Jettomero:
Hero of the Universe

Jettomero: Hero of the Universe (2017) is an alien invasion adventure game played in reverse. You are a giant, indestructible (and very clumsy) robot who wants to save rather than destroy the human race. This unusual set-up is underlined by its Pop Art visuals and how it commits to the slow pace of puttering around planets as this apologetic (and unintentionally destructive) robot.

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Play involves flying through space to land on planets. Once there you have to carefully explore and try not to destroy everything. The challenge is your wobbly gait and the fragile buildings. This makes it hard not to break things. This is made harder because the inhabitants attack you and restrict your movement in different ways.

To progress you need to collect specific items from the planets. These are often hard to find or hidden. In each solar system, there's a planet with a boss monster you need to fight by pressing buttons in the right order. Defeating the monster grants you more of the backstory, and then it's off to the next of the nine solar systems. There's a photo mode with various filters in the game's vibrant comic-like world.

The result is a unique game that is surprisingly relaxing to play. The music underlines this focus on chilled-out iterative gameplay through a series of similar planets.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Jettomero: Hero of the Universe 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 10 months ago.