PixelJunk Monsters review (PlayStation 3)

PixelJunk Racers was the first game from the developer, pumping out simplistic sprite based HD gaming for PlayStation 3 owners, favouring pure gameplay over complicated graphical stylings. It was fast, frantic and quite tricky. PixelJunk Monsters is a complete departure from the first game, being a Real Time Strategy with definite relations to Command & Conquer but set in a more fantasy themed landscape.

Essentially the game is about protecting your friendly creatures, happily sitting by your home base. Waves of monsters will approach, each one killing a friendly if it reaches your base, so you must indirectly defeat them by erecting offensive towers from trees scattered around the one screen map. Your character, a mask wearing tribesman can wander freely through trees and construct towers from any tree, provided you have the finance to build it.

Those growing towers

Towers cost upwards from 100 gold, which can be collected by defeating monsters, waves or even walking through certain trees and walking close to the coins that are given off. Gems are also given off from defeated monsters that can be used to ‘research’ different types of tower, and upgrade towers directly. Depending on the type of tower this can be an increase in range, power or speed of attack, but even without gems they can be upgraded through successful performance or dancing in front of it.

Just bear with us here; dancing in front of towers raises the experience bar gradually, so that you can still influence the battle even if you are out of gold, as your character cannot attack monsters, avoiding them being the wisest choice. Some towers attack ground enemies, some flying creatures and a couple of types can assault both. The prevalence of one type of enemy per wave leads to a strange gameplay mechanic for this genre of often having to sell towers once a certain enemy has passed, and build different types in their place becomes commonplace as you have such limited resources.

The ‘structure’ of the game

An informative tutorial starts the game, and then the choice is yours to play through different levels represented on a map, some with branching paths between levels and some with petal markings underneath certain options. Needless to say I would recommend starting with the ‘easy’ levels. The petals refer to a special ability gained by beating the level, the first of which grants you the ability to run as well as walk by holding the X button and various other features like that (although I’ve no idea about the later ones, the game is rather difficult and I’m used to hoarding my resources rather than spending them as soon as I get them).

Standard levels contain 10 rounds of varying monsters, but there are also special levels (such as the final ‘easy’ one) that launch 15 waves at you, all of which are populated by the same creature (simplifying the tactics somewhat in my eyes), and as the game progresses, the challenge becomes more about anticipating the order of enemies and their route through the map in the hope that your towers are in the right place rather than spending all of your money as soon as possible to get more towers in play.

As a PSN game

Weighing in at a modest 60mb, the game fits well within Sony’s network service, being compatible with PSP Remote Play (and fitting on a PSP very well), and all coming for the low low price of £3.49 (no, Boomtown isn’t owned by Sony). It works as a quick blast game, and on the console, since it gives you direct control of your character rather than a cursor.

While the game continuously throws you new obstacles, becoming slightly more than just adding more enemies in each wave, every level requires that you re-research all of the towers to your arsenal, so that powerful mortar must be earned every time you wish to use it. It’s a hassle, and for those expecting the progressive style of unlocking new talents throughout your game to be reflected in each level, sometimes you won’t bother with the later towers at all, but replaying earlier levels with the run ability does give a replayability factor to perfect a level (and earn a rainbow which unlocks more levels).

Cheap and cheerful

PixelJunk Monsters remains well stocked with features, from the obligatory online leader board to a satisfying 2 player local coop mode that lets you potentially cover each level better if you assign tasks well. The difficulty curve seems well staggered if you can bypass the initial understanding that it is almost a necessity to replay each level multiple times to work out the waves, positioning and path through the areas. This makes the game addictive in that classic ‘This time I know where they’re coming from’ style, retaining the challenge that turns a £3.49 piece of 10 minute entertainment into a detailed and immersive full game.

Essentially, PixelJunk has fulfilled their premise of simplistic games with low (but by no means poor) production values but deep and satisfying gameplay. It is a lot of game for your money, especially if you have the patience to slog your way through it all, much like more classic video games that we remember fondly, but it does bear more than a passing resemblance to ‘Desktop Tower Defence’ (Google it) in its gameplay choice. Unlike the web based DTD, there is no lenient mode giving you a tonne of money to play with as a sandbox which would have been a good introduction or sidetrack, but PixelJunk Monsters comes highly recommended by me for its addictive and satisfying gameplay that makes the game more than the sum of its parts, especially for its price.