Goombd Played! - PixelJunk SideScroller

Happy 2012, everyone! To start things out with a bang, after all we're all living in the future, where soon we'll be driving flying cars, why not go back in time, at least figuratively, and play an old school arcade shooter?

PixelJunk SideScroller was probably one of my best surprises at E3. I unassumingly walked into the Sony booth and found the game right there and boy did it hit all the right notes for me right then. Even as a limited demo, I fell to the charm and care given to SideScroller right away. Now, with the full game in hand, that feeling is just even more evident.

SideScroller plays pretty much like an old sidescrolling shooter, hence its name, bathed in a new coat of paint. Well, paint probably isn't the correct word. More like new lines. The horizontally scrolling sections have their own unique look to them, despite the simplicity of the the vector look of the presentation.

You get to use three different weapons right from the get go. As you destroy enemies, you're given power-ups that boost the currently equipped weapon, whether it is the precise and focused but limited in scope laser, the scattered and extremely destructive cannon or the standard albeit very useful machine gun. From their descriptions, you can guess which of those is my favorite.

Too bad that regardless of which weapon I grew fond of, PixelJunk SideScroller still kicked my merry ass to oblivion. It's a very tough game right from the beginning and doesn't let up even at lower difficulty settings. Shooter purists will be glad to know that there are many incentives for diving into the harder modes and newcomers will have to get better at the game if they hope to see the true ending. Takling casual mode will only take you so far! As you'd might expect, if you'e been reading this blog for a while, I fell back to casual mode a lot during my playthrough!

Even though you'll probably get yours handed to you as well, you'll be receiving it in style. SideScroller is one great looking game and the music department is just as impressive. Awesome beats indeed. Similarly to previous PixelJunk games, this is one sleek package.

Regardless of my skill, or rather, my lack there of in this game, it wouldn't be fair to call it unfairly difficult. Challenges are introduced at a quick pace and can be surpassed if you persevere. SideScroller is the sort of game that rewards yours dedication with even more challenges.

In the PixelJunk pantheon of games, SideScroller ranks high among my favorites. I'm a big fan of both Shooter entries although SideScroller's simpler form of gameplay scratches my itch rather nicely. |8