POSTED 1/11/11


PIXELJUNK SIDESCROLLER

Sony
PS3/PSN

Ow! Quit it. Ow! Quit it. Ow! Quit it. Ow! Quit it!!!

Yep, like Bart Simpson to an electrified cupcake, we kept going back for more despite the pain... and kept going back, and kept going back, and kept going...

This latest assault of Pixeljunkiness is an evolution of a bonus from Pixeljunk Shooter 2, but don’t let that put you off. Let its bastardality put you off, but not its origins. It’s basically a mutant hybrid of early arcade hit Scramble and later sideways shooters like R-Type and Gradius, with a choice of three upgradable weapons of various types in various situations, plus a half-arsed sonic headbutt kinda thing. Like those games it’s based on, PJSS is also quite unforgiving (well, save for unlimited continues).

It’s the sort of shmup where you progress a certain amount, get whomped by something unpredictably whompy and then get whisked back to the last checkpoint. Wrong! Do it again! The initial three levels of each of three four level stages aren’t too bad, but get to the fourth one – the inevitable boss battle - and attention spans way beyond what MTV taught us was acceptable are required. Buggles, why have you forsaken us?!

OK, so it’s often tough and it’s short. But PJSS is also quite wonderful-looking. Made to resemble a classic arcade machine, we’re talking cathode ray imitation – rounded screen, scanlines and a neon glow reminiscent of vector titles like Tempest and Battlezone. Get to the final, final stage and it even starts glitching out, just like the majority of the ‘Spacies’ in Melbourne in the early 1980s. The sonics eschew such classic nods for a chilled, trip-hoppy soundtrack. It’s a bit incongruous, actually.

Is PJSS fun? Nes, or yo. Umm, yes and no. We advise padding your room in case of flying DualShocks. Ow! Quit it...

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