Sir Lovelot is a 2D platformer developed by pixel.lu (Pixel Games) that follows a brave knight in his quest to seek out and save the love of his life. The player must ward off dangerous enemies in their travels across the four different corners of Lululand and collect various gifts that will impress each damsel in distress that our hero saves.
Sir Lovelot begins by placing the player into the first level and having them figure out how to move through their own intuition. It is a simple first level, with only five simple controls to learn which allows the player to traverse freely across the world, and while there are over forty levels, it can be completed in two hours. While Sir Lovelot manages to introduce a few new enemies and obstacles, they never manage to become very difficult.
In each level the player must find a flower to gift to a damsel locked away in a tower so they will let their hair down in order for Sir Lovelot to climb to their rescue. Each level also has many hidden passages that can reveal shortcuts or show the resting place of geese and other gifts, which are required to collect for a 100% level completion. Along with the geese and gifts, a 100% completion is earned by collecting all coins and losing below a set number of lives. The number of items required, and the number of lives set varies per level and it is great fun for any completionist.
Sir Lovelot requires quite a bit of precise platforming, as just a little too left or right can send the brave knight falling to his death, or backwards in progression. Additionally, enemies that can be shot often leave very little space on a platform for the player to get an easy opportunity. Fortunately, the controls of Sir Lovelot are very responsive, and the player is given ample opportunity to pull off the perfect jump, well, unless the player is in water. Water seems to have proven difficult for platformers in the past and not much has changed here. While the player has to move with some pin-point accuracy, swimming never seems to bring much fluidity in its movement and for a game that does not ever push its difficulty to a very high level, these moments in water always felt like the hardest.
Each level consists of multiple screens that can often be completed by taking multiple routes and the best part is, when defeating any enemies in a particular area they do not spawn back in, so it is often smooth sailing on the next attempt. There are a number of obstacles that include spikes, lava and a number of moving saws and blades, just to name a few and if the player happens to lose a life, they will spawn back to the start of the screen they died.
Graphically, the bar for Sir Lovelot is not that high being a 2D side-scrolling game, but the vibrant colours of the world really make the it pop out on the screen. Each of the four regions of Lululand have their own unique appearance and feeling to them which is portrayed in the changing landscapes.
The original music of Sir Lovelot fits the theme well and plays like there is a sense of urgency as each level is timed. Movement in the world remains very arcade like throughout with “whooshes” and “swoops” while leaping off platforms and walls and shooting sounds like bubbles are being hurled towards enemies and similarly, when those enemies die, they also pop like a bubble.
While Sir Lovelot might be a bit difficult for the younger kids to play, there is definitely no harm in letting them watch. In fact, my daughter really enjoyed watching me play and I presumed it is because of the vibrant colours and lack of any sort of real violence. Pausing at any time is quite simple if parental skills are requested or required, so the player should be able to boot this game up at any time without hassle.
Brandon Waite