You are now fully commited to anything that happens next.

Simplicity is truly beautiful when done correctly. It’s really easy to look at titles from the Atari and NES era and quip “Oh, how quaint!” as we twirl our collective moustaches and tut-tut the common folk. But simple isn’t just for retroheads; a lot of gamers conveniently ignore the power of simple mobile games. We don’t always have time to invest hours of our lives into minmaxing a build or customizing an avatar. You may not like Candy Crush or Angry Birds, and my referencing those shows how goddamn old I am, but they captivate with addictive loops. Moreover, there are legitimately excellent, simple mobile games, like Slayin’, which has been a callback for me for years now. It’s clear the folks of Dangen Entertainment love them some simple games with real challenge, because Lovish, their newest action adventure, is as enthralling as it is endearing.

Quick, think of the most common plotline ever! Correct, saving a princess from evil. You’re Sir Solomon, who is trying to rescue the fair Princess Tsuna from the dastardly Demon Lord. Sir Solomon is aided by his friends and fellow knights, who would do anything to help out and let good triumph. But Sir Solomon is…different. He’s worried Princess Tsuna will see how cool his friends are and leave him on the spot. So, instead of having a relatively straightforward buddy adventure, Solomon runs off on his own to protect his love without risking her thinking anyone else is worthy of her affection. Super healthy, right? Solomon’s got a sword, a dream, and a finite number of deaths before his quest is finished. Find pennies, slay monsters, piss off NPCs, dream of the apocalypse and make even more questionable choices, all in the name of love…ish!

Brave knight fights a mushroom and a mouse for pennies, film at 11.

Lovish is a fifty room quest from Point A to B. Each room will have some requirements to unlocking the door and moving onto the next area. Along the way, you’ll have coins you can collect to unlock additional powerups and bonuses, as well as meeting certain conditions in order to get a Golden Crown. The crowns are the collect-a-thon MacGuffins that both prove you did your time and also unlock even more goodies. Rooms have spikes, projectiles, and all manner of enemies that, if they touch you, you die. One hit, no questions. This even applies to the boss rooms, which ask for way more than a single hit to dispatch the denizen therein. And, yes, you’ve got about 200 hearts, which you’d think would be plenty, given that there are only fifty rooms. Wonderful news: you’d be very mistaken.

After the first…three rooms, it becomes a matter of patience, accuracy and perseverance. Sir Solomon is a decent knight, but his jumping does leave something to be desired. Also, he’s got this thing where he can hit something with his sword and it won’t go down immediately. Mushrooms, flaming spirits, weird singing jesters and more all take 3-6 whacks to disappear, whereas Solly only needs to be lightly grazed by literally anything and you’re done. The enemies never become a huge nuisance in terms of smarter AI or more complex attack patterns, but their very presence can be enough to throw you off your game.

On top of that, Lovish has a pretty devious room design. There are more than several areas where you will need to travel to one extreme and then double back, only to find that it’s easier to enter than to exit. A classic example is jumping from one ledge down to a smaller platform below, and you can make the jump more easily if you use a floating block on the way. However, touching this floating block makes it disappear the second you step off from it, resulting in you being stuck with no way to get back up and only death as an escape. Now you understand, but you’ve wasted valuable lives both figuring out your mistake and then putting together how to pull off the initial jump without touching that floating block.

Dodging one way only to dodge back the other. Lovely.

Collecting pennies should be your primary goal if you’re just looking to get to the end of the game, as the shop that appears soon after the beginning supplies you with powerups that makes life generally better. Being able to attack up or down can change your trajectory, and I personally had a MUCH easier time once I got the lightning bolt that shot from my sword tip. Not only did it allow me to strike enemies from afar, it also counted as double damage when tackling the bosses, which appear every ten rooms. You can also get additional powerups that, frankly, I’m not sure what they do, but I’m excited to find out eventually.

The game design of Lovish does open itself up to the three main player types: the adventurer, the speed runner, and the completionist. Just going through the game itself is a delightful journey because of how nonsensical it can be. The devs have injected little moments between each room that seem randomized with a couple of very specific “unlock” moments, and they’re always a joy to behold. Many of them are just fun for fun’s sake, with Solomon discovering empty treasure chests, inflicting terror on unsuspecting people, or encountering the murderous girl from The Ring. He also contemplates tacos and how good they are, which makes him a superior protagonist in my book.

So many questions with this one, isolated statement.

But there are plenty of little inbetweens that have a direct effect on the overall game. Some are just gimmies, like discovering a fairy who’ll heal some of your damage, or opening a treasure chest and having it actually contain loot. Some are mini fights with hostile beasties, with the gameplay turning from puzzle platformer to turn based combat, JRPG style. One particularly shocking moment came when I discovered a horde of zombies and was suddenly dropped into a mini version of Vampire Survivor. I did not, in fact, survive, but thankfully the health penalty wasn’t too extreme. But the fact that there is so much detail baked into these moments outside of actual gameplay is delightful.

If you are either looking to play the game as fast or as thoroughly as possible, Lovish has you covered. Want to make sure you have the best time for each room? A handy dandy timer lets you know how many seconds you shaved off your last fight with the two evil wizards! Need to feel like you saw every freaking angle of the game? Then try to find the secret golden crowns in every room. Where do the crowns come from? Arbitrary! Sometimes they’re hidden in the walls when you hit them. Sometimes they appear when you kill enemies. Sometimes they appear because you don’t kill enemies. And if you get all the crowns, buy an upgrade from the shop and try to get all the peace crowns from killing nothing! Is it possible? That’s not important!

Thankfully, this does not apply to the boss rooms, as that would be quite unfair.

The irreverent tone of Lovish is incredibly captured in the writing and jokes, but the art direction has a special place in my heart. Dragon Half was one of the first OVAs I ever saw, and I fell in absolute love with the absurd theme song, the nonsensical storytelling, and the incredible tonality throughout. Ryusuke Mita was kind enough to lend his pen to some of the character designs throughout the game. It adds this light, bouncy tone to a game that is already over the top in silly Japanese humor, and it comes through even further with the designs Mita adds to it all. It would be weird for Solomon to use a special beam to make a giant bird fall in love with him had it been drawn by anyone else, but, instead, it all checks out!

Lovish has some tight, punishing and unrelenting gameplay firmly packed into an aesthetically pleasing and insane narrative that never tries to justify itself beyond “why not?” The game has as much replay value as you want to put into it, and I personally found it to be a delight and a treasure. It has a mission statement and it achieves it with flair and confidence. LABS Works has crafted a timeless piece of enjoyment, and I hope it gets as much acclaim as the laughs it gave to me. Don’t hesitate: get in there, and you, too, can experience the bananas adventures of Sir Solomon and his quest of Lovish.

Lovish is available now on Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of Lovish was provided by the publisher.