a very particular title that can be considered as the pioneer of this genre Super Meat Boy. While Sir Lovelot brings its own unique mechanics into the play, the core gameplay seems inspired by Super Meat Boy and other similar titles. Sir Lovelot features precise jumping and moving mechanics based on your input. Your jumps are defined by how long you press and hold the button while here, you can also shoot your enemies to kill them instead of just avoiding them. Controls are really tight and sometimes I found them really good as I whooshed past enemies, killing them and then insanely jumping around the levels in a flow before hitting a spiky vine and dying.
Deaths in Sir Lovelot are not very brutal, especially when compared with other similar titles such as Super Meat Boy. Everything you pick up remains in your inventory and every enemy that you kill remains dead even if you die and start at the beginning of the level. Despite some levels having multiple screens, even if you die at the last screen, you will respawn at a mid-level checkpoint instead of starting right at the very start of the level. This makes playing Sir Lovelot highly manageable and less-frustrating for players who do not have all day trying to complete just one level. This very mechanic makes Sir Lovelot excellent for short pick-and-play sessions between office breaks or any such small time slot.
At the end of every level, you are presented with your time, the number of deaths, and the status of all of the collectibles that you found or missed during your playthrough. You can retry a level as much as you want to get the best time or just go back and find all hidden collectibles but the game does not force you to do any of this. However, due to the amazing gameplay and satisfying gameplay, I replayed most of the levels in the game not because I was too ashamed of my slow completion times but because I just wanted to see how much faster I can replay the level now that I’ve figured out some tricks of overtaking the obstacles in it. Replayability is really high here so you can expect yourself to jump back in levels just to play them again for fun.
When you think of a platformer that is built around the concept of completing a level as quickly as possible with minimum deaths, Sir Lovelot is probably the least punishing title out there. The collectibles are completely optional and while the game tracks your time, there is no gold or milestone displayed at the end of the level to make you feel bad that you took so long to complete the level. If you want to be competitive, go ahead and try to get the best times, but if you do not want to, the game is least bothered by it and ultimately, you as well. This makes you enjoy the game peacefully at your own pace.
Sir Lovelot is a great title and it deserves all the praise for showing that not all platformers need to be tough and punishing. If you want something that is really hard and punishing, there are plenty of options for you out there but if you want to unwind at the end of a long and tiresome day with a good platformer, Sir Lovelot is here with its challenging but ultimately satisfying levels with crisp gameplay mechanics to make you feel good about yourself on helping a knight finding a date for his next night. Everything in the game sits perfectly with each other.
Final Verdict:
Sir Lovelot is a great and beautiful platformer that is both challenging and satisfying at the same time. It features excellent crisp controls that are designed for great platforming and an experience that few modern platformers actually deliver. Built on a humorous concept, you will love jumping around, trying to get to your love with flowers and rings and whatnot. Everything from the gameplay to level design to cute retro visuals is top-notch. Compared with the competition, Sir Lovelot comes with plenty of features that make it manageable and enjoyable for players who do not normally play such precise platformers. Highly recommended if you love playing platformers and video games that challenge you to complete levels as quickly as possible with minimum deaths and even if you just want a solid platformer to kill some time while not breaking your laptop or keyboard every time you die.
Final Score: 9.5/10
