Sunny-Place could hardly be described as a game, in fact it would be difficult to characterize it as more than a pet project that someone decided to put up on Steam and try to sell. The player is a rag-doll that appears to have quite list of possible character look and feel customization options. Once the customization is set up, pressing the space bar causes the rag-doll to be shot through a hole in the ground and fall through what sort of looks like a giant pachinko machine. Eventually the character plops on the ground below and a series of “tutorials” begin.
There are a few graphics and sound options in Sunny-Place; of these, the most important option is the music volume. Sunny-Place has no real music in it, but it does have some randomly generated ear-rape that is called music. The random riffs pop and crack with irritating repetition, but oddly, the music fits the game pretty well. Some of the other important options include “Rebind” which translates to key/mouse/controller control mapping. Out of the box, Sunny-Place features broken movement and camera controls, and unfortunately there doesn’t not seem to be any way to fix the camera (both figuratively and literally). Exactly what the developer had in mind is hard to guess, but the camera is not fixed to the player’s character, but it is moved with separate camera controls as well as moved with the character movement controls. If this sounds confusing, it is. Effectively, the camera in Sunny-Place is a third person view disaster. Graphics-wise, Sunny Place has some graphics options, but looks like a game that would have little trouble running on a computer made in 1999, so why bother?
After falling through the pachinko to the ground, the player learns that they are in Hell (both figuratively and literally). Apparently, Hell looks like a flat plane with giant boxes and a few pieces of furniture, who knew? The first goal, which seems to be a controls tutorial, is to put a plant back on a table. If the player has not remapped the controls this will be virtually impossible without a controller. The default keyboard and controls make little sense and the mouse does nothing. Once completed, the player is then supposed to climb some stairs and get a key. The key is supposed to be for a car, but after picking up the key, the car doesn’t appear to be anywhere in sight. Pressing keys randomly suddenly causes the player to be in a car. But the car doesn’t have wheels, it seems to be intended to be flown around somehow and landed on a giant red box. Strangely, the camera locks onto the rear, like a chase cam, which would have been a much better way for the camera to work for the player.
Sunny-Place is like a physics sandbox, but with the intention of being some sort platformer/driving game hybrid. There seem to be goals to complete, but none of it makes any sense. This is probably the point, that none of it make sense. Sunny-Place is a bizarre experience, and some gamers may get a kick out of the silly themes. Most gamers will probably want their money back as it feels like a school project rather than a something to be paid for. Sunny-Place is not recommended for the average person; it’s a controls mess and generally incoherent.
Purchase Sunny-Place on Steam!
Jacmac is an ancient gamer that loves open world, strategy, FPS, and tactical sims, but will play almost anything.
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