Well, this is a bit odd. Yesterday, Double Eleven send over a press email under embargo until March 6th, but then today took to the PlayStation blog to announce the embargoed news. So, the lid is off and the secret is out: PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate is coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita this summer!

PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate is an upgraded compilation of the first two PixelJunk Shooter twin-stick liquid physics puzzle shooters. More than that, it takes the content of the two games and seamlessly combines them into a single, flowing campaign. New features introduced in the sequel will even be available in the original game’s chapters for a unified experience.

Double Eleven is also working on a bunch of other enhancements, including completely overhauled visuals (real-time lighting, new special effects, higher resolution particle effects, tweaked color palette, etc) running at 60 frames-per-second, a new ship remodeled in 3D, a more intuitive and informative minimalist HUD, a re-balanced scoring system, and cross-play and cross-save between platforms.

The PS4 and Vita desperately need more completely new, original titles, but clearly PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate is not just some last-gen port slapped together with a fresh coat of paint. Having two of the best digital download games from the PS3 new and improved for PS4 and Vita could never be a bad thing.

PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate Coming to PS4, PS Vita This Summer [PlayStation.Blog]

It would be hard to deny that Q-Games has made some of the best and most unique downloadable games for PlayStation systems since the studio began developing games under the PixelJunk moniker. Racers, Monsters, Eden, Shooter, SideScroller, and 4AM each provide a different visual aesthetic and gameplay style while also including a steady increase to challenge and difficulty. By the time you finish playing a PixelJunk title there is no doubt that Jedi-like reflexes have been honed, and a true mastery of the mechanics can give a wonderful sense of gratification and accomplishment. Sadly, there are some gamers who have not had the opportunity to play many of these great titles because they originally were only available in the PlayStation ecosystem. Fortunately for all of us, Q-Games and Double Eleven have been working together to bring the PixelJunk brand to Steam, most recently including the fantastic PixelJunk Shooter.

PixelJunk Shooter plays like a twin-stick shooter, only with a stronger emphasis on puzzles and exploration as you pilot a subterranean ship to rescue miners trapped underground. The left stick moves the ship in whichever direction it is pointed and the right stick aims for shooting. Tapping the left trigger or bumper activates the ship’s grabber arm while the right trigger or bumper are used to shoot (holding down the trigger/bumper will fire rockets). The ship has a temperature gauge on the bottom of the screen which rises when too close to magma. If the gauge fills up the ship can overheat and explode, but moving into water will cool the ship immediately (or alternatively moving away from the source of heat will cool the ship over time).

Rescuing miners unlocks a gate in each stage of a level. Each level presents new environmental challenges with some of the most spectacular fluid physics ever seen. Water, magma, and magnetic oil spew, pour, and flow around the levels, both as obstacles and means of traversal. Survivors sometimes are trapped inside the various liquids or just beyond, and use of the full 360-degree range of aiming with the rescue ship comes into play by either shooting a hole in the environment to change the direction of the liquid or, through ship power-ups, changing the actual consistency of the liquid entirely. Water on magma becomes rock. Water and ice naturally becomes even more ice (which can then be manipulated with the ship’s grabber arm). Magma mixed with the magnetic oil generates a flammable gas. Another ship upgrade will invert its structure so that magma doesn’t cause damage while water does.  A final upgrade repels the magnetic oil as if the ship were a giant magnet itself.

Underground, Ice and Factory are the three distinct areas of Shooter which contain five to six levels each and a final boss battle. A crab-like spider, an armor-plated fish, and a rogue-minded drilling mech cap off each area, showcasing the genius minds of Q-Games. Patience, quick reflexes and precise shooting offer a nice change of pace to the liquid labyrinthine regular levels.

While Shooter isn’t a particularly hard game to beat, the magic of the experience lies with collecting all of the surviving miners, as well as finding all of the diamonds in each level. Additionally, the game grades each attempt by how quickly you complete a level, and how high of a score you earn. When enemies are killed in quick succession a point multiplier is applied. Collecting little stars that drop from each enemy while the multiplier is in effect dramatically boosts your score. A global leaderboard can be seen and compared for each level, as well as one for overall performance. Shooter also comes to Steam with local 2-player co-op intact. When the game first launched on PS3, many fans were upset that the game didn’t support online 2-player matches, but I prefer (with this game in particular) playing while sitting next to my co-op partner so that we can better communicate when things go south and quickly adjust to whatever may be suddenly on screen.

For all the beauty of the liquid mechanics that Shooter offers, as well as the satisfying and precise feel of control over the ship, the one thing that makes Shooter a true must buy is High Frequency Bandwidth’s thumping soundtrack. A mashup of trance, techno, and pop rock, HFB’s music adds a level of magic to each session with subtle tempo shifts to quick head-bopping riffs that complete and enhance the experience.

If any PC elitists (and there are plenty out there) have never had the chance to play PixelJunk Shooter because they refused to stoop so low as to buy an inferior console, I can’t recommend enough playing it now that it is available on Steam. While I do find it a bit weird to play one of my favorite games on PS3 with a 360 controller, Shooter on PC is still like putting on a pair of old, long lost, comfortable shoes. And for all the PS3 trophy hunters out there, Q-Games has cheekily added a Platinum trophy achievement for all of you who wanted it but never got it on PS3. Go buy it now and get that long sought after Plat!

Pros:
+ Fantastic visuals
+ Tight controls
+ Amazing music
+ Leaderboard score chasing
+ Finally a Platinum Trophy!

Cons:
– Boss battles can be frustrating

Game Info:
Platform: Steam
Publisher: Double Eleven Studios
Developer: Q-Games / Double Eleven Studios
Release Date: 11/11/2013
Genre: Multidirectional Shooter
Players: 1-2 (local co-op)

Source: Review code provided by publisher

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Arcade shooters have come a long way since the coin-op days, and I can’t think of two recent games that exemplify that fact more than Just Add Water’s Gravity Crash and the latest work of creative genius from Dylan Cuthbert’s Q-Games, PixelJunk Shooter. Both games came out on the PSN Store for PS3 over the holidays, both games strike an amazing balance of old and new concepts, both games fall from limbs of the same family tree yet are completely different from one another, and both games are friggin’ awesome to play! What more could you ask for?

Of the two, Gravity Crash is the one that most flatteringly pays homage to the fathers of the genre. Within this unassuming $10 shooter you can find conceptual fragments of classic arcade games like Asteroids, Lunar Lander, and Defender fused with the newfangled visual flair of Geometry Wars with its vibrant, neon-soaked HD vector graphics, retro-modern synth music and bleepy-bloopy sound effects.

Gravity Crash has you exploring over 30 planetary maps to collect gems and hidden artifacts, blast enemy ships and turrets, destroy enemy ground installations, and rescue downed ally crewmen until you’ve gathered and/or destroyed the main objective targets and a black hole appears to take you to the next level. While completing these objectives, you must simultaneously fight against each planet’s gravitational pull, learning how to efficiently pulse your ship’s thrusters to navigate tight, rigid corridors without slamming into walls or running out of fuel.

Contending with this dual threat leads to many tense moments as you kick your thrusters into full blast just in the nick of time to avoid crashing or evade an incoming missile, and even though the game pretty much shows its hand within the first few levels, it never ceases to entertain.

Depending on your preference of buttons vs. analog stick for shooting, multiple control schemes are available to choose from. However, like any arcade shooter the twin-stick method of steering with the left stick and aiming/shooting with the right stick offers the best combination of precision and fluidity.

For a PSN game, Gravity Crash is also stuffed with content, including the aforementioned 30+ single-player campaign levels, split-screen multiplayer modes for up to four players (online play is not supported unfortunately, though there are leaderboards if you want to compare scores), an unlockable bonus mini-game, and a neat level creator tool – the same level creator Just Add Water used to make the campaign stages — enabling players to build and share their own maps with others. That’s a butt-load of modes to play with for a downloadable game!

PixelJunk Shooter, on the other hand, is really more of a physics- and environment-based puzzle game in the guise of a twin-stick shooter. A thinking man’s arcade shooter, if you will.

The human race has turned to colonizing the planet Apoxus Prime for resources, but in doing so have awakened a mysterious extraterrestrial civilization deep beneath the planet’s surface. Guiding your subterranean exploration vehicle through the planet’s 15 cavernous stages – by yourself or with a friend in offline-only co-op — it is your duty to rescue as many trapped miners and scientists as you can, and then escape before it is too late.

The controls are handled similarly to a twin-stick shooter – steer with the left stick and aim with the right stick – and you do come across various critters that need dispatching (including a few massive bosses). However, in PixelJunk Shooter the pacing is a little more methodical compared to what is typically expected of the genre, and your real enemies here are the environments and the elements they contain.

At the heart of PixelJunk Shooter is a dynamic fluid / physics system. As you explore the dark depths of Apoxus Prime on your rescue mission, you’ll come across loose dirt barriers, walls of ice, plumes of deadly gas, and pools of lava, water and a strange black, magnetic goo, and the trick to achieving success is figuring out how to manipulate these different elements to dig out survivors without getting them killed and make it through each map without getting yourself killed. Easier said than done!

PixelJunk Shooter’s greatest achievement is the sense of fear and discovery it manages to stir up inside you as you play. Opposed to far too many games these days that hold your hand through every single gameplay mechanic, this game purposefully avoids teaching you anything about how elements react with one another and what your ship is capable of – it’s up to you to cautiously experiment with each new substance and ship power-up suit you come across in order to ascertain how to best manipulate the surrounding environment to your advantage.

PixelJunk Shooter may be short in length, but in this game’s 15 brief levels I’ve experienced more of those special “Aha!” moments that used to define classic games than in many recent full-length, full-price productions. The level designs truly are that inventive, and the game’s flash-style, pastel graphics and dynamic, moody soundtrack only enhance this gameplay creativity with a healthy dose of quirky charm.

Simply put, Gravity Crash and PixelJunk Shooter are two of the brightest stars yet to be released on the PSN Store, and at only $9.99 apiece – Gravity Crash has actually been on sale for $4.99 over the past week and if you hurry you may still be able to grab it at that price before the sale ends today – they are must-haves for your PS3’s digital download library. PSP gamers also need to be on the lookout. Just Add Water is working on a full PSP port of Gravity Crash, and while a similar PixelJunk Shooter port has yet to be announced (make it happen Q-Games!), the game does support remote play, so if you own both systems you can enjoy it on the big screen at home or take it with you on the road.

Gravity Crash:

PixelJunk Shooter: