Campanella

Here it is. The big one. This is the most influential game in the entire catalogue. Campanella would be their big breakthrough hit, possibly saving the company from bankruptcy, and influencing a complete brand change, as by the following year, they’d have changed their name from LX Systems to “UFO Soft”. But for now, this is still an LX Systems game.

Campanella

Campanella is a continuation of Zoldath. Kinda. Meesha Danry is credited as having the idea to bring the pilot and little red UFO back from Zoldath, thus saving the company’s most iconic characters. The game is a… platformer, kind of?? You control the little UFO, which will fall with the force of gravity. You can hold A to boost yourself upwards, so it’s kinda like a sort of swimming control. It’s very, VERY smooth, and controls extremely well. While you’re burning fuel, however, you’re uh, burning fuel. Run out, and you’ll crash to the ground. To keep this from happening, you need to defeat enemies, break blocks, and collect orbs, which increase your fuel. One hit from anything, including walls, will kill you, so you need to be careful as you fly around, but the crux of the game is that you gain lives REALLY easily just from score, so it becomes a gamble of “how risky do I get to get a high score, which will keep me playing?”

Campanella was made by Petter and his team of Gregory Milk, Chiffon Bola, and Shayn North, and they all did a fantastic job. The game looks amazing, it kinda reminds me of Gimmick aesthetically. It also sounds great, music by Petter himself. That 2nd world music is FANTASTIC.

Campanella

Another fun thing about the game is that it introduces a 100% category involving coffee. Once again, coffee makes its appearance as little collectibles. You fly around a level, and if you fly into a certain spot in each level, coffee will spawn elsewhere and you can collect it. Get it all for the 100% ending. How do you FIND the coffee? Sometimes it’s just about randomly, but usually you can get an idea, just by looking at what areas of the map would be useless to go to. Getting all the Coffee makes the game a little easier, IMO, because you get so many lives just from the 500 points the coffee gives you.

Campanella was the breakout hit that LX Systems needed, and deserved. And while it is not my personal favorite game of their’s so far, or even IMO the best (I’d put Magic Garden, Kick Club, and Camouflage above it), it is extremely enjoyable, and worth a play.

9/10