Jettomero: Hero of the Universe
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Critic Reviews for Jettomero: Hero of the Universe
Jettomero: Hero of the Universe is a unique videogame experience and one that you will likely either love or hate. It is not a title that will challenge you with compelling play, but it will provide you with the chance to play. It's attempts to be a ‘zen experience' are only half-successful, thanks to some frustrating controls, yet there is an arresting charm to the game that cannot be denied. If you're looking for a videogame to experience alongside your meditative or mindfulness training, then Jettomero is eminently suitable.
Jettomero: Hero of the Universe is visually very beautiful, but it feels like a game that contains a number of unfinished ideas wrapped up in a gorgeous package.
Jettomero looks and sounds great, and entertains for a few hours, but it's a little too shallow for us to wholeheartedly recommend. Stomping around as a big, clumsy robot is fun, however, and we enjoy the game's relaxed atmosphere. The lack of content, some control issues, and performance problems hold back Jettomero from meeting its potential, and the result is an experience that's quite throwaway, despite its charms.
Charming until the end, Jettomero is a gorgeous, if short, experience. It may be entirely too easy to blow through in an afternoon, but that afternoon will be filled with soothing music and a lovely sense of style.
Jettomero: Hero of the Universe offsets despair with panicky optimism and traps the ensuing fallout inside of a dizzy planet-obliterating robot. It's an alien venue for exploring the range and control of depression, but also one that expresses comfort and warmth along its journey. Resolution, through either perception or reality, casts Jettomero as a sympathetic hero negotiating inescapable desolation.
All of that said, Jettomero isn’t terribly difficult and, if the art style grabs you, the lack of complex game play may be refreshing. The backstory of the protagonist is worth discovering, and the argument could be made that the point here isn’t so much to be challenged as it is to just be Jettomero, and see the world through the eyes of a humongous, well-meaning sentient robot who wants to help but keeps accidentally stepping on things.
In the case of Jettomero: Hero of the Universe, either the presentation strikes a chord hidden deep inside you or it doesn't. If it's the former then of course it's an experience worth checking out. If it's the latter then, well, it might feel as empty as the space between all the different planets Jettomero travels to.
If you're looking for a different type of indie game on PlayStation 4, then Jettomero certainly fits that. It's short and to the point, a game that you can easily complete in one afternoon as you take on the journey that Jettomero has to go through to find its purpose in this universe.
