Years ago, in 2014, Galaxy Trail released Freedom Planet, a 2D platform game. When you watch gameplay footage of it, it’s not hard to see that the game is a love letter to the early Sonic The Hedgehog games. Many players praised the game for its nostalgic gameplay and were begging for a sequel. Galaxy Trail has since then confirmed they’re working on Freedom Planet 2, but before they release the long-awaited sequel, they ported the first Freedom Planet to the Nintendo Switch to give those who’ve never played the game before a chance to experience this passion project.
Right from the start, Freedom Planet obviously looks like a Sonic game. The level art and the sprites and character designs are really reminiscent of the early Sonic The Hedgehog games, specifically Sonic 3. Moreover, the characters play a bit like Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles as far as speed and special moves go. The game even has half-pipes and loops that look like they were taken straight out of an old Sonic game. And the main character, Lilac, kind of looks like a redesigned and recolored Sonic character.
If you look up the background history of the game’s original concept, Freedom Planet was originally a fangame starring a modified Sonic sprite. However, the game has since then created its own identity by removing the Sonic-related characters and story and replacing it with original designs. Freedom Planet also takes influence from other 16-bit series like Gunstar Heroes, Rocket Knight Adventures, and Mega Man X. The player can make use of lots of different moves unique to each of the game’s three characters to take down enemies and bosses. The different design choices the developer used here ensures that this game doesn’t feel like a Sonic clone, but like its own game, which is important since otherwise, the developer would have gotten in trouble with Sega’s legal team.
Freedom Planet tells the story of Lilac, a dragon, her tomboyish cat friend Carol, and their new annoyingly hyperactive dog friend Milla as they help a mysterious stranger defeat an evil alien overlord who has instituted a coup in their country by killing the king and mind-controlling his son, the prince. It’s a lot grimmer than a game from the time would have been. However, the game still manages to maintain a light and fun atmosphere. It’s colorful and fast, the level designs are varied and interesting, and Lilac, Carol, and Milla play quite differently, requiring a different approach to the same levels for each character. Despite the obvious similarities between Sonic and Freedom Planet, the sprite and level art are all great, and it’s obvious that a lot of work went into putting the game together. There’s even full voice-acting with some rather well-performed line delivery.
Along with the old-school style of the art and the gameplay, Freedom Planet also features plenty of old-school cheap difficulty, and some of the levels are long and drag a bit. However, even the pacing and difficulty aren’t really an issue, because Freedom Planet gives Lilac and friends unlimited continues and mid-level checkpoints to start from. Moreover, unlike an old Sonic game, which capped the player’s time in each level at 10 minutes, Freedom Planet imposes no time limit at all, letting you explore and find new ways to get through a level. Finally, the game tries hard to mix things up with new level mechanics in each part of each stage. Some level sections require the player to solve a puzzle to open a door further back in the level. Others feature escape sequences reminiscent of the boulder scene in Indiana Jones. It’s easy for these sorts of games to get dull after a while, but Freedom Planet succeeds for the most part in keeping gameplay fresh throughout.
Conclusion
If you’re a fan of the early Sonic The Hedgehog games, you’ll definitely enjoy Freedom Planet. It basically takes what makes a Sonic game fun to play and adds to that with game mechanics inspired by other great games. The difficulty scaling may not always be fair, but it didn’t affect my overall gameplay experience. Still, this may be a personal thing, so take this into consideration. Other than that, I have no major complaints about the game.
