Ah, love; it entices the heroes of video games to perform extraordinary acts in its name, compels star crossed lovers to cross great distances and overcome seemingly insurmountable odds in movies, and moves readers to tears as they frantically turn the page in romance novels, but in Sir Lovelot – love does none of these.
Our wily protagonist isn’t out to save his long lost lover and isn’t desperately trying to reunite with an old flame – instead he just hastily runs between women, dodging all manners of obstacles, in a desperate attempt to woo as many as possible all while leaving a trail of heartbreak behind him.
Sir Lovelot places players in control of a man who seemingly can’t make up his mind what he wants. Each morning he leaves a Rapunzel type tower and a broken-hearted girl only to set off to the next tower and lady with nary a look back.
That’s it. That’s the full extent of the story. There is no unnecessary dialog, nor are there any cut scenes – only comic type balloons showing the girls thoughts which alternate between a broken heart or the icon of a flower – which is needed for our hero to charm his way into the lady’s heart.
Sir Lovelot is a platformer that requires precise jumps and movement to overcome its plentiful obstacles. Creatures, pendulum axes, bats, fish, spikes, skeletons, fire spitting statues, runaway boulders, and more occupy its incredibly dangerous world, making the path from tower to tower incredibly treacherous.
Luckily, our hero is equipped with a few moves to make traversing the land easier. Double jumps, a gun, and a dash move are all you need to survive – provided you have patience and take the time to master their use.
Luckily, despite its difficulty, there is no real penalty for dying so frustration never sets in whether it’s your first death or 20th in a level. You could argue that removing any penalty for death – barring not receiving the highest rating upon completion of the level – removes the challenge all together or even worse, removes the fun of the game. I get that – but I didn’t find that to be the case during my playthrough.
I enjoyed being able to zip around the stage, trying out new approaches or haphazardly flinging myself at walls in hopes of finding one of the numerous hidden areas. The levels reload instantly so I never lost patience with myself for failing or with the obstacles thrown at me since I knew I’d be right back attempting to pass the same traps and enemies within seconds.
While it is perfectly acceptable to merely survive each level, there has thankfully been a rather large list of additional items and secrets scattered throughout each area, lending much needed replayability to a game of this type.
Coins, presents for the ladies, and hidden items all count toward end of level completion percentage, as well as coming in under an allotted amount of deaths. Fighting your way through a particularly nasty area and overcoming the level and then seeing that you did it with far less deaths than the level allowed for a bonus, comes with a satisfying feeling of accomplishment.
I have few qualms with Sir Lovelot, but my biggest gripe is its length, only because I would have loved to continue on through progressively more challenging areas. The entire game can be completed within two to three hours, although going back to 100% each level and world would add quite a few hours onto your playthrough, which does help ease the pain of completing the game so quickly.
Despite its short run time, Sir Lovelot is a tricky, fast paced, twitch-based platformer well worth your time. Help Sir Lovelot out and guide him to a new tower tonight.
Sir Lovelot is available now on PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Windows for $9.99. Special thanks to Pixel Games for providing Fandomize with a review copy. Stay tuned to Fandomize for more video game reviews!
