PS Plus September: Vote to Play’s winner is Grow Home

Grow Home has won PlayStation Plus’ inaugural Vote to Play election and will be one of September’s PS Plus freebies.

Vote to Play was first revealed at the tail of July, but the September election was only announced in mid-August. The maiden ballot pit Grow Home against Armello and Zombie Vikings. Despite my coworkers’ arguments for the latter two, Grow Home came out on top.

It’s with a small smile that I write that, not because I genuinely believe that my advocating Grow Home significantly influenced voter turnout, but because the game I wanted won. Grow Home is a procedurally generated adventure that blends the sandbox and platformer genres, then tops it off with a strikingly minimalistic aesthetic. It's lovely, to say the least.

Grow Home protagonist BUD (Botanical Utility Droid) can manipulate the game’s world, a towering Star Plant, to his liking, riding tendrils to unknown peaks or simply gliding leaf to leaf. It’s a symphony of movement and agency, and it had an iron grip on my vote. It’s certainly earned its spot in next month’s PS Plus instant library.