PixelJunk Shooter Review

Posted by TWHR in Articles, Console, Featured, News, Reviews, Sony | 3 comments

PixelJunk Shooter is the best game Q games has ever made. Bold statement? Maybe but I don’t think anyone is going to disagree once they play the game for even a few minutes. You would be forgiven for thinking (as I did) that this was going to be a run of the mill side scrolling shooter made better by PixelJunks usual quirky beats and memorable art style and while you would be right about the art and beats the gameplay aspect is anything but standard.

PixelJunk Shooter see’s you dropped from a submarine/spaceship into a subterranean world where you are tasked with saving some of the remaining survivors of a mining colony, sound a little deeper then the last 3 PJ games? Yes and no, while there is a sort of story in this game its mostly a kind of Loco Roco / Little Big Planet less is more kind of deal that won’t exactly have you welling up in between levels. Saying that, the game is better for it and it’s a positive step forward for Q’s idiosyncratic style.

Visually this is a very interesting title, fire and water play a major part in the game play and visual style  alike. The water effects are top notch. The splashing of the water and the cooling were clearly a major goal for Q games and you can feel more then any of the previous titles that they had a point to prove here. PixelJunk games have always felt like they were labours of love but I get the feeling while playing this game that this is one they have had locked away in their little quirky dungeon for a while now waiting to be unleashed.

So this brings us to the gameplay, its actually quiet varied and to give you an idea of what you can expect I would say this game is a mix between N+ and any 360 degree shooter you have played. Why the N+ comparison? Well it’s another great game that mixes action with very fun puzzles and being a fan of that title I can safely say if you loved N+ then this is for you. The videos embedded will give you more of an idea then any words I can use about the gameplay but so as not to completely cop out I will summarise. You navigate a 2D plane where you can move your ship in any direction to solve puzzles, the twist is that you’re underground and while you’re ship can navigate in air and water; magma ain’t so good. You have a cooling system on board which is indicated on screen by a gauge – getting close to magma obviously overheats the ship but certain weapon fire will also cause the gauge to move up.

You have two primary weapons and a grapple which you will use to snatch survivors and environmental attributes; like underground plants that have sponges as flowers, these are used to soak up water from one area and release it in another (getting the idea?) and while weapon fire kills you’re aggressors it is also used to shoot through cooled magma walls enabling access to other areas. These key gameplay mechanics are truly explored to there full potential here and thankfully puzzles generally fall under the clever without being ridiculously difficult category. That’s not to say puzzle nuts wont get there fill, if you played Pixel Junk Monsters you will know that Q Games try to cater for the hardcore and the casual all in one go, usually to good effect so rest assured it will challenge and as usual don’t be fooled by the visuals this is not all childs play.

Q Games really out did themselves this time

So what’s the bad? I would have liked the option to play the game on PSP if only because I wanted to bring it to work to play on my lunch and seeing how well the PSP complimented PJ Monsters Deluxe I found that a slight disappointment. Also much like previous PJ titles this isn’t going to be for everyone. People expecting to much out of the shooter aspects of the title will be bitterly disappointed, this is not Ikaragu or R Type by a long shot and so stay clear if that’s what you’re looking for.

Besides the obvious ‘’not for everyone’’ argument I find very little wrong with this title, for the price these games go for you would be mad not to consider adding this to you’re collection. I haven’t even mentioned the music but it’s a given that PixelJunk’s music is of a high standard and it doesn’t disappoint here. Unfortunately I didn’t have anyone at hand to test out the multiplayer elements of the title and even the online leader boards were not updating but that’s probably because servers are not online yet.

The best compliment I can pay it is that Kev passed this to me yesterday and I spent a good 4 hours playing last night, it comes highly recommended and further acknowledges the PixelJunk series as being a PS3 exclusive worth talking about.