I can't get enough of the cute cat-like companion in this puzzle platformer, even if some block pushing is a little business as usual

Planet of Lana 2 is, simply put, an immediate delight. Picking up where its predecessor left off, playing around 45 minutes of the puzzle-platformer at Gamescom 2025 gave me a delectable taster of what's to come, with protagonist Lana and her cat-like friend Mui investigating a new mystery on the planet Novo.

In my demo, I'm given a taster of several different sections, taking me across a snowy biome, a tropical beach, a man-made mechanical space, and a lush forest. Much like the first game, everything looks gorgeous, with vibrant colors and detailed scenery that makes the world of this 2D adventure feel deep and expansive, and oozing with atmosphere. If I wasn't on a time-limit, I'd have loved slowly meandering through these areas, soaking it all up.

Mui phone home

The sections I get my hands on involve a blend of puzzles and stealth sections – directing both Lana and Mui in order to overcome obstacles and sneak past foes. Guiding Mui to different areas to solve problems as a 'team' feels a little bit like being in a one-man-band – almost like playing a co-op game with two controllers – but it's very satisfying to piece things together, and nothing beats the warm, fuzzy feeling of calling your little feline companion back to you after a job well done.

Mui's skills aren't limited to simply moving around and completing simple tasks like cutting ropes (although they can do that, too). In one section at the aforementioned beach, I use Mui's powers to control a fish, which has its own ability to leave clouds of ink in the water. This is particularly handy since my actual path forward is blocked by an aggressive shark-like creature that charges forward and attacks as soon as I enter its line of sight. Using the fish's ink-spraying skill, I obstruct its view before jumping back to control Lana and finally proceed.

Puzzles like this are fairly simple, albeit still satisfying. However, that's not to say that there aren't any head-scratchers. One particularly tricky problem involves trying to reunite Lana and Mui after breaking the cute companion out of some kind of lab. Clearing the way involves sliding around huge blocks (would it be a puzzle-platformer without one of these?) which have to be inserted into specific places in order to unlock the doors ahead. At this point, one of the developers stepped in to help not just me, but apparently everyone else in the room.

Admittedly, this was partially to ensure we could actually get to the end of the session in the limited amount of time we had, it's not that we'd been given an impossible task, but still – don't expect to breeze through without straining a few brain cells here and there. It's hard to overlook how overdone the whole block-pushing thing is, mind you, but the variety in the rest of the demo has me reassured that Planet of Lana 2 has plenty of tricks up its sleeve to keep us engaged.

There was only one tiny point in the demo where things didn't seem to be working quite right. In one specific area, Mui suddenly became rather disobedient, and didn't want to jump onto a ledge no matter how many times I asked. The solution to this was moving slightly further away from the platform in question, which felt slightly clunky, but far from game-breaking. I'm just hoping Mui doesn't go full Trico mode from The Last Guardian and can be a bit more cooperative in the full release, though it is nice when Lana's furry friend displays their own personality.

Personally though, I'm not worried. Everything else was perfectly smooth, and it shouldn't be ignored that the puzzle-platformer is still eyeing up a vague 2026 release, so there's still plenty of time for polish, and I'm very excited to see what else developer Wishfully is cooking up with its sequel.

Want to read more from GamesRadar+'s Autumn Preview? Be sure to head over to our Gamescom 2025 coverage hub.