Patreon button  Steam curated reviews  Discord button  Facebook button  Twitter button 
3DS | PC | PS4 | PS5 | SWITCH | VITA | XB1 | XSX | All

PixelJunk Shooter (PlayStation 3) artwork


"Shooter", or PixelJunk 1-4, looks like an arcade shooter. You control a small ship in a sliced two-dimensional view of a cave. In the cave, any sense of depth in the picture is added by hand-drawn multiplane animation, or intricately shaded borders on the cave-walls. Hitting the black edge of the screen occasionally tends to warp you to a new level (with a "wooosh" sound). And monsters you can fire at with your ship illogically pop into existence on the cave walls, in order to stop you from completing the level.

The game also has the required introduction, complete with eerie space-music, sliding sprites, and slowly scrolling text. Which here recounts the story of the ERS Pinita Colada, as it arrives at a space-installation broadcasting a distress-call.

Pinita then enters orbit and sends down a smaller ship (or two - the game has local same screen two-player) to look for survivors on the different four-stage levels. The left thumbstick moves the ship. The right stick points the ship in the direction you want to fire. Both sticks the same way will give you a boost - and other reasonably intuitive things, that the stranded workers and scientists occasionally will explain at you with urgent looking text-bubbles.

Of course, this is only for establishing the format. When you enter the first level, you are not racing against time, earning money, or shooting at endlessly respawning monsters. The actual game is about the fluid-physics and the interacting elements in the caves. Water runs downhill, and flow through the path of least resistance. If it hits lava, it boils away, or cools the lava until it becomes porous rock, which can be shot through. Meanwhile, your ship will near an overheat by being near lava, and by firing missiles. But cooled down again if dunked in water.

You have unlimited amounts of ships, though, so you can always try the level again if you crash. But if you accidentally kill too many people you are supposed to rescue, it is game over. So the challenge is not in surviving the monsters, but finding the right way to manipulate the elements, without accidentally burning the scientists and workers to crisp.

Meanwhile the eerie cave-dripping music track that changes in intensity depending on how much action happens on the screen (much like Riff: Everyday Shooter) - along with the occasional portentous story from a scientist you pick up - will help set the mood.

While the plot-twist towards the end comes in the shape of another and mysterious type of treatable liquid, rather than a boss-fight.

Pixeljunk Shooter is the fourth in a series of games that reimagine old 2d game concepts into a newer variants, aimed at children in all ages. In this sense, the Pixeljunk games are fairly characteristic, and not partiuclarly daring. But the seemingly restricted and recognizable format allows Q-games to insert more dynamic game-mechanics, and genius (if at times sheer psychedelic) presentation, that might not have been so easy to accept otherwise. Whether this works because of the retro-feel of the presentation, or because of brilliant reuse of timeless video-game concepts, that need no explanation -- well, I suppose it could be both.

[First stage gameplay video. Fluid physics demonstration]


Played through all the levels a few times. A single playthrough might take you 5-6 hours.



fleinn's avatar
Community review by fleinn (December 18, 2009)

A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.

More Reviews by fleinn [+]
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PlayStation 3) artwork
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PlayStation 3)

You are Adam Jensen, a retired police-man now in the employ of Detroit's largest corporation. Your previous effort in Detroit PD has enlightened you to the ways of the world. But also letting you see that as head of security of Sarif Industries, you are more free to help the town and investigate crimes than as a police...
Independence War (PC) artwork
Independence War (PC)

The great dream of space-flight! Romantic and glorious. But how would you actually fly a space-ship in completely dark space anyway? And how about spotting those incoming black dots travelling at near light speed, for example?
Rocket Jockey (PC) artwork
Rocket Jockey (PC)

The rocket jockey theatrically loses the grip with one arm as the cable disengages, but hangs on valiantly around the improbable turn anyway. How does the rocket not start to rotate and spin out of control, you ask? Well, obviously the guy sits on top of the rocket sled, and it has all these steering fins and stuff, so...

Feedback

If you enjoyed this PixelJunk Shooter review, you're encouraged to discuss it with the author and with other members of the site's community. If you don't already have an HonestGamers account, you can sign up for one in a snap. Thank you for reading!

You must be signed into an HonestGamers user account to leave feedback on this review.

User Help | Contact | Ethics | Sponsor Guide | Links

eXTReMe Tracker
© 1998 - 2024 HonestGamers
None of the material contained within this site may be reproduced in any conceivable fashion without permission from the author(s) of said material. This site is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, or any other such party. PixelJunk Shooter is a registered trademark of its copyright holder. This site makes no claim to PixelJunk Shooter, its characters, screenshots, artwork, music, or any intellectual property contained within. Opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily represent the opinion of site staff or sponsors. Staff and freelance reviews are typically written based on time spent with a retail review copy or review key for the game that is provided by its publisher.