PixelJunk Monsters

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

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.