PixelJunk Scrappers Deluxe Review (Switch)

Everyone’s favourite innovative PS3 indie developer has finally released another game on the Switch. It may not be the collection of its first games we are all clambering for but anything from the PixelJunk team is more than welcome. We’ve covered the beautiful PixelJunk Eden 2 before and Monster 2 is also out on the Switch but Scrappers sees the team move into yet another genre – the scrolling beat’em up.

Scrappers has players take control of a robot who is tasked with collecting rubbish and fighting off electronic thugs in world where humans have long since become extinct. Up to four players can play at once and there is both local and online play available. The game scrolls left to right with players needing to pickup and stack trash in a big pile which they then carry to a rubbish truck that rolls along continually. The higher the stack the harder it is to keep the balance and the more you throw in the truck at once the higher your score is. While doing this, thugs will come out and try and beat you up. You of course need to hit them first with a host of weapons ranging from baseball bats to chainsaws.

Single players are helped by a little robot helper who zooms around picking up rubbish for you and throwing it to you. In truth there is little to substitute for a team of humans but it does make single player seem less lonely. Along with the scoring and fighting dynamic there are also level challenges to complete which give you medals. These start with your basic score attacks but branch out to finding hidden objects and defeating enemies in certain ways. Any challenges beaten unlock medals which are needed to progress. Unfortunately, this is one of the problems with the game as the medal requirements are quite challenging meaning it’s likely you’ll be playing the same levels over and over before you can progress to the next.

As you progress through the levels you can unlock more characters and weapons which can be permanently purchased between levels. You can also customise pretty much everything on your truck from the wheels to the number plate. These changes are cosmetic only but if your dream is to design your own rubbish truck then you need look no further.

As great as the idea of Scrappers is there are a few problems that get in the way of the fun. First of all, the game really is difficult if you are playing solo and it’s tricky to get near the higher end of the score challenges. It’s also the sort of game that would work best with you all zipping around the screen picking up trash and fending off enemies. But the pace of the game is fairly slow which makes it kind of plod along. This becomes even more noticeable when you are repeating stages for the fourth or fifth time in order to meet the requisite medal unlocks to reach the next area. Simply put, it's not manic enough for either a puzzle or beat’em up game and that is a real shame.

Overall, Scrappers has the classic PixelJunk DNA running through it but it’s not up there with the studios best. The mixing of the score attack, puzzle and beat’em up elements together is initially intriguing but it never really gels in the way you would hope. PixelJunk fans will be able to look past this and see the attempted innovation, but this may just be to far out there for a more general appeal. In multiplayer things improve immeasurably but this isn’t a game many will see through to the end on their own.

Overall 6/10

Pixeljunk Eden 2 (Nintendo Switch Review)

 There’s no hiding we are big fans of pretty much everything Pixeljunk at Retro 101. So the news that a new Eden game was coming had us excited from the start. The minimalist, overtly arty original developed a solid and dedicated following and now newcomers and series veterans alike can enjoy what the new title has to offer.

We’ll start this out straight away by saying that this could well be the perfect game to spend time with in a year like 2020. It’s a sort of loving, gentle hug of a game that inspires calm and relaxation and we could all probably do with a bit of that at the minute.

Eden is a place where visual and audio comes together to create a playground for exploration as you are tasked with getting your character to the glowing “spectra” placed somewhere within the stage. In order to do this you have to grow your own platforms by filling up seeds. This is done by swinging around in a circle on a little web and colliding with floating pollen spores which are then drawn in by them. The seeds then sprout into plants which can be traversed to get to higher locations.

It’s a simple concept and one that requires the understanding of only a few different techniques. Once you’ve mastered the swinging, double jumping and floating in mid-air you can happily bounce around knowing all that’s left is to just keep an eye on the clock and work your way around lumps of rock that block your way. The time limit this time around is more forgiving that the original as well and there are various checkpoints throughout the gardens to help your progress. Falling too far will also see you reset at your last solid position meaning no more painful ascensions back to the top are required.

As you progress more gardens unlock and more characters with different bonuses become usable but the basics of the game pretty much remain the same. The core concept is strong though and each area allows players to explore in ever increasingly challenging ways.

It’s also a game best enjoyed with headphones as the waves of techno slowly wash over you. The rhythm of the music, the gentle swinging from plant to plant and the striking visuals act to block out the stresses of the world and form a perfect space to unwind and engage with something purely artistic. There’s even a co-op mode added as well should you wish to take the journey with a friend.

Progression is a little odd though. After you clear each selection of gardens you are presented with three more. You can’t however go back to previous levels which is in contrast to the previous games more traditional map screen. It’s a slightly odd choice as it could potentially see you stuck with one level left to complete and without the ability to go off and try something else for a while. This is the only relatively minor issue present though and we found progress generally steady.

Overall, Pixeljunk Eden 2 is an easy recommendation. It’s not really like much else currently on the Switch and while the idea of the arty, abstract indie game has long been overdone this shows that there is considerable merit in making something designed to gently immerse players on both a visual and audio level. For those looking to zone out and forget the storms raging in the real world this is a perfect spot of tranquillity to take a holiday in.

Overall 8/10

PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate Review (PC)

A few years ago PixelJunk Shooter first appeared on the PS3. Still one of the best games on the Playstation network it is finally now available on the PC. The first game had already been released but now the team have and combined Shooter 1 and 2 and spruced it up a bit to create Pixeljunk Shooter Ultimate.

The plot, such as it is, has you sent in to rescue your crew mates after mysterious goings on while mining on the planet of Apoxus Prime. To do this you have to fly your craft around tight underground caverns while using water, lava and magnetic black liquids to your advantage. It’s reminiscent of Thrust with its inertia and gravity based gameplay but your craft will stay still if left alone. You also won’t die from hitting walls (which is a good thing or it would have been nigh on impossible).

The game is a 2D styled shooter where you manoeuvre your ship around a section of an enclosed map. Normally you will have to get water to turn lava to rock or lava to melt ice or some other combination of dropping one liquid onto another. You’re doing this because you need to get to and rescue all the lost crew members in each area. If too many of them die you have to start the level again. It’s wonderfully inventive and a whole lot of fun and there are hidden areas and diamonds to collect along the way as well.

The level design is nigh on perfect throughout the game and the difficulty curve is just about right. The huge boss monsters found at the end of each world may cause some frustration but they provide tense and heroic showdowns of David and Goliath proportions and once you work them out shouldn’t take too long to get past. The difficulty level ramps up considerably once you enter the second part of the game (Shooter 2), but it’s all still achievable.

Shooter Ultimate is now split into six main areas each consisting of five levels. There are the initial outer rocky areas, the ice caves and then the mine. After the mine something happens which we won’t spoil but you’ll be dealing with a host of new gases and liquids.  Each individual level is split into sections which require everyone to be rescued before a bulk head opens to the next.  Each has its own tricks and traps and will keep you on your toes throughout. If it gets too much you can always call a friend in for co-op action.

You’ll also need to think quickly as the game has a wonderful way of getting you to forget what you’ve just learnt. For instance, for the first area you are trying to keep away from lava (overheating causes you to crash), but then in the ice caves you’ll come across an inversion suit which makes lava cool you down and water heat you up.

It’s a game that keeps throwing new ideas and things at you to keep you interested. The water suit and lava suit are just the start and you’ll soon be switching around and dealing with freezing lakes and clouds of gas as well as the usual lava and water. The key thing is that everything stays fun and creative throughout. Once you’ve completed the game you’ll probably want to dive back in to further explore the levels and find all the missing diamonds and any crew you missed along the way. There’s even a hidden level to try and unlock and online combat.

PixelJunk Shooter is a game we’re still playing on the PS3 to this day. The fact a whole new audience can now pick it up is great and this really is one of the best games of its type. Q-Games have crafted something special here and the years have done nothing to diminish its appeal. With PixelJunk Shooter 2 included as well it becomes an essential purchase for PC owners. We’ll be playing it through for yet another time and we would recommend everyone else do the same.

This was always going to be a certified hit with us as long as nothing had gone wrong in the conversion and from our experience this offers all the fun of the original. PC gamers really need to play this as it’s simply a masterfully executed, great little game packed with more invention and ideas than most massive AAA releases can even come close to.

Overall 9/10

 

Nom Nom Galaxy Review (PS4)

A new game from Q-Games is a cause for celebration in the Retro 101 office. We have access to pretty much everything they have ever done and have reviewed most of it as well. All of their games have received warm reviews from us and we were even tempted to pick up most of their DSi output a few months ago. Invention is always key to their programming ethos and Nom Nom Galaxy is another original take on tried and tested formulas and Double Eleven have done a great job developing it for the PS4.

Nom Nom Galaxy is a game about soup. Intergalactic soup in fact. There has been a soup craze sweeping the galaxy so you must set off to different planets and cultivate the very best soup out there. In order to do this you will need to grow and gather ingredients, set up a factory and blast your soup into space in soup rockets.  It’s mad, it’s fun and it’s got a bit of just about everything in it.

You control a single robot worker who has to explore the planet and decide where and what to build. Outside of your base your oxygen constantly decreases so you need to be careful how far you go and you’ll also take damage from high falls and rampaging tomatoes. It’s a dangerous world out there but then galactic soup domination never was an easy road to take.

The first thing to do is build your factory which happens on a tile by tile basis. Starting with your office you can add corridors, soup making machines, rockets and robot workers. The aim is to get ingredients to the soup machines and then the soup to the rockets in the most automated way you can. Ingredients are found by exploring the planet and then bringing them back to grow yourself or simply add into the machines. Some of the ingredients fight back so you also have some handy weapons on hand to subdue them.

You have a host of robot workers which can be unlocked to help the process. From ones which simply wander from side to side picking things up, to gardeners and little dudes who chuck things up and down vertical corridors there is plenty to use. The factory you build acts like a self-contained puzzle to keep everything flowing properly. You also need to keep an eye on the power usage and will have to set out to find a new power core if you need more juice.

Of course, other corporations won’t just sit back and let you have all the glory and each planet will have you competing to get 100% of the market. Every now and then your rival will launch a raid on you to try and cripple your operation so you will also need to make sure you have some gun turrets on hand to dissuade them. There is an open ended mode also which allows you to build your dream factory without the threat of attack should you wish to just want to explore.

It is quite daunting to start with but you’ll soon get the hang of how things work and it’s very difficult to fail the first few levels anyway. There’s a lot to consider such as finding air pockets to grow plants quicker and using water for the rarer water native plants. How you regrow stuff on the ceilings is also something to work out. But it all works in a logical way and the exploration and discoveries keep you interested as you build and develop your ideas and structures.

Factory building is pretty free form with tiles of all shapes and sizes available to you. Each planet has certain characteristics such as heavy rock formations or dangerous fauna to deal with as well and certain levels have strict conditions such as certain soups being undesirable or outlawed. It’s basically a game that allows you test yourself to run a soup business against numerous different variables and it works very well. Aside from the corporate conquest mode there are set challenge scenarios to play and also co-op if you have another friend who wants to help you out or compete against you.

Overall, Nom Nom Galaxy is another excellent game from Double Eleven and the Pixeljunk team. It’s a glorious time sink that brings in elements of strategy, puzzles, tower defence, platforming and terra forming and every level kept us engaged from start to finish. There isn’t really anything else like it and it comes highly recommended.

Overall 8/10

PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate Review (PS Vita)

A few years ago PixelJunk Shooter first appeared on the PS3. Still one of the best games on the Playstation network it is now available with cross-buy on the Vita and PS4. It always looked like a game that would fit the Vita and now the team have got the physics engine working and combined Shooter 1 and 2 together you can enjoy the madness on the go.

The plot, such as it is, has you sent in to rescue your crew mates after mysterious goings on while mining on the planet of Apoxus Prime. To do this you have to fly your craft around tight underground caverns while using water, lava and magnetic black liquids to your advantage. It’s reminiscent of Thrust with its inertia and gravity based gameplay but your craft will stay still if left alone. Your also won’t die from hitting walls (which is a good thing or it would have been nigh on impossible).

The game is a 2D styled shooter where you manoeuvre your ship around a section of an enclosed map. Normally you will have to get water to turn lava to rock or lava to melt ice or some other combination of dropping one liquid onto another. You’re doing this because you need to get to and rescue all the lost crew members in each area. If too many of them die you have to start the level again. It’s wonderfully inventive and a whole lot of fun and there are hidden areas and diamonds to collect along the way as well.

The level design is nigh on perfect throughout the game and the difficulty curve is just about right. The huge boss monsters found at the end of each world may cause some frustration but they provide tense and heroic showdowns of David and Goliath proportions and once you work them out shouldn’t take too long to get past. The difficulty level ramps up considerably once you enter the second part of the game (Shooter 2), but it’s all still achievable.

Shooter Ultimate is now split into six main areas each consisting of five levels. There are the initial outer rocky areas, the ice caves and then the mine. After the mine something happens which we won’t spoil but you’ll be dealing with a host of new gases and liquids.  Each individual level is split into sections which require everyone to be rescued before a bulk head opens to the next.  Each has its own tricks and traps and will keep you on your toes throughout. If it gets too much you can always call a friend in for co-op action.

You’ll also need to think quickly as the game has a wonderful way of getting you to forget what you’ve just learnt. For instance, for the first area you are trying to keep away from lava (overheating causes you to crash), but then in the ice caves you’ll come across an inversion suit which makes lava cool you down and water heat you up.

It’s a game that keeps throwing new ideas and things at you to keep you interested. The water suit and lava suit are just the start and you’ll soon be switching around and dealing with freezing lakes and clouds of gas as well as the usual lava and water. The key thing is that everything stays fun and creative throughout. Once you’ve completed the game you’ll probably want to dive back in to further explore the levels and find all the missing diamonds and any crew you missed along the way. There’s even a hidden level to try and unlock and online combat.

PixelJunk Shooter is a game we’re still playing on the PS3 to this day. The fact a whole new audience can now pick it up is great and this really is one of the best games of its type. Q-Games have crafted something special here and the years have done nothing to diminish its appeal. With PixelJunk Shooter 2 included as well it becomes an essential purchase for Vita owners. We’ll be playing it through for yet another time and we would recommend everyone else do the same.

This was always going to be a certified hit with us as long as nothing had gone wrong in the conversion and from our experience this offers all the fun of the original. Vita gamers really need to play this as it’s simply a masterfully executed, great little game packed with more invention and ideas than most massive AAA releases can even come close to.

Overall 10/10

PixelJunk Shooter: The Depths of Disaster Review (PC)

A few years ago PixelJunk Shooter first appeared on the PS3. Still one of the best games on the Playstation network it has finally been made available to PC gamers. Now you can find out what all the fuss is about as you pilot your little ship through a host of physics and element based levels.

The plot, such as it is, has you sent in to rescue your crew mates after mysterious goings on while mining on the planet of Apoxus Prime. To do this you have to fly your craft around tight underground caverns while using water, lava and magnetic black liquids to your advantage. It’s reminiscent of Thrust with its inertia and gravity based gameplay but your craft will stay still if left alone. Your also won’t die from hitting walls (which is a good thing or it would have been nigh on impossible).

The game is a 2D styled shooter where you manoeuvre your ship around a section of an enclosed map. Normally you will have to get water to turn lava to rock or lava to melt ice or some other combination of dropping one liquid onto another. You’re doing this because you need to get to and rescue all the lost crew members in each area. If too many of them die you have to start the level again. It’s wonderfully inventive and a whole lot of fun and there are hidden areas and diamonds to collect along the way as well.

The level design is nigh on perfect throughout the game and the difficulty curve is just about right. The huge boss monsters found at the end of each world may cause some frustration but they provide tense and heroic showdowns of David and Goliath proportions and once you work them out shouldn’t take too long to get past.

Shooter is split into three main areas each consisting of five levels. There are the initial outer rocky areas, the ice caves and then the mine. Each individual level is split into sections which require everyone to be rescued before a bulk head opens to the next.  Each has its own tricks and traps and will keep you on your toes throughout. 

You will also need to think quickly as the game has a wonderful way of getting you to forget what you’ve just learnt. For instance, for the first area you are trying to keep away from lava (overheating causes you to crash), but then in the ice caves you’ll come across and inversion suite which makes lava cool you down and water heat you up.

It’s a game that keeps throwing new ideas and things at you to keep you interested. The water suit and lava suit are just the start and you’ll soon be switching around and dealing with freezing lakes and clouds of gas as well as the usual lava and water. The key thing is that everything stays fun and creative throughout. Once you’ve completed the game you’ll probably want to dive back in to further explore the levels and find all the missing diamonds and any crew you missed along the way.

PixelJunk Shooter is a game we’re still playing on the PS3 to this day. The fact a whole new audience can now pick it up is great and this really is one of the best games of its type. Q-Games have crafted something special here and the years have done nothing to diminish its appeal. It’s perhaps a shame that the PixelJunk Shooter 2 wasn’t included as well (as it is pretty much part 1 and 2 of the same game), but we’ll be first in line to get it when it arrives.

This was always going to be a certified hit with us as long as nothing had gone wrong in the conversion and from our experience this offers all the fun of the original. PC gamers really need to play this as it’s simply a masterfully executed, great little game packed with more invention and ideas than most massive AAA releases can even come close to.

Overall 9/10

Pixeljunk Monsters Ultimate Review (PC)

Here at Retro 101 we are long-time fans of just about everything that the Pixel Junk team has produced. They just seems to have a way of taking a genre that has been done to death and then adding something new to make it fresh and vibrant again. Now Monsters is making its way onto the PC and we are absolutely delighted to have it around for those lunch time sessions.

What we have here is effectively the original game and the extra content added through Monsters Encore and the PSP version. The game also has online multiplayer modes and a lovely higher resolution graphical style. The island that lets you create random levels by typing in words is also unlocked right from the start. So if you’re a fan you can stop reading this review right here, log into Steam and purchase it.  For those that want a bit more detail then read on.

For those new to the series this is a tower defence style game where your little Tikiman must run around the screen upgrading trees into different types of defensive structures. And yes, you do still move the Tikiman around rather than just point and click on trees with the mouse. Wave upon wave of monsters then pour into the level from various points and head towards the village hut (normally located in the middle of the stage).  Around the hut are a number of baby Tiki’s and once the monsters have made off with all of them you lose.

It’s a concept we’ve seen many times before but it’s hard to remember when it has been accomplished with so much style and flair. You start off with three basic towers which covers attacking land monsters, air monsters and one that does both. The towers all have different damage outputs, speed of fire and targeting radius. Once a monster enters the targeting radius the towers will fire on them automatically. Killing monsters provides gold to upgrade more trees and gems which are stored in the village hut and can be used to upgrade the strength of towers or unlock new types to use.

The extra towers do all sorts of weird and wonderful things. You can get ice towers to slow monsters down, mortars to cause massive damage, lasers to knock flying enemies down and electricity pylons to hit creatures with area effect attacks and the list goes on. It’s with these towers that the game begins to come into its own as you will need to know the strengths and weaknesses of them all in order to succeed. You can’t just lay out your defences and hope for the best here, you have to continually move around the field and change the type of towers to win the day.

PixelJunk Monsters can be a bone crushingly tough game, especially for newcomers to the genre. It takes time to learn that you really should be selling certain towers at certain times and changing from anti-air to ground and back again for certain waves of attack. It’s the sort of game where you may be stuck on a stage for ages but then have a breakthrough and clear three or four in one go. You have to constantly think about what you’re doing and constantly keep an eye on what the next wave of marauding nasty’s will be.

One memorable level ended with a frantic scramble around the stage to clear all the anti-air guns as the final boss stomped on and proceeded to be able to almost walk straight to the babies without taking a hit. Stress like that is what you’re going to have to deal with to come out on top and it’ll happen all the time.

Away from the main game there are a host of other options and things to do. You can play Co-op in online modes and this allows two Tiki men to run around to defend the village. There are also tons of challenge levels which require you to complete stages under certain conditions. The criteria is always different and can range from anything from only using a certain type of tower to making sure you don’t let monsters cross certain parts of the level. As if the game wasn’t difficult enough this will test even the best strategy fans out there.

We’ve established the game is hard, but it always fair and the funny thing is it doesn’t really seem to matter. The sense of achievement from completing a level will always have you coming back for just one more go. You’ll find yourself thinking about levels in your everyday life and coming up with strategies while you should be doing other things. Then you’ll return and try it out and maybe it’ll work and bring you onto the next challenge. It’s perfect for formulating a strategy during the morning and then testing it out in a lunch break.

Overall, this is the definitive version of an already excellent game. The core mechanics are strong and work wonderfully when added to the flair and charm of it all. There is very little reason not to recommend it to fans of genre and gamers looking for something a little different. The difficulty may be too much for some but it’s a great version of a great game and it should really be in your collection.

Overall 8/10

PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate Review (PS Vita)

Here at Retro 101 we are long-time fans of just about everything that the Pixel Junk team has produced. They just seems to have a way of taking a genre that has been done to death and then adding something new to make it fresh and vibrant again. We’ve been campaigning for the PixelJunk games to be brought to the Vita for some time so we were absolutely delighted when this version of Monsters was announced.

What we have here is effectively the original game and the extra content added through Monsters Encore and the PSP version. The game also has both online and Ad hoc multiplayer modes, a few new touch screen interface options and a lovely higher resolution graphical style. So if you’re a fan you can stop reading this review right here, log into the PlayStation store and purchase it.  For those that want a bit more detail then read on.

For those new to the series this is a tower defence style game where your little Tikiman must run around the screen upgrading trees into different types of defensive structures.  Wave upon wave of monsters then pour into the level from various points and head towards the village hut (normally located in the middle of the stage).  Around the hut are a number of baby Tiki’s and once the monsters have made off with all of them you lose.

It’s a concept we have seen many times before but it’s hard to remember when it has been accomplished with so much style and flair. You start off with three basic towers which covers attacking land monsters, air monsters and one that does both. The towers all have different damage outputs, speed of fire and targeting radius. Once a monster enters the targeting radius the towers will fire on them automatically. Killing monsters provides gold to upgrade more trees and gems which are stored in the village hut and can be used to upgrade the strength of towers or unlock new types to use.

The extra towers do all sorts of weird and wonderful things. You can get ice towers to slow monsters down, mortars to cause massive damage, lasers to knock flying enemies down and electricity pylons to hit creatures with area effect attacks and the list goes on. It’s with these towers that the game begins to come into its own as you will need to know the strengths and weaknesses of them all in order to succeed. You can’t just lay out your defences and hope for the best here, you have to continually move around the field and change the type of towers to win the day.

PixelJunk Monsters can be a bone crushingly tough game, especially for new comers to the genre. It takes time to learn that you really should be selling certain towers at certain times and changing from anti-air to ground and back again for certain waves of attack. It’s the sort of game where you may be stuck on a stage for ages but then have a breakthrough and clear three or four in one go. You have to constantly think about what you’re doing and constantly keep an eye on what the next wave of marauding nasty’s will be.

One memorable level ended with a frantic scramble around the stage to clear all the anti-air guns as the final boss stomped on and proceeded to be able to almost walk straight to the babies without taking a hit. Stress like that is what you’re going to have to deal with to come out on top and it’ll happen all the time.

Away from the main game there are a host of other options and things to do. You can play Co-op in both Ad Hoc and online modes and this allows two Tiki men to run around to defend the village. There are also tons of challenge levels which require you to complete stages under certain conditions. You start with two of these unlocked with more to come after you have beaten them. The criteria is always different and can range from anything from only using a certain type of tower to making sure you don’t let monsters cross certain parts of the level. As if the game wasn’t difficult enough this will test even the best strategy fans out there.

We’ve established the game is hard, but it always fair and the funny thing is it doesn’t really seem to matter. The sense of achievement from completing a level will always have you coming back for just one more go. You’ll find yourself thinking about levels in your everyday life and coming up with strategies while you should be doing other things. Then you’ll return and try it out and maybe it’ll work and bring you onto the next challenge. 

Overall, this is the definitive version of an already excellent game. The core mechanics are strong and work wonderfully when added to the flair and charm of it all. The Vita is also a perfect partner for it and you’ll soon find this one of your most played downloads. There is very little reason not to recommend it to fans of genre and gamers looking for something a little different. The difficulty may be too much for some but it’s a great version of a great game and it should really be in your collection.

Overall 8/10

PixelJunk Games Review

A look through some of the excellent PixelJunk games on the PS3.