I've always been a fan of Rebecca Sugar's stuff. Especially the
storyboards & sketches that Rebecca did for "Adventure Time." Her drawings always
had so much charm and beauty to them. And her songs are so sweet and emotional.
Rebecca Sugar and her ukulele
at Comic-Con
Which is why I was overjoyed when I saw the pilot for
Sugar's new show, "Steven Universe." And when this series finally
began airing on the Cartoon Network last November, I was over the moon.
"Steven Universe" is a gorgeous, sweet show that goes left when you
expect it to go right, and often yanks the rug right out from under you,
story-wise. But this new animated series still manage to be sweet &
charming and really down-to-earth during psychotically horrifying episodes (See
"Frybo").
So when I saw that an app game had come out which was based
on this Cartoon Network show, I was like "Oh, man! That is a thing I
should play!" And many months later as I was staring at the App Store,
that thought once again drifted through into my head. "Hey, there was this
thing you should play. Not that Animal Crossing app. The other one. Um. Oh
yeah!" And so I totally bought the "Steven Universe" app for a
grand total of 99 cents.
Copyright 2014 Cartoon
Network.
All rights reserved
And wow, what a gorgeous, fun little game this is. The
"Steven Universe" app is based on a pretty common theme for flash
games. Advance as far upward as you can jumping to platforms before a meter
runs out. And then — on your way down
— collect coins/destroy enemies to get bonus points. In this case, playing as
Steven, you climb up platforms to collect coins, then drop when you either miss
a platform or lose enough health. Then using Steven's gem powers, you bash
enemies on the way down.
The "Steven Universe" app is pretty simple but
fun. And don't get me started on the backgrounds, man! They're absolutely
gorgeous. Everything from the "Pause" menu view of Steven's room …
Copyright 2014 Cartoon
Network.
All rights reserved
… to the different backgrounds for each level directly
from the show. The music for this game is really great too. And the animations
for the "Steven Universe" are absolutely adorable.
The only thing about this game that really bothers me is the
fact that every time you boot up the game, a video clip of the "Steven
Universe" theme song starts playing. Don't get me wrong. It's an adorable
(And great) theme song. I just don't know if I want to watch it every single
time I start up this game. Thankfully, you can skip it. So I guess — in the end — that I don't really
have anything to complain about.
Copyright 2014 Cartoon
Network.
All rights reserved
Well, there's that and the fact that the controls on the
drop-down are a liiiitttleee bit weird. I guess it's because you're going down
super-fast, but the controls handle kinda poorly there. But the level design
for the "Steven Universe" app is pretty fantastic on the way up. The
game shows you its different platforms in action instead of going "WATCH
OUT, THIS ONE MAKES THE PLATFORMS SHAKE!" in a pop-up bubble. It's really
charming that it lets you figure that out on your own, which really suits the
mood of the TV show.
Overall, I really recommend this game for "Steven
Universe" fans, and maybe even non-fans. For a dollar, it's a gorgeous,
adorable, addicting game. And I will probably start it up again just as soon as
I finish typing this sentence.