Pixel Junk: Sidescroller

[MauJustice]

Just announnced at E3 for PSN, looking very good so far. I'm a little more partial to vertical shooters, but I'll definitely be giving this a shot.

Loving the retro color scheme.

[xris]

Shame on their art department.

[8 1/2]

Looks like retina-burning barf to my eyes. I guess I'm a little sick of faux-retro, especially imitation vectors.

[MauJustice]

I think the visuals will go through stages. It's still early, they will need to step up the visuals or have some crazy gameplay if they are expecting to get 10$ for it.

Here's another shot of it. Still not exactly pretty, but better than the neon eyesore.

[8 1/2]

Still kinda screams, "We really like Tron, like, a lot!" but at least not so assaultive as the first.

[alastair jack]

Hello there!

[kid aphex]

there are videos out there.
here's one that shows the level interaction, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBgiPCClA64
(wait...where'd my thread go?)

[the2bears]

I think the visuals will go through stages. It's still early, they will need to step up the visuals or have some crazy gameplay if they are expecting to get 10$ for it.

Because that's too much for a game?

Bill

[Kaiser]

Are you people silly!? PixelJunk games were never intended for the "skill" crowd, they were intended for casual people who just want to pick and play the damn game due lack of time (like Family or work). So bitch all you want but the fact is, customers won't give a flying cake about you (neither developers).

[kid aphex]

http://www.giantbomb.com/giant-bomb-at- ... 2/17-4373/

@ 21:00 into this video there is some off-screen footage of the game.
first video i've seen of it showing off some danmaku-esque bullet patterns ---
i'm guessing that's about as far down that road as they'll go

[nem]

Trailer

It's coming out this month. Looks like a laid back, fun game. I'm pretty sure the curvature and the glow can be turned off, since there are videos without them.

[Udderdude]

Nice Darius fish at the end :P

[Nate]

edit: having a bad day

[MommysBestGames]

PSN blog released a new gameplay trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 0L5VO8Wqig
Names some of the features in the text-overlay and shows a few new areas/enemies.
Game release details on their blog http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/10/ ... ember-1st/

I think it looks smooth but I usually prefer sprite art (but variety is always nice). And that said, their fluid mechanic gameplay is gorgeous, I suppose from the Shooter series. It's really neat to have in a forced-scroller setting. Reminds me some of the green blobs in Gradius V.

And I agree, I like the Darius-esque fish at the end of the other trailer. Intrigues me a lot more than the smaller, more non-descript enemies. Though white-bomb/vertical blast attacks were pretty cool in the middle of this recent trailer.

[Despatche]

We need more games with some real color. I would love a Dodonpachi with vectors.

Are you people silly!? PixelJunk games were never intended for the "skill" crowd, they were intended for casual people who just want to pick and play the damn game due lack of time (like Family or work).

For the record, these "skill" games are made with the same concept in mind, which means exactly what it sounds like.

[kid aphex]

Modern day reviewers

IGN rushes through PJSideScroller, lies, is called out, removes part of review
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=449885

[beatsgo]

Modern day reviewers

IGN rushes through PJSideScroller, lies, is called out, removes part of review
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread. ... 885&page=2

That is just sad.

[Udderdude]

Not to self: Never name a mode in any of my games "Casual". >_>

[beatsgo]

Not to self: Never name a mode in any of my games "Casual". >_>

So Sidescroller is a Casual game....that's what IGN thinks of the game.

[Himself]

Is anyone playing this? Bugged that there's no demo.

[OBSCVRA]

there's enough footage on youtube for me to reach the conclusion that the game looks boring. all for raging against the mainstream press though

[ex.machina]

Is anyone playing this? Bugged that there's no demo.

Was looking for a demo as well. Maybe it's coming in one of the next weeks.

[MadScientist]

Are you people silly!? PixelJunk games were never intended for the "skill" crowd, they were intended for casual people who just want to pick and play the damn game due lack of time

Erm... how many PJ games have you played? They ended up patching PJ Eden, because people kept complaining about how hard it was. And Monsters may have been cutesy looking, but it was no walk in the park either.

[kid aphex]

Are you people silly!? PixelJunk games were never intended for the "skill" crowd, they were intended for casual people who just want to pick and play the damn game due lack of time

Erm... how many PJ games have you played? They ended up patching PJ Eden, because people kept complaining about how hard it was. And Monsters may have been cutesy looking, but it was no walk in the park either.

True this. Monsters is incredible AND difficult.

[geremy]

I caved and bought it. I actually haven't played it enough to form an impression other than the presentation is very nice. Some things to note:
-IMO, enemy bullets and your own bullets (at least with the machine gun weapon) look very similar.
-There are five power-up levels for each weapon (you start will all three weapons at level 1).
-On normal, if you get hit once your ship starts flashing and you get verbal warnings. That goes away after a bit but if you get hit a second time while flashing you die.
-There are lots of checkpoints (for 1 game use only, they don't carry to future games) and some checkpoints have little power-ups that if you catch them, when you die you keep your weapon power-ups.
-You can begin from any stage you have previously reached.
-The weapon you use determines the appearance of your ship.

[Udderdude]

Is there any hard(coreasfuck) mode?

[Sumez]

Supposedly beating normal unlocks hard mode which means the color scheme is inversed or something.

[Udderdude]

Holy crap I bet the controls are inverted also

HARDCOREEEEE :O

[MadScientist]

I played through it on normal. It's OK. The set-up up is similar to PJ Shooter in that there are 3 stages each involving several sub-levels. Here each stage has 3 'sectors' plus a boss. Beating the 3rd boss also opens up a long final level and a battle with the final boss. You can't 1cc it the way you would with a regular shmup, but the leaderboards incorporate an overall score which is the total from each individual level combined.

As far as the actual gameplay goes, a lot of the elements will be familiar to anyone who played Shooter. Many of the same enemies crop up and environmental hazards also play a large part of the action - however, the fluid dynamics are used more sparingly here than in Shooter and aren't really employed in as creative a fashion. There are a few neat sections though. The 'cool-down' system from Shooter is also used - getting shot or running into lava heats up your ship and you can cool it down again by finding water. Given that each sector can be tackled individually and you start each with 3 lives, it's not that hard to beat all of them - some of them took me a few efforts (the 2nd boss probably took the most), but it's not especially difficult on 'normal'. I guess if you were to try and imagine it as a regular shmup and beat each stage in order using only 3 lives and whatever extra lives you found it would probably be reasonably tough, but since that's not how it's set up, it's kind of a moot point.

The main problem I had with the game is that the colour scheme is a significant problem on some levels. When the entire palette consists of varying shades of orange and red, including the enemies, background, bullets, points pick ups etc... it becomes a bit of a strain to pick out enemy projectiles from the rest of the action. Interestingly they completely change the look of the game in 'hard' mode and it seems that everything is much more stark and stands out a lot better. Well, at least from the couple of levels I tried. 'Hard' mode actually seems quite a bit tougher and, judging from the trophy list, there's also a 'brutal' mode, so there's definitely some challenge here if that's what you're looking for.

[Himself]

Thanks for the feedback MadScientist. I was going to wait for a demo, but at $9.99 and hearing generally positive feedback I'll go get it. It may not go down as a stone cold classic, but it looks like a fun enough romp.