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From time to time you'll come across a game that you can just tell the developer tried and put a lot of effort into. Alient Planet Explorer (APE) is one of those titles. Other than the fact that the game is insanely short, there is a lot of good here if they choose to expand and further add to the game.
At this point, there is no story to be mentioned, but it seems like the intention is there. As the game has some tutorial dialog popups that look a lot like conversation boxes, I would like to assume they wanted to implement story and conversation exchanges. Obviously, the fact that not even a light story is present really hurts the game for a very large portion of the audience.
At APE's heart it is a platformer. Some enemies do show up, but primarily you'll just be doing platforming while dodging hazards. For the few enemies in the game, you do have tools in the form of a melee attack and a gun to deal with them. Everything in the realm of platforming works very well in APE. You can really feel that there was effort made to have a responsive platforming experience.
Other aspects of the game that really show the great effort put into the title is the graphics and sound. The music sets a very nice ambient tone that really fits the scene. Its not hard to see that there is a very nice artistic range here too. The artists really have a great idea of making everything look alien and tying everything together very nicely. All of the visuals really fit together perfectly.
APE is a game I would love to see more development on. As it stands it is a good effort, but there is no way I could ever suggest the price point for the amount of entertainment value it will provide. My play time with the game totaled 12 minutes after I entered the final door and was kicked back to the title screen. If the developers extended the game to at least a few hours with a boss or two, this could be a really really solid game.
As beautiful as this game is and as much effort as I can clearly see put in, it pains me to say I couldn't suggest it as a purchase. But, for 12 minutes, I just cannot. I would gladly re-review this title if more development is made on the game craft a longer product.
