It looks like the sun is shining on Sony’s portable console, the Playstation Vita, as a new development by The Game Atelier has just been released. Titled SunFlowers, the game attempts to brighten itself to win potential players over with its sunny look and arcade-style gameplay. Essentially you’re trying to improve your score, but with a sunshine twist.
You control the sun able firing beams of light at the soil at the bottom of the screen. The goal is to make the seedlings on the ground to sprout and grow. You do this by shooting your beam of light into the clouds which are moving across the screen. Doing this will create rain drops which end up falling to the ground. If they happen to land on a seedling, a flower will blossom. However, if you happen to aim your light at a storm cloud, lightning will drop and set fire on any flower it contacts. Luckily, if you get the normal cloud to drop water, you can save the flower.
The game is meant to be played in a vertical perspective. That being said, SunFlowers graphics are as shiny as ever. Every character, or flower in this case, has a unique and friendly look.  The bright and vibrant colors really stand out, thereby taking full advantage of the Vita’s OLED screen. You’ll be smiling as much as the sun and flowers shown in the game.
During the game, the background changes indicating that the season is transitioning. With the seasonal changes, you’ll have to deal with the environmental hazards. For instance, leaves will fall onto your garden, which you’ll need to shake your Vita in order to remove them. Also during winter, ice can start to form on the flowers, in which case you’ll need to fire your light beam directly onto them in order to prevent them from freezing over. This helps to add variety to SunFlowers.
With more flowers you grow, you start to expand your garden with the opportunity of getting newer species.  There are certain flowers that are unique and difficult to obtain. To elaborate, you can get the rare ones during the levels under the highest difficulty levels. You can use the Near application in the Vita to share your flowers with friends.
While SunFlowers does have an interesting concept in terms of gameplay, it can get repetitive in time. As such, this kind of game is appropriate for casual sessions where you’re just playing in a relatively short period of time. Nonetheless, it’s definitely enjoyable in small amounts of doses. SunFlowers is also easy to pick and play with the straightforward rules and simplistic controls. So the learning curve isn’t steep at all. And considering there’s quite a bit of content that can be unlocked, there’s some replay incentive attached to this game.
You too can start to grow your beautiful garden in your very own Vita with SunFlowers, available right now in the Playstation Network. While it may have the look that will attract players, its content may not necessarily win most of them over. For those who doubt whether or not they’re ready for SunFlowers, a trial run or demo would be suitable to help with their decision. Regardless, the $3.99 is a great price to pay for players who are receptive to this beaming light of a game.
