Review :: PixelJunk Shooter

I’m just gonna come out and say it, I love the PixelJunk games. I am a PixelJunk fanboy, there I said it. As you would expect, I had high expectations for PixelJunk Shooter. All of them have been surpassed. This is, undoubtedly, the best PixelJunk game yet. If you don’t buy it, you’re a fool.

Once again putting a twist on a pre-established genre, Q-Games have created an amazing downloadable game. Scratch that, PixelJiunk Shooter is an amazing game. Period. The first thing that’ll hit you is the fantastic art style. The PJ games have all had great art styles and Shooter is no exception. Each environment is fantastically crafted and I found myself wanting to beat each stage just to see what the next place looked like. All of the liquid’s look great too. Each one flows as you would expect and is one of the best things I’ve seen from a game on the PSN. Having liquid manipulation like this is a fantastic achievement for Q-Games and downloadable games as a whole.

Fantastic visual style aside, the gameplay is what people are buying Shooter for. Like Eden, I didn’t really know what to expect when I jumped into this game. Sure, having seen the game in action, I knew the game’s mechanics and how they worked, it certainly isn’t as abstract a concept as the last PixelJunk title. The one thing that threw me a little bit is that Shooter isn’t a twin stick shooter. All of the shooting is done with R2 whilst the sticks control movement and aiming. You can collect surviving miners, power ups and objects with your ‘grabber’ and this makes up the core of the gameplay. As you make your way through the levels your goal is to save trapped miners and bring them back to the surface. Along the way you’ll do battle with underground foes and fight agaisst the elements in order to reach your goal. The shooting mechanics work really well and the puzzle-like elements really make this more of an interesting game than a typical 2D shooter.

The one thing that really surprised me about this is the fact Shooter had a story. To my knowledge the previous games in the series had no real plot, they were just a series of events. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, I like the idea of the game having a story. It’s not a necessary to follow it to enjoy the game. Other story elements come from some of the more high profile miners, who tell you of their struggle against the enemy onslaught.

As with the other games in the series, Shooter has massive replay value too. Those who love this game (like yours truly) will be playing this game forever more, trying to find that last secret area or get the last gem.

Believe me, your not going to find a better game on the PlayStation Network this year and, like I said in my intro, you’ll be a fool not to buy this.

9.6/10

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