Defense Grid: The Awakening proved that you could have a graphically impressive tower defence game, but the power of the PlayStation 3 wasn't used for chucking out 3D models of invading aliens, but cartoony spiders in a somewhat chill and strangely named PixelJunk Monsters.
I'm aware of the name, but not of the game, so it's time to see what's going on.
Fun Times
I'm emulating the PlayStation Portable port of PixelJunk Monsters, PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe, which adds some content but doesn't change the formula: you are a turtle-looking fella waddling around the map turning trees into defensive towers to protect a bunch of... somethings... back at the hut.
Towers come in their usual forms, a basic all-rounder, an anti-air turret, some splash-damage cannons and so on, and defeated invaders will drop coins to build more towers and gems to research more of them, or upgrade them on the spot.
If you're saving your gems for a fancy turret, you can upgrade a tower by slowly dancing in front of it. It doesn't make much sense, but it's inclusion was what got me a little more interested in what was going on.
You are limited by the amount of gold you have to build, obviously, and the placement of the trees that you rip out of the Earth to turn into stone towers, but PixelJunk Monsters also limits you by having your slowly waddling little turtle avatar be the thing to make all the inputs.
If you want a tower in a certain spot, you have to be there, physically. If you want to upgrade something elsewhere, be it through dancing or paying for it, you have to plod your way over there. You're not agonizingly slow, but you're not a zippy fella either.
It means each and every decision you make while the monsters march through the forest is important, and a wrong decision can result in you watching a tower getting finished as the enemy you built it for walks out of its range, rendering it useless for this wave.
You can see what's incoming before it arrives and plan accordingly, and the waves conclude with this golden golem or something slowly hopping through your defences before, hopefully, exploding and showering you with coins.
In later levels, the rules may get mixed around to force you into new strategies. In this one, monsters don't drop gold, so you have to hope that random trees will give out a few when you walk through them or sell your unused and useless towers so that you can quickly build some elsewhere.
Final Word
But I'm probably not going to do a whole load of teeth-sinking myself. PixelJunk Monsters is alright. It's a little cutesy, a little chill, it's definitely something that fits on a handheld for a quick level here and there, but as someone who doesn't really care for tower defence games, I'm not searching for reasons to play more.
It's nice that in this one you are a waddling old turtle, and even nicer that you can waddle co-operatively, working together to maximise your time, but you've got to be interested in what's going on, and I'm just not.
It's nice to look at, it's not blowing my socks off, it might get some more playtime, you should definitely give it a go, anything beyond that is up to you.
Gah, love it when it's as simple as that.
Fun Facts
The first audio album to be released on the PlayStation Network was that of PixelJunk Monsters by Octograph - worth a listen, too.
PixelJunk Monsters, developed by Q-Games, first released in 2007.
Version played: PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe, PlayStation Portable, 2010.