PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate

You’re Tikiman and you have to build towers to thwart monsters cruising through the forest looking to eat your Tikibabies. You do this by walking up to trees and spending gold to craft cannons to fight ground troops or anti-air guns to attack flying beasts. Defeat the villains, get more gold, and build more weapons or unlock new armaments so that you survive the set number of waves.


It’s a fun gameplay flow that had me all over the emotional spectrum in the best way possible. The goal is to “rainbow” levels by finishing the waves without losing a baby. When a crossbow took out the final spider in spitting distance of my offspring, I cheered. When I was on the second-to-last wave and a shielded bat somehow made it through my anti-air guns, I cursed. Even when I felt like I was winning, I’d see the countdown to the next wave and know the battle was far from over.


PixelJunk Monsters is an unforgiving game if you’re looking to perfect every level, but it is beatable and screwing up a level multiple times only makes your rainbow that much sweeter. Sure, it'll take practice and patience (which many of us don't have), but even when you're getting beatdown, you'll want to come back for another go.


Once you get the flow of battle down, you can start experimenting with the gems you’ve earned. Do you use them to unlock more powerful weapons like the mortar tower or spend them to level-up the towers you’ve already built? Once you learn an enemy's attack pattern, what are the strategic choke points you can exploit to decimate forces? These are those “ah-ha” moments in PixelJunk that erase humiliating defeats and make it worth playing. Betting all your gems on an upgrade plan and having it decimate a conga line of rock monsters -- that’s the good stuff.


More good stuff? The presentation. From the crisp 2D playing field to the enchanting music to the fact that Tikiman dances around towers to level them up, PixelJunk is adorable. There’s a reason why this game has a spot on both IGN’s PSN and PSP Top 25 Lists, and it’s because it balances the sweet and the sour so well.


But the fact that Double Eleven really just added touch screen controls (which work well) is a red flag for PixelJunk veterans. If you’ve had your PixelJunk fill, move on; there’s nothing to see here. Again, this is a HD port of PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe, which was itself a port of the PS3 PixelJunk Monsters and its DLC, PixelJunk Monsters Encore. So, this HD version looks like the HD original; it’s the PS3 visuals in your pocket. These games were all great, but if you’ve played them, you’ve played them. Perhaps a new Trophy list (comprised of a bunch of Bronzes) or just the desire to play again will bring you back, but you’ll know what you’re getting into.


PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate 551.19mb