(continued from previous page) ...and often frustrating drawn out experience. This is comparable to PSP's Loco Roco, you can fly through all of flOw's levels in about 90 minutes. But if you're a perfectionist and want to eat all the organisms and completely clear each stage, flOw could last you hours, maybe even days.

This brings us to one of biggest weaknesses of the game, the replayability. After finishing the game there is no real incentive to pick it up and play it again. It is simply the same thing all over again. The price of the game and the addition of multiplayer greatly offset this weakness.

Walk the plankton

I was told that I hadn’t played flOw until I had played flOw in multiplayer. So I called over a few of my buddies (who are non gamers) and we started to play the game. Their initial reaction was “what the hell is this?”

But as we continued through the game and they got the hang of the controls, it became a truly enjoyable experience. We devised plans of how to attack the larger creature and had little competitions to see who could get the biggest before the end of the level. By the time we were finished they had a very positive opinion of the game.

flOw doesn’t follow the traditional path of a game; it’s more of a chilled experience than an all-action, undersea battler. The combination of fluid, intuitive controls, freeform music and beautiful graphics makes this a very memorable experience.