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| Source // PlayStation |
Gravity. Love it or hate it, it's here to stay, and as soon as it could be modelled to any degree of accuracy in a video game, games were built around obeying its laws, including a great many that subtly taught generation after generation how to fly - and crash - spaceships.
Lunar Lander, Exile, Gravity Crash and more I'm sure have crossed this 1001 list as physics-based challenges involving spaceships shooting enemy forces, bombing infrastructure, and rescuing stranded companions, and these games just don't stop coming.
PixelJunk Shooter is the next in line, but the twist in this PlayStation 3 title is that gravity plays as much of a role in-game as fluid dynamics. Are you ready to safely wrap your head around a lava flow?
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| Source // PlayStation |
Frustrations
I'm not, partly because I don't have PixelJunk Shooter to play around with. I do have PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate on the PlayStation Vita, but it and half of my collection are locked behind the PlayStation Plus paywall. Will I ever get back to justifying that subscription or has time simply moved on for me?
Don't worry, I don't expect anyone to answer that. Let's just find out what I'm missing.
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| Source // PlayStation |
One or two players can pilot one or two dinky little ships through an underground network of dangers, from man- (or maybe even alien-) made to natural. En route, you'll be rescuing some helpless scientists who've got themselves stuck down here, or - if you're a little too trigger happy - accidentally killing them off. Don't do that.
Collect as many scientists as you can, defeat the end of level boss (should there be one), and carry on into the next environment to do much the same thing again. So what's the appeal?
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| Source // Steam |
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| Source // Steam |
Fun Times
Much of the appeal comes from three types of liquid, water, lava, and magnetic ferrofluid, and how they interact with the world around them.
Some of the environment down here can be blasted through with your ship's weaponry, but if it can't be, perhaps the power of nature can help solve a problem for you. Sloshing an awful lot of water onto a lava flow will make that much safer to safely pass, and throwing lava into giant icicles will see them disappear in next to no time, too.
Suddenly, new paths to more stranded scientists are open for you to fly through. Remember to avoid bouncing off the walls and bombing those you're meant to rescue...
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| Source // Steam |
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| Source // Steam |
I don't know how the ferrofluid works or what you can do with it, but I do know that you can burn off harmful gases that you'll come across, and I suppose much of PixelJunk Shooter is therefore about spotting what can be burnt or melted away, and finding what can be used to achieve that goal. While avoiding enemy fire and trying not to kill friendlies, obviously.
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| Source // Steam |
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| Source // Steam |
I'm used to these kinds of games having vector graphics, or lots of black backgrounds, but PixelJunk Shooter bucks that trend entirely and goes full-on colour instead. It looks nice, sort of cartoony, and looks even better in its Ultimate remake than the original outing.
Final Word
But I've not played any of it to know if that art style works well with the controls, if those controls are easy to pick up or not, if the difficulty is ridiculous, if there's any length to the game at all...
I think I'd enjoy checking this one out and playing around with it. Maybe I should have done so before I stopped paying into PlayStation Plus. I clearly overlooked not only its initial release but the release of the Ultimate remake as well - I strongly suspect the only reason I 'have' PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate is that it was given away free at some point. I really am not on top of what's hot or not in video gaming.
Would it get old quickly? Perhaps, but that might just be because I tend to tire of these kinds of games quickly. All those fluids will probably keep me playing for longer than other games, but until the credits roll? Probably not.
I may never know, though. It's definitely a title to keep in the back of my mind whenever something pops up on my PlayStation Plus radar, as another incentive to go back and play through as much as possible before the subscription runs out again.
I've got my eye on you, PixelJunk Shooter.
Fun Facts
Fans were asked to vote on the name for what was then PixelJunk 1-4. Shooter was chosen despite not winning the vote, and cries of 'but it's a boring name' were ignored because shooting was what you'd be doing an awful lot of.
PixelJunk Shooter, developed by Q-Games, Double Eleven, first released in 2009.
Version watched: PixelJunk Shooter, PlayStation 3, 2009 (GameSpot)