I have to admit, I am a faithful supporter of the PixelJunk series. I’ve been a fan of the games ever since Racers so I’m always excited to see whatever game is going to be next in the series. I had been following PixelJunk Shooter ever since the naming competition a while back and was especially excited about the art direction of the game.

PixelJunk Shooter is a game in where you control a spaceship that flies underground in caves trying to rescue workers and collect gems. Along the way you are faced with the elements of water, lava, ice, flammable steam, and magnetic matter. The elements are used in unique ways throughout the game making you think before just going in guns blazing. The workers can die really easily so you have to do some planning first. To switch up the gameplay you are also presented with suits that change the way your ship acts. For example you can obtain a suit that shoots water or lava instead of your regular missiles.

The third world

Your default weapons are regular missiles which you can fire non-stop or homing missiles which are more powerful but heat up your ship. Your ship can get overheated by getting shot by enemies, getting too close to lava, or shooting homing missiles for too long. Your ship will cool down eventually but if fly through water you will cool down instantly.

PixelJunk Shooter is a great game for the series. My only complaint is that it’s too short and a little too easy in the first two worlds. It’s not until you get to the third world that it starts to get challenging. This is what I want more of. As with all the PixelJunk games there should be an “Encore” pack released eventually that will have more levels. I am looking forward to that because I haven’t had my PJ Shooter fill yet. I want more!

PixelJunk Monsters, in case you didn’t know, is a tower defense game that was originally released on the Playstation Network back in January of ’08. An expansion pack titled “PJM Encore” was then released in May of ’08. PJM took advantage of the remote play function of the PS3 and PSP but it looked blurry and wasn’t even comparable to the crisp look of playing it on the PS3. The way I looked at it was that if I was in the house then I may as well play it on my PS3. A few months back Q-Games announced that they were releasing PixelJunk Monsters on the PSP. Nobody knew whether it was going to be on UMD or if it was going to be digital download only. Later on more details surfaced stating that it would be packed full of new stuff, hence the official name “PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe.” I’ve been siked about PJMD since it was announced and am happy that it has finally arrived. PJMD is available on the PSP as a digital download and costs $19.99. That may seem a little steep to you but to anyone who has played PJM it’s no problem.

PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe is definitely the ultimate version of PJM. It brings new music, new enemies, new towers, challenge modes that unlock goodies, all the maps that were included in the original game and the expansion pack and even a whole new island. While the graphics of PJMD have been redone for the PSP it still looks beautiful. The art style is what makes PJM stand out and it continues to shine, even on the PSP. I was really impressed with how they kept the total download size under 70MB, that’s crazy for how much stuff is packed into the game.

If you would head on over to the About page of this website you might notice that PJM is currently #4 in the list of my top ten favorite games of all time so maybe I am not the best person to be reviewing this game. This is why I am going to cut my review short and say this: If you like tower defense games then you should definitely play PixelJunk Monsters, it’s the game that took tower defense genre to the next level. If you’ve never really given TD games a try PJM is the best one to bring you into the genre. And for all the TD haters out there it may be the game that changes your standpoint. Bottom line – If you have a PSP buy PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe no matter what. It’s awesome. If you don’t have a PSP and you do own a PS3 then make sure you at least buy the PSN version of the game.

Below is a video so you can see PJMD in action:

When I had first played the demo of PixelJunk Eden I was a little frustrated with it. The controls were hard to get used to and I didn’t understand why people said it was a relaxing game, I thought it was very intense. Well once the full game was out I decided to purchase it because I knew I had to give it more time. I am a huge fan of the Pixeljunk series and knew that I would like Eden if I would just take the time to learn it. I am very happy I took the time because this game is great. There is some out-of-this-world feeling you get from playing this game. The colors are beautiful and the game is such a work of art. I know that it takes place in a garden but part of me relates this garden to outer space. I think of the pictures I saw before of the Eagle Nebula and it Eden reminds me very much of deep space. The higher you get the more this is made plain. Once you learn the controls and get good at playing Eden the game is taken to another level. You get sucked in and everything starts to flow.The main thing to remember is take your time and don’t try to rush or else you will end up falling and you don’t want that to happen.

The majority of the time I play PixelJunk Eden with my wife. I find it really fun to play with her. We have to work as a team and make sure that we stay together or else we will get penalized for either of us going off screen, this is the one thing that makes co-op play sometimes frustrating. If you go to fast and don’t wait for the other player then that player will go off-screen and you will lose half of any pollen you’ve collected in the pods. This is not good especially when you are in a time crunch. I understand that co-op would be too easy if they hadn’t made it like this.

This game also sports a YouTube video upload function. This lets you record yourself playing the game and upload it directly to your YouTube account. I found this feature pretty pointless. The quality isn’t the greatest which makes it hard to even see your grimp and I don’t think anyone will really be interested to watch them as there isn’t really that many interesting things you can do in Eden other than collect pollen and spectra. It may be put to good use if you want to show your friends the game to convince them to buy it but that’s about it.

PixelJunk Eden is a great game. It’s very fun and addictive and I highly recommend it. First impressions may not be the greatest but if you stick with it for just a little longer you will see why everyone’s making such a big fuss about this one. PixelJunk Eden is proof that games are definitely art.

Everyday Gamers: In short, how did you get to where you are today?

Dylan Cuthbert: Blood, tears, sweat and a lot of work.

Did you plan from the beginning to release different types of games all under the PixelJunk name? What was your initial vision of what PixelJunk would become?

This is exactly what my vision of PixelJunk was – right from the start I planned to make it a brand for PSN games of a certain type, not casual and bland, but invigorating and interesting.  We don’t do anything the normal way, why copy when you can innovate?

What made you decide to focus strictly on the Playstation 3 console and PSN?

I have a long history with Sony and I like the way their console set its sights solidly on Full-HD/HDMI.  This was really important for the PixelJunk series.

How do you come up with a title as unique as PixelJunk Eden? Where do you start?

You keep trying and throwing out stuff that doesn’t work, then when you think you have it just right, you give it yet another long hard think over.  We were tuning stuff even right at the very end to get everything as exquisite as possible.

Why do you think PixelJunk Eden is a game that everyone should play?

Not just Eden, but the whole PixelJunk series – the games are considered hard but I want to try and encourage players to not be afraid of new things, otherwise everything ends up with the same controls and the same kind of scenarios.  Racers, Monsters and Eden all have some hard core elements in them – these hard core elements are where games originated from.  We’ve tried to wrap them up in a way that allows people who don’t necessarily play games to try them out and feel that “rush” we all used to feel in the era of video arcades. (70’s-80’s)

The more people feel that “rush”, the more they will search out games that give them unique experiences rather than just the “Hollywood blockbuster” type games the market is inundated with at the moment.

Any advice/tips on how to make the most of PJE?

Take it easy!  Learn the rhythm of the game…

Do you have any plans to release more gardens as DLC?

Most likely we do, but no comment as of yet.

How is the future looking for Q-Games and the PixelJunk franchise?

Right now, a day after the simultaneous worldwide release of Eden, it is looking pretty good!  It’ll be interesting to see what is happening around this time next year though.

…one last question, Will you become a fan of Everday Gamers on Facebook?

When I get the hang of Facebook I might just do that.

Stop back for my full review of PixelJunk Eden in the coming days.

So far my wife and I completed 12 maps and out of those maps we have 6 rainbows. We’ve been playing it every night since the release and are addicted once again. PJM: Encore seems a little harder than the original maps but it could just be me. We are actually stuck on getting a rainbow on one of the Easy maps. Sick! I find the balance of PJM: Encore to be very inconsistent as some of the Hard maps were easier than the Easy maps. Overall PJM: Encore is a great addition.

I highly recommend it to anyone who owns a PS3. I hope Q-Games considers doing at least one more expansion pack before pushing PJM by the way side. Oh and I found out the other day that PJM is officially my wife’s favorite game ever