Planet of Lana

Planet of Lana is a wonderful cinematic puzzle platformer with brilliant presentation, a heart-warming story and enjoyable gameplay. You'll be gripped from beginning to end.

It's been a while since a platformer captured my attention, but Planet of Lana immediately caught my eye with its picturesque scenery. In a way, it felt like I was controlling a character in an ever-changing painting featuring its own sets of challenges that enticed me to want to play more. The epic adventure also furthers the movie-like feel of the entire narrative, taking you on an enthralling journey from start to finish.

A stunning puzzle adventure with a heartfelt story and polished (though sometimes predictable) action.

A beautifully crafted side-scroller with a restless puzzle imagination.

Planet of Lana intelligently combines elements of classic cinematic platformers to make something distinctive and characterful. For a tight five hours or so, it keeps up the pace, with very few taxing puzzles or tricky action segments to slow progress. Leaning into easier gameplay in favour of visual and auditory spectacle, it looks the part and runs consistently well. It’s a treat for the long-suffering cinematic platforming fan – perhaps even destined to join that short list of classics.

Are games art? Or entertainment? It’s an old argument that I think we’ve moved past. Games can be either, neither, or both. Planet of Lana certainly looks artistic and painterly. But is it also entertaining to play?

Planet of Lana is a perfectly fine, if strangely unambitious, cinematic platformer, hitting all the right notes without writing a new song.

“Planet of Lana makes up for some repetitive 2D puzzling with a gorgeous art style and a good-natured tone.”

Planet of Lana is a gorgeous 2D puzzle game that performs admirably on the Steam Deck, which is the best way to enjoy this heart-felt story!

Far from the most inventive or unique take on the puzzle-platformer formula, Planet of Lana mitigates its relatively-safe gameplay with a striking visual style and a surprisingly compelling use of music alongside. In a genre so used to feelings of helplessness, hostility and horror, Planet of Lana serves up a refreshing alternative in an already-crowded market. And while the game isn't entirely hostile to the notion of danger and discovery, it's a brief adventure with sufficient challenge that still finds ways to engage and impress. Far from the scale of odyssey its tagline implies, what it la...

The chances of anything coming from Mars were apparently pretty high.

If you’ve enjoyed other cinematic puzzle platformers, you’ll probably like this one, but there isn’t anything particularly new to recommend it other than its beautiful visuals. If you haven’t liked other games in this subgenre, this won’t change your mind.