Pitterpot – PS4 | Review

By John Hay
| 3rd October 2018
| PS4, Review
| 0

Move over Bill and Ben there is a new flowerpot man on the scene.

Pitterpot is a new 3D platformer from developer Treefall Studios that centres around a little Flowerpot man’s quest to clean up his garden that has become overgrown with weeds. You won’t find any Roundup on this quest to get rid of weeds, instead, you will be running and jumping your way to collecting seeds and various other items in order to clear each world and move onto the next. There is not much in the way of the story, there are only 3 levels and a bonus stage in each section of the game, the aim is to collect everything and move on.

Gameplay is really just to collect items and move on. Each level is made up of the same basic floating islands setup with you either dodging basic obstacles, like rolling balls or fixed attack enemies that have to be avoided. Occasionally you will have the odd enemy that can be attacked with your one and only attack action which is a simple spin attack, but there is nothing really challenging about any of the enemies in the game. The platforming is also what you would expect, having to navigate tight platforms and scale higher areas of the game with precise jumping, this is where one of the games biggest weaknesses come into play.

Anyone who knows anything about platform titles knows that the controls and mechanics have to be on point or you will have lots of cheap deaths that lead to frustrating gameplay. Unfortunately this game does not control well at all and you will find yourself missing jumps, falling off platforms, and generally being annoyed at the fact the slightest misstep caused by poor controls throws you right back to the start of a level. The only change to this formula is when you face a boss, these are simple fights that present no challenge that will require you to take out the boss in order to collect that levels item in order to move on to the next.

As well as the controls being quite poor the game itself looks like something that has been thrown together by someone messing around with some assets in unity. There is no background detail to speak of, everything is just floating in space as you jump from platform to platform, and overall it looks like something that would have been easily outdone back in the PS2 era. It seems that even the soundtrack is lacking, with some levels just sounding like random noise playing.

The one saving grace that will appeal to some people is the fact that the game is short and has a platinum that can be earned in just a few hours with little effort, albeit with some frustration at the poor controls, but with so many other easy platinum games out there I feel that you might just be better spending your money elsewhere as this game does nothing for me and I’d be surprised if many people enjoy playing it.

Final Impressions

I know the easy platinum games are a thing unto themselves now, driving people to play just about anything, but this just feels like a cheap game that has not had a lot of effort put into it. If you are looking to actually have some fun with a 3D platformer then you might be better waiting for something like Spyro to be released.

*Code kindly provided by the publisher for review*

Developer: Treefall Studios / Publisher:
Release date: 25/09/2018
Platforms: PS4
Platform Reviewed on: PS4 Pro