Gone Gonzo Posts: 1193 Joined: 31 Jul 2008 | Note: This is my second review here, and I hope you enjoy it.
PixelJunk: Monsters
I usually like to subtly ease my way into a review, story, or criticism, but I've recently discovered that it's more difficult to be devious regarding things that are so simple. You can attack something complicated or abstract like Bioshock (which reminds me that I should probably read 'Atlas Shrugged' before I play the stupid thing) through any number of sneaky maneuvers, but if you take that approach with something like say, Tic-Tac-Toe, you seem like an idiot. Basically, I'm not going to talk at length about PixelJunk: Monsters because it would be a colossal waste of time and effort, not to mention somewhat schizophrenic.
PixelJunk: Monsters is a game available on the PSN (PlayStation Network) for a pittance of $5. It's a sort of RTS RPG PCP mess of acronyms that is impossibly addictive. You play as some sort of biped turtle shell backed shaman critter tasked with saving your village from an onslaught of monsters that strategize the same way Zapp Brannigan might if he weren't a cartoon character (with a velour uniform). Your task is achieved by the careful placement of a variety of attack towers that decimate the waves of attack before they reach the village, in what is vaguely reminiscent of Defend Your Castle. Actually, let's not beat around the bush, it's exactly like Defend Your Castle. A deeper, stylized, and visually crisper Defend Your Castle, but it's still more or less the same game.
The game is almost simple enough that it would belong in the same genre of free online games like Peggle or Bejeweled. The only thing that really sets it apart is the highly defined art design that makes it a pleasure to behold on an LCD TV. The developers designed these types of games with a crisp aesthetic in mind, I guess. PixelJunk: Eden takes simple gameplay and sharp visuals to a game about a sea monkey that jumps around a garden, so there's obviously a permeating idea linking the titles.
 The action gets way more chaotic.Despite the almost pretentious prettiness of the game, PixelJunk: Monsters is somewhat unbalanced. I don't mean the difficulty curve, even though its idea of transitioning from the last easy stage to the first medium stage is strolling up a gentle slope to a rock-climbing wall, but the effectiveness of the towers. You can get through the entire game using five main towers, three of which are always available, and in fact you could probably get by using only the first three if you have a bit of a masochistic streak. Some towers are neat, like the ice tower or the hive tower, but only in theory. The hive tower would've worked well if the bees were stronger and didn't die after their attack (just like in real life, I suppose), while the ice tower makes promises of slowing down enemies. I assumed the freezing effect would be for a good amount of time since it was unspecified, but it turns out it's only a split seconds before the afflicted monster resumes it's murderous pace. The only towers that are worth trading in precious blue gems for are the fire and mortar towers, and even then it might not seem worth it. The fire tower, while admittedly very effective, is crippled by a prolonged attack that never adjusts or corrects itself to where it can do the most damage, and the mortar tower is slower than a snail running a race on a very tiny treadmill.
I suppose my major gripe with every tower is that it's just plain unintuitive. If an errant monster slips through the cracks and is about to take out a villager, the towers never seem to respond to the more immediate threat. This is infuriating when you're trying to get a perfect run (which you need to do in order to advance in some areas) and one monster ruins it all and forces you to start again. The towers are programmed to aim where they would do the most damage, which normally makes sense. But when five cannons fire at the same cluster of monsters where just one cannon could've easily done the job, it's an infuriating waste when only you seem to have the foresight to consider the approaching stream a few trees away. A little intuition or a little sense of teamwork between the towers would certainly ease the frustration, even if some of the skill involved is taken way.
Oddly enough, the unintuitive AI seems to be deliberate since PixelJunk: Monsters is at its heart a strategy game. Every unintelligent feature of the game design is nullified when you consider that every frustration imposed on you also cripples the game you're trying to outsmart. Just as you have towers that operate under strict rules of range and strength and priority, so do the enemies follow the exact same path, wave after wave, never deviating. The absence of any random fluke occurrences would appear to denigrate any replay value or spontaneity, but a great deal of triumph and satisfaction is to be had when you execute a level perfectly after hours toiled over trial and error, adjusting your plan and adapting like a real strategist or tactician might - admittedly, they don't have the luxury of a retry button, but it's the same feeling none the less.
"In the game of chess you can never let your opponent see you pieces" - Zapp Brannigan PixelJunk: Monsters is a challenging and addictive game that I happen to adore because I'm the type of boring person that enjoys things like Chess and Connect Four. The impatient (and by "impatient" I mean "trigger happy") might not appreciate or tolerate the rare joys it offers, but it's a fun little thing to play when I'm sick of ogling the breast physics in Soul Calibur IV, or I've run out of weed to make Everyday Shooter fun. |
Note: This is my second review here, and I hope you enjoy it.
I usually like to subtly ease my way into a review, story, or criticism, but I've recently discovered that it's more difficult to be devious regarding things that are so simple. You can attack something complicated or abstract like Bioshock (which reminds me that I should probably read 'Atlas Shrugged' before I play the stupid thing) through any number of sneaky maneuvers, but if you take that approach with something like say, Tic-Tac-Toe, you seem like an idiot. Basically, I'm not going to talk at length about PixelJunk: Monsters because it would be a colossal waste of time and effort, not to mention somewhat schizophrenic.
PixelJunk: Monsters is a game available on the PSN (PlayStation Network) for a pittance of $5. It's a sort of RTS RPG PCP mess of acronyms that is impossibly addictive. You play as some sort of biped turtle shell backed shaman critter tasked with saving your village from an onslaught of monsters that strategize the same way Zapp Brannigan might if he weren't a cartoon character (with a velour uniform). Your task is achieved by the careful placement of a variety of attack towers that decimate the waves of attack before they reach the village, in what is vaguely reminiscent of Defend Your Castle. Actually, let's not beat around the bush, it's exactly like Defend Your Castle. A deeper, stylized, and visually crisper Defend Your Castle, but it's still more or less the same game.
The game is almost simple enough that it would belong in the same genre of free online games like Peggle or Bejeweled. The only thing that really sets it apart is the highly defined art design that makes it a pleasure to behold on an LCD TV. The developers designed these types of games with a crisp aesthetic in mind, I guess. PixelJunk: Eden takes simple gameplay and sharp visuals to a game about a sea monkey that jumps around a garden, so there's obviously a permeating idea linking the titles.
The action gets way more chaotic.
Despite the almost pretentious prettiness of the game, PixelJunk: Monsters is somewhat unbalanced. I don't mean the difficulty curve, even though its idea of transitioning from the last easy stage to the first medium stage is strolling up a gentle slope to a rock-climbing wall, but the effectiveness of the towers. You can get through the entire game using five main towers, three of which are always available, and in fact you could probably get by using only the first three if you have a bit of a masochistic streak. Some towers are neat, like the ice tower or the hive tower, but only in theory. The hive tower would've worked well if the bees were stronger and didn't die after their attack (just like in real life, I suppose), while the ice tower makes promises of slowing down enemies. I assumed the freezing effect would be for a good amount of time since it was unspecified, but it turns out it's only a split seconds before the afflicted monster resumes it's murderous pace. The only towers that are worth trading in precious blue gems for are the fire and mortar towers, and even then it might not seem worth it. The fire tower, while admittedly very effective, is crippled by a prolonged attack that never adjusts or corrects itself to where it can do the most damage, and the mortar tower is slower than a snail running a race on a very tiny treadmill.
I suppose my major gripe with every tower is that it's just plain unintuitive. If an errant monster slips through the cracks and is about to take out a villager, the towers never seem to respond to the more immediate threat. This is infuriating when you're trying to get a perfect run (which you need to do in order to advance in some areas) and one monster ruins it all and forces you to start again. The towers are programmed to aim where they would do the most damage, which normally makes sense. But when five cannons fire at the same cluster of monsters where just one cannon could've easily done the job, it's an infuriating waste when only you seem to have the foresight to consider the approaching stream a few trees away. A little intuition or a little sense of teamwork between the towers would certainly ease the frustration, even if some of the skill involved is taken way.
Oddly enough, the unintuitive AI seems to be deliberate since PixelJunk: Monsters is at its heart a strategy game. Every unintelligent feature of the game design is nullified when you consider that every frustration imposed on you also cripples the game you're trying to outsmart. Just as you have towers that operate under strict rules of range and strength and priority, so do the enemies follow the exact same path, wave after wave, never deviating. The absence of any random fluke occurrences would appear to denigrate any replay value or spontaneity, but a great deal of triumph and satisfaction is to be had when you execute a level perfectly after hours toiled over trial and error, adjusting your plan and adapting like a real strategist or tactician might - admittedly, they don't have the luxury of a retry button, but it's the same feeling none the less.
"In the game of chess you can never let your opponent see you pieces" - Zapp Brannigan
PixelJunk: Monsters is a challenging and addictive game that I happen to adore because I'm the type of boring person that enjoys things like Chess and Connect Four. The impatient (and by "impatient" I mean "trigger happy") might not appreciate or tolerate the rare joys it offers, but it's a fun little thing to play when I'm sick of ogling the breast physics in Soul Calibur IV, or I've run out of weed to make Everyday Shooter fun.