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Review: LOVE 2: Kuso

At a Glance

ESRB Rating: NR - Not Rated
My Rating: Everyone
Genre: Platformer
License: Commercial
Fun-O-Meter:
Release Year: 2017
Review Published On: September 16th, 2020
Played on: Thaddeus

Available on:

Windows
MacOS

Available from:

Itch.IO
Steam

Areas of Concern:
  • Very mild violence


How to Save and Pause:

Your progress is saved at the end of the current level. However, only one game can be saved at a time, so you need to finish your current game before starting another.

You can pause at any time by pressing ESC.

Time needed per session:

This is not a long game, but since youll want to have enough time to warm up before tackling its challenges, Id suggest giving yourself at least ten minutes per session.

Does this game pose issues for Christian players?

No - this is a great game for Christians
This is a simple, fun little game that doesnt feature anything nothing worth worrying about.

Screenshots

[view screenshot]
Running in slow motion

[view screenshot]
Cut down to size

[view screenshot]
Exploring a dark cavern



Game Overview

LOVE was very aptly named, as it was a fun little love letter to the simple and fun platforming games of yore. Originally, followed this trend in a tongue in cheek way: it was known as Kuso, which is a Japanese interjection indicating that youre frustrated with something (sort of like how we might say darn it! when something goes wrong). This is fitting, because while LOVE 2 is still a very fun game, youre going to lose many more lives in these new levels than you ever did in the original.

Like its predecessor, LOVE 2 has you control a little person whos just little six pixels tall. Your only goal is to get this character to the other side of each room, but you can only touch objects that are colored: coming into contact with anything white is usually instant death. I say usually because there are a few exceptions, such as platforms that make your character bounce around or the new extra life tokens you can collect. Dont worry too much though: the levels are structured in such a way that its very clear which white surfaces are dangerous, so there arent any unfair surprises lurking around.

Now, if youre familiar with LOVE, this might sound like LOVE 2 is nothing more than a glorified expansion pack, but thats not really the case. A number of new features have been added, including new obstacle types, new game modes, local multiplayer, and an optional DLC that lets your character wear a spiffy blue hat. Youve also been give the ability to slow down time on demand -- a feature that makes it a lot easier to navigate some of the more difficult obstacles.

If you enjoyed LOVE or just like old school platformers in general, this is definitely a game to add to your collection.

Points of Interest

Six game modes

In this game, the various game modes almost translate into different levels of difficulty. Unlimited, Arcade, and Hard modes, for example, are identical to one another in every way but one: the number of lives you start with. Arcade mode gives you 125 lives, Hard mode leaves you with only 10, and Unlimited Mode gives you as many as you need.

By contrast, Speedrun Mode focuses on how quickly you can clear a set of levels, Level Select Mode allows you to play any one level, and Endless Mode simply continues until you run out of lives.

By the by, if you liked LOVEs YOLO mode, its still around -- it was just moved into the Level Select Mode. You can enable it when selecting a level.

41 levels in total

When you start a new game, you can choose between three level sets. The 16 levels from the first game have been retooled to work with the upgraded engine, and are the first option. You can also choose to only play the 25 new levels, or you can also choose to play all 41 levels in a single marathon game. Theres an achievement for completing each set of levels, so youll want to replay this game a few times to earn them all.

Fancy hats

The Hat DLC isnt required to play LOVE 2, nor does it really add very much to the game. Its primarily there as a way to tip the games developer, and in return youll get to wear a blue hat. Unlike your character, these hats dont despawn when you die. Instead, they just fall to the ground, showing how far you managed to progress in the level before you made a fatal mistake. If youre struggling with a level, this can get pretty ridiculous.

Steam community features

Like most Steam games these days, theres a series of Steam trading cards available for you to collect. There are also 26 achievements, most of which require you to perform some clever or unusual feats during play. You might need to jump between rotating propeller blades, use the paths less traveled, or just earn a high score at the end of your run. Regardless, collecting every achievement will be a tricky ordeal in and of itself.

This makes LOVE obsolete

Probably the biggest downside to this title is that it incorporated the entire first game into itself. This means that theres little reason to purchase or play through LOVE, as LOVE 2 has the same content with better features.

Concerns and Issues

Very mild violence

As with most games made in a simplistic pixel art style, there are various animations that play when your character dies. Most of them are unremarkable, and just give you a few seconds to breathe before resuming play.

On a slightly different note, once youve finished your current level set, youll be shown a screen that ranks your performance. This screen also shows every single life you lost falling out of a chute and dying again. If youve made a lot of mistakes, this can depict a disturbingly large number of characters getting killed en masse.