FLOWER POWER – Flower for PS3

Gamers starved for novel new frontiers, rejoice! The countdown has begun for the launch of PlayStation 3’s Flower, “the video game version of a poem” that defies description.

The brainchild of Jenova Chen (the founder of Californian video game makers, thatgamecompany) has gaming communities are all a-flutter with anticipation. Heralded as a groundbreaking hybrid of abstract conceptual elements and stunning aesthetics, the creators hope to snag interest from an audience that seeks something beyond Grand Theft Auto or Killzone.

The company website states, “At TGC (thatgamecompany) our goal is to make commercial video games that communicate different emotional experiences the current video game market is not offering. We encourage innovation and experimentation and believe that our creative games will appeal to new, yet untapped, audiences.”

Everything about the game is different; from the weirdness of the idea to the way you physically play (players tip the controller one way or another to activate the motion sensors in the PlayStation 3 game pad.) The “mission” if you will, is to fulfill the dreams of city-bound flowers trapped in pot plants surrounded by urban decay, who long to caress the soft grasses of the countryside. The soundtrack is sentimental, almost meditative and the movement is like a dance across the winds as players find the onscreen world “swings between the pastoral and the chaotic.”

It might sound airy fairy, but that’s because it is and people love it. Thatgamecompany is responsible for the game Cloud which crashed a series of servers when it was first posted, due to its huge popularity. Bloggers swamped Jenova with gratitude, some claiming the game made them cry. It was closely followed by the March 2007 release of flOw which was another instant hit for Jenova and it stayed in the No. 1 spot for months on the PlayStation Network.

The game debuts on February 12 for $US9.99 just in time for Valentine’s Day. You need a PlayStation 3 connected to the internet to download it and play.

Tags: conceptual elements, Flower PS3, playstation 3, pot plants, video game makers, video game market