Lovish: Some 8-Bit Nostaglic Fun – Weekly Indie Spotlight

Lovish is a NES-style platformer that’s full of 8-bit goodness, as well as the tricky jumps and high difficulty that 80’s platformers are known for. If you cut your teeth on the NES back in the day, or even if you weren’t around back then and just enjoy going back in time, this might be a game to check out. However, how well does the demo scratch that 8-bit itch?

Lovish Takes You to Those Sweet 8-Bit Years

Developed by LABS Works and published by DANGEN Entertainment, Lovish has a simple plot. The Princess Tsnuna has been kidnapped by the Devil Lord, and Sir Solomon sets off with his hero party to rescue her. However, Solomon is madly in love with the princess, so he also wishes to obtain the Devil Lord’s Video Helmet, which can allegedly make anyone fall in love with you. There are hilarious cutscenes between levels that both advance the story and bring a chuckle. 

While I’ve only played the demo and don’t yet have the full game, the demo gives a good taste of what the game has to offer. Each level is a single screen, so players who were expecting the side-scrolling long levels that most NES platformers like Super Mario Bros. are known for might be disappointed. Still, the bite-sized levels mean that you can get through several levels in a short time, and that makes this a good game to pull out if you don’t have a few hours to kill playing games. 

The gameplay is as simple as the story. You jump, you attack, and you navigate your way around various enemies and obstacles such as spikes. As with any good retro-style platformer, there are lots of spikes. Fortunately, you seem to have unlimited lives, though every time I died, the game told me I was minus a heart. It’s possible that I didn’t play long enough to find out what happens when you run out of hearts, but I couldn’t find any heart meter in the demo.

Beware If You’re Playing with a Keyboard

As soon as you load the demo, it tells you to play with a controller for the best experience. I don’t have a PC-compatible controller, and I’m used to playing platformers with the keyboard. However, I ran into an issue once the actual game loaded. Namely, I couldn’t figure out which key you use to select options on the main menu. I tried Enter, the spacebar, the shift keys, and the other usual suspects, but I got no results.

Finally, by testing each of the letter keys on the keyboard, I figured out that it was K. Who is going to think that K is the key you use to select menu options without testing each key like I did? There is also no option to keymap in the settings. Moreover, when the game starts properly, the tutorial pop-up says to press A to jump and B to attack – even if you’re playing with a keyboard. In reality, you press K to jump and J to attack, but the game doesn’t tell you this. It might discourage new players who are using a keyboard.

Will I Buy Lovish?

I love retro platformers, and I love how indie developers capture the magic of old-school platformers with games like VVVVVV and Shovel Knight. So, will I buy Lovish? Perhaps. It didn’t instantly grab me the way some other retro-style platformers have grabbed me, but the controls are smooth (once you figure out which keys to press), the music is great, and the gameplay is addictive. It captures that “just one more try” feeling that the best arcade games are known for. If Lovish sounds like your thing, it probably is. Lovish can be purchased on Steam for $14.99.