Lila’s Sky Ark is an open-world game (with exploration similar to old-school Zelda games) with simple, but vibrant pixel graphics where you’re tasked with saving Lila’s “psychedelic” world from the Conductor’s minions.  During my roughly 40 minutes with the demo, I met some quirky characters, like Lila’s robot dad, Doctor Father Sir, a pessimistic monkey, and a grim reaper-type character named Entropy who apparently loves me as it loves “everything that exchanges energy in the universe”.  Um, thanks?.  Even the item descriptions are rather humorous: “Once upon a time, there was…some stuff.  The end.”

Unfortunately, the gameplay was really lacking, as Lila’s only method for attacking enemies is to throw objects at them.  You can place various items into your backpack, like rocks or Titan Eyes (which are powerful objects that explode on impact) to throw at enemies, but you can only carry 10 objects at a time, so it doesn’t take long before you run out of projectiles.  Sure, items are generally pretty plentiful, but I don’t really understand the concept of your weapons all being one-use, and I really feel like such combat is bound to get pretty repetitive after a while.

The demo ends right when we encounter what seems to be the game’s first boss, the Drummer.  In general, I have very mixed feelings about this game.  On the positive end of the spectrum, I enjoyed the game’s humor and quirky characters, and I just generally like any game that lets me explore a fairly open map.  But on a more negative note, I didn’t find the combat to be very fun, and I’m not so sure I want to spend the whole game chucking objects at enemies.  Lila’s Sky Ark is available on Nintendo Switch and all major operating systems for $14.99, though I’ve seen it go on sale for $2.99, making it a much better deal for a game that’s about 5-7 hours long.