As bright and colorful as you would expect a game based on a kid’s movie to be, Planet 51 offers a mindless sort of escapism that works best on fans of the movie – namely, children.The plot is an incoherent mess if you haven’t seen the movie (and is even a bit confusing if you have), but that doesn’t stop a lot of the missions from being just entertaining enough to enjoy.
Lem, the young Planet 51 native who experiences a first encounter with “alien” Chuck, performs a variety of engaging odd jobs throughout the game – taxi driver, parking lot attendant, even a dog catcher. The variety helps the game play stay fresh and original, even if the story itself is nonsensical.
Thankfully, driving on Planet 51 is entertaining, offering fun and unusual directional controls and even a PG kind of violence, allowing the player to bash other cars when they’re close or to even escape from the police after a bought of dangerous speeding. The occasional race against Voorde offers even more satisfying speed and fun.
Less interesting are the interspersed missions with Chuck, who dodges obstacles in a thoroughly uninteresting way – on foot. And even worse than those are the irritating missions where you play as Rover, whose slow movements are only made worse by stimulating missions like collecting rocks. Luckily, these missions can be skipped, but wouldn’t it have been better not to include them in the first place?
Still, the impressive surroundings of Planet 51 make for an harmless, enjoyable ride, even if it is one aimed toward younger audiences. It’s something smaller kids can enjoy and parents will be comfortable with, and there are definitely worse things to aspire toward. Don’t agree? Leave a comment below and try to convince me that I’m wrong.
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