I told my editor that I had no
problem reviewing PlayStation Network titles. Like Xbox live, you never know
quite what you are in for when downloading these titles. Just like buying a
flesh-and-blood game, you shell out the cash, and if it stinks, the store
isn’t gonna take it back (bless you eBay). So for my first reviewed PS3
Network title I was sweating it a little bit, I wanted to have a good
experience but had prepared for the worst.
PixelJunk Monsters is an almost
cartoon-looking title that involves you defending the village from hordes of
invading monsters. You do this by building towers around the forest that your
small village is located in. The towers consist of different types of
weaponry. The weapons all have different abilities against the different
monsters that come through the forest and can only be built by having the
correct amount of gold. In the beginning you have enough to buy a couple of
towers, you get more gold by having your towers destroy the monsters attacking
and by finding it in the forest. Learning which towers work best with each
breed of monster is essential in survival. Initially you have a cannon tower,
a crossbow tower and anti-air gun tower. As each wave of critters is destroyed
you must quickly pick up the gold and jewels they drop (they disappear) and
keep building strategically placed towers. Using the invasion timer on the
bottom of the screen you can see the next two types of monsters that are going
to attack so you can plan accordingly. If the giant spiders are on their way,
then build some additional crossbow towers. Golems? Then ready the cannons,
and so on and so forth.
"Frodo! Samwise! Pippen! Gandolf is
approaching!"
If any of the bad guy creatures
get through your defenses, each one that does, kills one of your people. And
since you have a finite amount of citizens, you had better create some good
defenses as well. In the begining there is only 10 waves of bad guys, but as
you advance to the medium and hard routes (the game features a map of villages
to defend) more waves exist as you complete your mission to defend all of the
villages. Not to mention the amount of baddies in each wave, to combat that,
the crystals that the dead monsters drop can be used to power up the towers
increasing firing rate and power. And if you are out of crystals you can stand
on the tower of your choice and dance to improve its statistics; yes, dance,
this game is as quirky as it is fun.
As you go from village to village,
the design of the forest begins playing a more strategic part of the game.
Some villages have entry points for monsters at more then one place within the
forest and since you aren’t exactly sure where they may be coming from the
first time you play a new level, you try and build more defenses closer to the
village itself. Now it becomes apparant early in the game that placing
towers near the entry point of the forest provides some much needed damage so
the towers closer to the village can finish them off, but what happens when
there are four entry points to the village? This game can get tough.
The cool graphics are complemented
by the apparant cel-shaded visuals. The little character that runs around the
screen building towers kind of looks like a turtle/bug while the villagers are
smaller and made me wonder if it wasn’t children being defended. Each monster
has a unique look to it and the towers are built thanks to a plume of smoke
and dust. The whole experince is smooth looking and the framerate never bogs
down even as 35 spiders invade the forest. The game just appears fun with its
crisp-looking graphics and highly polished appearance. I never thought I would
say this, but this game is as much fun as anything I have played on Xbox live.
"Decisions, decisions."
The sounds the game provides
probably could have been a bit deeper; they are a bit light, but it doesn’t
steal anything from the experience. There is no talking as these are clearly
all alien/fantasy-type beings. It may have been funny and fitting if your
character belted out some high pitched unintelligible sound as it worked
furiously to get tower built and tiny victory cries as waves of baddies went
down in a hail of arrows and cannon shot, but it doesn’t and as you are
playing you won’t mind one bit.
The game allows a second player to
hop in and begin building towers in defense of the village as well. It has
provided quite a bit of entertainment in the David household. And while you
cannot log online and ally up with others, there is a healthy amount of fun to
be had with your friend/son sitting next to you building towers as frantically
as possible
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Gameplay: 8.5
Simple, easy to use and entirely
effective. The frantic pace of the game and all-out blitz to get as many gold
coins as possible makes for an exciting game.
Graphics: 7.5
A crisp- and clean-looking title
with very cartoon looking graphics. The kind of game that you would feel
comfortable letting your younger gamers play as there is no blood or real
carnage, monsters blow up into coins and villagers turn to ghosts floating
upward, all in a cutesy sort of way.
Sound: 7.0
The background music does move the game along but there is a lacking
amount of sound effects and character noises.
Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Concept: 7.8
A clever little title and while it
could be longer, the game is really enjoyable and highly addictive.
Multiplayer: 7.0
This could really be a great
online title, hopefully version 2 will include this ability, otherwise the
co-op mode that exists really does provide some great gaming opportunities.
Overall: 8.0
What a fun title, I believe it is
$9.99, totally worth the price.
