I love PixelJunk games. Q Games have developed a brand that works perfectly within the realm of downloadable titles; they're fun little games that are incredibly easy to pick up, but offer enough difficulty and creativity to really engage you. The last two "PixelJunk Shooter" games were enjoyable shoot-em-ups, but I was totally surprised when "PixelJunk SideScroller" appeared out of nowhere. This game was way below the radar – I have no idea why – and I was immediately excited when I spotted the game during a stroll through Sony's E3 booth today.
"PixelJunk SideScroller" plays fairly close to the basic mechanics of "Shooter." That makes sense, given that game is essentially a follow-up to "Shooter 2." You're still steering your little ship through a series of paths, taking out enemies along the way, but "SideScroller" has a decidedly more retro aesthetic. The edges of the screen curve to give the impression that you're looking at the game through an old monitor, and the visuals have a glowing, minimalist appearance. The game looks a bit like a "Geometry Wars" title, as opposed to the more painterly look of the "Shooter" games.
More importantly, obviously, the game is constantly side-scrolling. Keeping up with the game adds a nice little challenge.
The first level I checked out was Volcano, which as you might expect, is filled with flowing lava. The heat gauge is present in "SideScroller" – just like "Shooter" – and you're once again balancing the frenetic dodging and shooting with the need to cool your ship in flowing water. Granted, the water and lava don't flow "fluidly," so much as they're intentionally retro orange pixels.
I also played through a portion of the Factory level, where a third danger element became present: being smashed in-between spiked columns. There's definitely a lot going on in this game, but I wouldn't expect a PixelJunk shoot-em-up to be anything but challenging. That said, the difficulty settings can be set to easy for more casual players, and there's even a customizable difficulty setting. The customizable setting allows you to tweak different factors like scroll speed, so there may be an opportunity to really change the game drastically in to whatever form you like.
There's obviously not a massive amount of difference between "SideScroller" and the "Shooter" games, and there may be an argument there that this new title is really just a retro facelift. That said, the game plays smooth, the ability to upgrade your weapons to five increasingly spastic levels is awesome, and it still maintains that PixelJunk feel. I have no idea why Sony didn't showcase this game during their press conference, but I think it's definitely one to keep your eye on.