Finding a Home on Forsaken Planet
by ted2112 HSM team writer
When you think of LOOT, what do you think? I like to think of orbiting Space Stations, Entertainment On Demand, video cameras and – after all this time, still my favorite personal space – the Hollywood Hills House. LOOT has been one of those developers that have pushed the boundaries on not only what you can do in Home, but they have also been a force in helping shape Home itself. Now these creative folks from sunny southern California, who have brought us all this cool stuff in Home have set their sights even further, as in out to deep space to the Forsaken Planet.
LOOT, along with other developers like Heavy Water, have expanded beyond the safe districts of Home and branched out to gaming everywhere, and if you think about this, it is a great move. For example, LOOT has a large and loyal fan base from Home. All these people don’t have to be told who LOOT is or the quality of what they do, because they are already have a relationship with them. Not only that, but it just makes good business sense to not put your eggs in one basket.
Many of these fans also follow LOOT on various social media, so when the call went out for the Alpha testing of LOOT’s new game outside of Home, a huge number of us (myself included) jumped at the chance.
Here at Home, we first got wind of Forsaken Planet when LOOT refurbished the Space Station in December. Lovable cows, camels and even Pickle and Pimento (more on them in a bit) showed up, and we even had a dedicated Forsaken Planet commerce point. Right from Home we could watch trailers and earn in game rewards. So in a way, Forsaken Planet was born in Home before heading out to deep space to find those strange aliens we call casual gamers.
Now the game itself is a wonderfully fun and quirky third person action adventure shooter that relies heavily on a good story. You play as one of several employees at the Chkkin Koop intergalactic fast food restaurant, when the Evil Lord Magnenetar pulls his massive star ship up to the drive through and orders a billion and two meal deals. It’s up to you to collect the necessary ingredients while competing with your fellow employee before it’s too late.
Forsaken Planet’s casual game style is as fun to play as the game looks. The characters Pickle, Pimento, Gherkin, Pikally and Cornichons all gave happy-go-lucky attitudes that will get you to smile as you maneuver their little flying saucers. The object of Forsaken Planet is to pick up what ingredients the planet has to offer, then drop them in the chikkinizer, a device that can turn just about anything into chikkin – including your fellow employees. You do all this while defending your employee of the month status from the others, who want the title as much as you. I love the way in single player mode, the two employees interact, keeping the game upbeat and entertaining.
You can play Forsaken Planet in single player mode, create a new game both public and private, or you can jump right in with quick play that allows you to quickly join an already created game. Upon completing a game, you are rewarded with coins that allow you to purchase game upgrades, or you can just buy coin packs and trick out your saucer from the get go. Also, LOOT has devised a loyalty program which allows new players coming into the alpha test that were referred by a friend to reward that friend with bonus experience points.
What makes Forsaken Planet a winner is the way LOOT crafted a really fun environment. Yes, the game is challenging (in other words, don’t simply dismiss it), but it never loses sight of the fact that it’s a light-hearted casual game that will be played mostly on a handheld device. The missions are short and can be played at your leisure. Even at this early alpha stage, the customization is already impressive. You can choose to play as any of the characters and upgrade your weapons and color scheme. As you level up, you unlock access to colorful and zany improvements like the “udderly awesome” shooters or the “Mr. Meaty” mine. The great tongue in cheek element to the game further reinforces the let’s have fun and not taking itself too seriously philosophy of Forsaken Planet, and that is what makes the game stand out from the rest of the pack of blander fare. Any game that can make you laugh while entertaining you has figured out the essence of casual gaming.
Forsaken Planet is a freemium based game available on Google Play/Android Marketplace and Amazon. The base game is free and LOOT coin upgrade packages are available for purchase ranging from $2.99 for 500 coins all the way up to $99.00 for 100,000 coins. I strongly suggest checking it out, and it would be great thing indeed if the full weight of the Home community got behind these developers who are branching out. Alpha testing for Forsaken Planet is still open and accepting new players at the time of publishing.
February 1st, 2013 by ted2112 | 7 comments
ted2112 is a writer and a Bass player that has been both inspired and takes to heart Kurt Vonnegut words...."we are here on planet Earth to fart around, and don't let anyone tell you different."
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Nice review Ted. I looked at this a while back on one of my random jumps around Home, one of the clever things I noticed was how Sony managed to advertise their Xperia phone range in tandem with Loot’s game within the Space Station.
I’m a damn hard sell when it comes to mobile games, so yeah, I took a look but kept on walking. After reading this though, I think it deserves a second take. If it’s one thing I miss a lot in today’s games it’s humor. I remember when games were all mainly full of laughs; Maniac Mansion, Dizzy, Postal and so many others. Now we seem to be bogged down with grumpy space marines or anti-heroes fighting for justice the whole time.
I just remembered a game where you played a micro chip with super artificial intelligence, and you had to plug yourself into genetically modified farm animals (like the Sheep-on-a-spring) to make your way around the game world. God! What was it called!?
Anyone that can tell me gets a prize!
This game sounds like fun but I am at a disadvantage to play as the only hand held thing I own is my cell phone and the screen is so small I would never be able to play anything on it and enjoy it. Sounds like a weird game though, very imaginative.
I wish LOOT luck with this new venture. I really like the new section of the space station. Really well designed.
I found an extra screen for the movies and such in the shuttle bay! I was pretty suprised by that.
The control for that screen is right next to the cow which is free if people would like to have it, and see a movie.
I too love LOOT and their radios. I do love Movies the best and make the screens pop up in the Space Station!! thanks for the tweet!!!
This sounds like so much fun! I totally have to check out the game. I would like to sign up for Alpha testing!! I don’t own the Loot space station, so I need to find someone to show me the new section. Great review, I am so wanting to try this out!!!
Wow, thanks for the awesome review, HSM! The team here at LOOT are really into having a good time with our community, so we wanted to build a game that really embodied and encouraged good times for all. We have a blast with Forsaken Planet, and we hope that you will, too.
Burbie52, if you have a PC, you can also get the game right from Amazon.com:
LostRainbow, the game is in open Alpha, so hop on in… right now we’re on Android through Google PLAY and PC through the Amazon link above.
We are making this game for our community and we love feedback, so make sure to head over to the forums at and help us make the game even more awesome.
Also follow us on Twitter to find out about our frequent updates and ‘play with devs’ sessions! or @LOOTEnt
Hehe link fail!
Our Windows PC version Amazon page:
http://www.amazon.com/LOOT-Entertainment-41198aken-Planet1-Forsaken/dp/B009RWPBLK
Our forum:
https://forum.lootentertainment.com/
Our Twitter:
https://twitter.com/LOOTent