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

[nggallery id=3125]

What is it? A game of tower defense strategy, in which you assume the role of the Tikiman and transform the forest’s trees into cannons and ballistae in order to defend your vulnerable flock of Tiki-babies from hordes of icky monsters.

Who made it and where can you get it? By now you’ve probably enjoyed PixelJunk Monsters on a PlayStation system, originally created by Q-Games and first released on PS3 years ago. (PSP and Vita versions have also since been released.) If not, Double Eleven is proud to offer the independently published Ultimate edition on PC, Mac, and Linux, available now on Steam for $19.99.

How much did we play? I have cleared the tutorial and seven other stages on the regular difficulty setting, replaying a few to earn perfect Rainbow ratings for five of the levels. I have also dabbled with co-op and attempted (unsuccessfully) to best a couple of the Medal Challenge bonus levels. Over 2,000 monsters have been slain.

Any technical concerns or hardware requirements you should know about? Gamepad functionality is supported if you have past experience with the PlayStation game and want the familiar feel of a console controller. However the game handles just fine without one. (More on that topic below.) The system requirements are also very accessible so you should be able to run the game without any issues, even on older hardware.

Why should you play it?

• Cute But Deadly: PixelJunk Monsters may look all cuddly and whimsical, like a young child dressed up in his or her first Halloween costume, but don’t be fooled—this game gets tough quick. The fundamentals are the same as any other tower defense game: Monsters with different attributes (some are incredibly fast, some fly, some are slow with high defense) crawl onto the screen toward the 20 Tiki-babies huddled up in your base hut, and it’s up to you to place the appropriate tower types in the appropriate tactical positions to keep the monsters from breaking through your defenses and snatching away your flock. You are eased into the fray through the tutorial and first couple stages, but after that the challenge begins to steadily ramp up stage by stage, even on the Casual difficulty setting. Maps go from having one easily identifiable monster spawning point to multiple entry paths on all sides. Monsters go from following predictable routes in manageable bunches to swarming the entire screen in erratic patterns. At certain points you will also be surprised by super-charged enemies that will move even faster or have a protective shield. You always need to be on your toes, unlocking new towers and upgrading existing ones, and looking ahead on the wave indicator bar so you’re ready to adjust your tower layout based on the type of monsters lurking ahead. Having direct control over the Tikiman also adds another subtle layer of strategy and challenge as you need to keep him moving back and forth across the map to manage turrets while carefully weaving in between the waves of critters, or else he’ll get hit and have his coin purse scattered about the map.

• Mouse? Gamepad? Who Needs ‘Em? Now that I have pretty much retired my old-and-replaced-too-many-times-to-count Xbox 360, I keep my 360 controller plugged into my PC pretty much all the time. In a strange twist of fate, when I booted the game up the controller was unplugged so I decided to push on and play with the inputs natural to PC gaming. Able digits plucking away at the arrow keys to move Tikiman around and the A, S, D, and F keys to place turrets and confirm/cancel actions are all you need here, thanks in large part to a super-simple ring menu interface which makes cycling through tower types and management options a breeze. The control scheme is so intuitive and streamlined that even controlling two Tikimen by yourself on the same keyboard in the local co-op mode requires little effort.

• Tikimen Who Dance Together, Win Together: PixelJunk Monsters is great as a single-player game, but it really shines in co-op (local and online). This is most evident in the game’s tower upgrade mechanic. Valuable jewels dropped from defeated monsters can be used to purchase instant upgrades, but these gems are also needed to unlock more powerful weapons for your turret arsenal, and thus must be spent wisely. Another way to boost a tower’s damage output and targeting radius, without blowing all your gems, is by standing the Tikiman over the tower so he can do his little tribal upgrade dance which gradually fills the tower’s progress bar towards the next rank. When two players team up and two Tikimen dance together over the same turret, the progress bar fills more rapidly. Of course, having two Tikimen roaming about the same map means that the two cooperating players also need to share the wealth when gold coins drop. If one player hogs all the coinage, the other player won’t be able to help much when it comes to buying additional towers. Thankfully, when playing online without voice chat, a clever chat system allows players to communicate via glyphs representing different actions you may want the other player to take. It’s like they thought of everything with this game!

Parting Thoughts: A lot has changed in the tower defense genre since PixelJunk Monsters first came around the block, and yet somehow the game is still as fun and fresh and charming as it was half a decade ago. I imagine some of you will take issue with such an “old” game selling for $20 on Steam, but it’s hard to argue the value when you step back and consider the volume of content provided and the quality and polish of the game’s design. Tower defense games simply don’t get any better than this.

Driving home from work the other night, I saw a bumper sticker on a nearby car that said, “When words fail, music won’t.”  At first that bumper sticker struck me as something akin to one of those bland, generic “Proud Parent of an Honor Student” stickers that every school seems to give out these days, boosting esteem for parents and kids that may not have really done much of anything to earn such an “honor.”  I was ready to write off the statement and continue my drive home, but the simple phrase wouldn’t leave my head.  It kept rattling around.  Music won’t fail.  Fail what, I thought?

While I can’t pretend to be a music scholar by any stretch, I have intentionally exposed myself to music from all around the world throughout the years just to prove to myself that the the typical dreck that is beamed over the airwaves here in America isn’t necessarily the absolute resting place that musicians and artists have devolved into.  Sure, there is probably some technical merit that can be awarded to some pop music and musicians, but listening to more than just pop is something that can awaken parts of the brain that may have not been challenged by the spark of creativity for many years.

Think about it.  Why is classical music still being performed live everyday around the world?  Soaking in the complexities of sound woven together while a conductor leads musicians through subtle nuance to brash bravado, our brains enjoy the challenge of hearing all types of sound and putting memories or feelings to each unique instrument and measured beat.  While not all music lovers will admit to enjoying or understanding every genre that musicians can offer up, time and again I’m reminded of footage from concerts of all types, where the camera pans through the crowd and you can see how the performance is touching and moving people in so many different ways.  Some folks close their eyes and let the music wash over them.  Others quietly bop their heads to the beat.  While others put their full bodies into the music and dance and cavort, or mimic the conductor.  Young or old, music doesn’t fail.

So what if someone made it possible to create your own sounds, your own music simply by flicking your wrist?  Q-Games has long been a champion of unique visual and audio experiences with the PixelJunk series of games.  PixelJunk 4am is the studio’s latest title for the PlayStation 3, combining the simplicity of using the Move to tweak and control music while producing some of the most fantastic visualizations that react in time to the music.  As the game opened, I was again struck by a notion similar to the aforementioned bumper sticker.  The opening credits state, “Art music collaboration by Baiyon.”  Art music.  In every sense of those two words, that is what 4am embodies.  Music is art and the art in 4am is created by the ever-changing moods and modes of the music composed by you, the player.

The setup is simple.  Each of the four face buttons represent a different color on the Move.  Holding down the T button while bringing the Move controller down and across from right to left starts a loop for which every instrument is lit up.  Holding the Move button and twisting the Move right or left changes the tone and intensity of that loop.  Swing the Move left, right, up or down, and additional sounds from that musical instrument briefly play.  Hold the T button when swinging to add that particular sound into the loop.  Holding down the Move button and pulling the Move further away from the PlayStation Eye (or moving it closer) changes the sound in yet another way.  Mix it up by pressing one of the other face buttons, and very quickly the sound field changes.  All the while the music is changing, so too are the visual motifs.  Pulsing colors, dripping splotches, swaying strings, the music and the visuals weave around and into each other for some amazing results.

One of the other great things about 4am is how easy it is to adjust or re-calibrate the Move controller. The game assumes that players are standing and in front of them is an imaginary circle. By keeping the Move within the bounds of the circle, nothing happens. Crossing the top or bottom, left or right of the circle is what produces the various sounds available from within each color of the Move. Bringing up the menu to change the effective area of the circle allows players to not have to reach so far to adjust or add sounds and loops to the music in progress. Changing the size of the circle also allows for players to sit and use the Move without worry. Of course, you might be wondering, why would you want to sit while being a virtual DJ for viewers across the globe? That’s the beauty of 4am. Halfway through a set, if I want to bring down the pace and mellow out for a bit, I can adjust the window in which the Move and the game responds and just chill for a bit.

In addition to being the music creator and a standalone visualizer for your personal PS3 music library, PixelJunk 4am goes one step further by broadcasting your performance to any and all who are currently playing the game around the globe. (Q-Games has even made the live viewer available to all for free.)  Viewers of my music show up briefly on the bottom left corner of the screen.  If they like my performance they can give a kudos by shaking their Move controller.  Getting kudos is one of the subtle hooks that kept me performing. I’ll admit that at times my music has come off like Jackson Pollock took all of the music and just poured it onto the canvas at once, but part of that is why 4am is titled as such.  Chaos and calm collide. At 4am I would expect to be asleep, but some nights sleep doesn’t happen and crazy thoughts and stress keep looping in my head.  The calm of sleep is pushed aside by thoughts that just won’t subside.  Kudos for chaos, and kudos for calm, and kudos for bringing the funk. I’ll admit that 4am leans a bit more on trance and electronic sounds over “pop” or classical, but in the real world being awake at 4am, the brain doesn’t necessarily respond or react to those styles of music.

PixelJunk 4am is proof that music doesn’t fail.  Okay, so I’m being a bit navel gazey here, but I can’t think of a time in my life where music hasn’t lifted my spirits or darkened my mood simply through the emotions and memories that familiar sounds trigger.  Being able to create my own loops and explore the medium just by flicking my hand is pretty powerful stuff. 4am offers players a chance to make music and to watch others make their own music in a truly innovative way.

Pros:
+ Quick and easy tool to make your own music
+ Mesmerizing visualizations
+ Live online viewing allows you to watch and be watched while music is created
+ Can be played standing or sitting

Cons:
– Sometimes getting out of a brash cacophony of sound is not as easy as it should be
– Music is mostly focused on techno/trance

Game Info:
Platform: PS3 via PSN (Requires PlayStation Move)
Publisher: SCEA
Developer: Q-Games
Release Date: 5/15/2012
Genre: Music
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Players: 1-2
Source: Review code provided by publisher

[nggallery id=2581]

I grew up in the foothills of a small town in Arizona in an era when arcades mattered.  The town had three arcades at one point, and there was always a giddy level of nervous joy when we would drive into town and I would get a chance to spend my hard earned quarters on the various units in the mall arcade. We didn’t get into town as often as my arcade craving hands wanted so it felt like every time we would go there were new joys to behold.  Lines were always too long or too many folks would crowd around the Street Fighter, TMNT or Simpson’s units, and that meant the titles that didn’t draw all the attention were the games I would have to play.  Time was always limited so as a kid if I wanted to play an arcade game, I’d have to play the ones that no one else seemed to be around.

Enter R-Type.  One seriously mesmerizing game.  Bullets, lasers, enemies everywhere.  Wicked looking art. I had to try it.  I put in a quarter and started through the corridor of bullets.  Boom.  Dead.  Hrm, maybe just a fluke death.  Put another quarter in.  Travel a little further.  Boom.  Death again.  One more quarter. Still only a few paces into the game death confronted me once again.  It was then that I made up my mind that bullet hell shooters (as I would learn the proper name years later) were fascinating to watch, but ones that I could not enjoy playing.  The sheer waves of mass bullets seemed impenetrable, and having nowhere to dodge just put me off.  Why waste quarters on something that caused so much stress so quickly?

I have avoided bullet hell shooters (AKA shoot ’em ups or shmups) pretty much ever since.  That was way back in 1988.  Then along comes Q-Games’ PixelJunk Shooter.  Mind you, that isn’t a bullet hell shooter, but it was the tipping point that slowly, stealthily endeared that which I had sworn off.  PJ Shooter was a fantastic game that ended with such a wonderful cliffhanger that I couldn’t wait til the inevitable sequel was released.  PJ Shooter 2 was released earlier this year and I was again enamored by the beauty of the gameplay.  Liquid physics crossed with a twin-stick shooter.  Wildly new liquid types that brought the first title’s ideas to a whole new level.  I was blissfully playing away and then found myself at the second boss.  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.  I’ve been duped.  I’m playing a damn bullet hell shooter while playing this boss.  Ummm… What though, I’m really enjoying this.  Holy crap the waves of bullets are a pattern.  Shit, this is easy!

It clicked.  I realized that bullet hell shooters aren’t evil.  You just have to be mindful of the bullets.  Doh. Of course.  That was my problem so long ago.  I was focused on the enemies and not the bullets.  Suddenly I found myself sinking in and becoming zen like with the bullets, dodging just enough all the while firing away assuming/hoping my bullets would hit the mark before the enemies’ bullets did.

Fast forward a few months and Q-Games announced the next PixelJunk title: SideScroller.  At first there were many folks who dismissed the game, because it looked too much like the Shooter titles.  But there were some very subtle changes that Q-Games were quick to point out.  Sure the game uses some elements from the Shooter titles, but this would be a traditional shoot ’em up.  Plus they were going to add some touches to make the game feel like a true retro arcade, by making the screen feel rounded as if you were looking at an old cabinet tube screen.

I started the game upon release last week with a little trepidation.  I’ve enjoyed all of the past Q-Games titles, but if they were going to go full on bullet hell, how much of their “Q touch” would be replaced by vast swarms of bullets?  I didn’t want to play the game thinking I would enjoy it and then find myself hating every second.  Starting the game, the menu prompts offer Casual, Normal and Hard (which is locked) difficulty options.  I didn’t want to start on Casual, because I felt it would be too easy.  So I began on Normal.  Three stages, but only the first one is unlocked.  Stage one, sector one unlocked.  Let’s do this.

Traditionally, PixelJunk games have had a branding decal with the PJ logo and game version centrally located at the bottom of the screen during gameplay.  Over the years folks have complained on forums how this little decal would eventually cause burn-in on ravenous fans’ TVs due to playing the games so much.  The first thing I noticed in playing SideScroller is a subtle thumb biting to all those complainers.  The white box with the PJ logo is now gone, replaced by a faint burned-in logo that now quietly sits along the bottom of the screen.  I love it.

As I played through the first level I spent more time looking at the level art and recognizing various enemies from the first two Shooter titles, and the next thing I knew the stage was complete.  Wait, was that a bullet hell game?  And I beat the level?  And I didn’t die?  OK.  I can do this! I rather quickly battled my way through the first sector of the game.  Sector Two and Three were unlocked.  I proceeded to move through the second set of stages without any real challenge.  Sure, I died along the way, but the checkpoint system Q-Games implemented throughout each stage lessened the frustration.

Some enemies drop power-ups that boost your weapons, and when you cross a checkpoint the state of your ship is saved. The ship you fly has three distinct weapons: Machine gun, laser and bombs.  Leveling up through power-ups adds more directional shots and more power bursts to each weapon.  The weapons can be swapped out on the fly to help defeat different types of enemies as they appear throughout the stages.  Cross a checkpoint and the weapon levels remain if you lose a life.  This is an awesome idea.  What is also awesome is that if you die completely the game lets you continue from the last check point.  Restarting from a checkpoint resets the weapon powers, but that only challenges you to not die so that you keep your weapons powered as fully as possible for the end of each stage.

Going from stage to stage, your weapons reset back to basic, but there are enough power-ups that drop that leveling them up becomes an incentive to keep moving through the levels.  Artistically, each Section feels a bit different, either the hues change or the wire-frame vector art changes in the background to give a sense of new unexplored areas.

As with prior PixelJunk titles, Q-Games has included a feature for recording gameplay and uploading videos to YouTube.  I’ve always enjoyed this feature and found myself recording pretty much every moment of my gaming experience. (Watch my SideScroller gameplay videos here.) Typically my footage on YouTube gets very little traffic, but I’ve found that this week’s gaming has garnered more views and even comments.  The best part, though, is all of the comments are basically about how bad I am at playing the game.

I admit I’m probably not the top player, but my rankings per stage aren’t at the bottom.  That’s the other key point to SideScroller.  This game is designed to feel like an arcade game.  Scoring is key and the leaderboard is what keeps drawing me back for more.  I played for a while the first night it was released and found my name constantly in the top 40.  In the world.  How awesome and humbling is that?  I fire up the game on Saturday and already my score has been bested numerous times over and my ranking has quickly fallen.  I want to be back at the top.  Points are based on how many enemies you can kill in a row to keep a combo going.  The longer the combo, the higher the points.  Additionally, throughout the levels are three hidden crowns. Collect all three to earn major bonus points.

The game oozes charm and style which extends out to the titles for the trophies.  The titles for the trophies are some of the best cultural references I’ve seen applied to any game.  After beating the final stage, the trophy “So Long, and Thanks for All the Bullets” pops.  “You are the Pris to My Roy” is a loving nod to Blade Runner.  “You Make Me Wish I had Three Hands” is funny nod to Total Recall. Or “Great Kid, Don’t get cocky” is earned for beating the game on Brutal, which doesn’t unlock until you’ve finished the game on Hard. There is so much replay to this game, but by the time the hard stuff really kicks in, the charm and beauty of the game will have won you over and the stiffer difficulties won’t feel so overwhelming.  One final thing to note is after beating the final stage a wonderful little sequence unfolds paying homage to the ship from the Shooter series, giving it an almost “Was it all just a dream” sorta vibe.  For a bit of a spoiler click here.

Typical to PixelJunk titles, SideScroller offers co-op in the form of local couch play.  Even playing with my son on casual with local co-op the game is fun (I didn’t want to completely turn him off from playing and enjoying bullet hell shooters at the same age I was turned off from them).  Aside from a shared pool of lives, co-op adds to the chaos as more bullets or lasers fly about the already frantic screen, which adds another layer of enjoyment to the game.

PixelJunk SideScroller is a game that should be experienced.  Many subtle touches bring out a true arcade experience from the comfort of your own couch, and the tight controls meshed with the bright wire frame graphics bring bullet hell gaming to the masses.  Difficulties slowly ramp up to bring players unfamiliar to the genre into a world that pulsates with fantastic music performed by High Frequency Bandwidth, with an abundance of replay value and leaderboard challenges to keep the diehard shmup fans coming back for more.

Pros:
+ Unique wire frame art
+ Checkpoint system removes much frustration
+ Music adds another layer of awesomesauce

Cons:
– Shared lives in co-op
– Restart from death means powered up weapons are gone

Game Info:
Platform: PS3 via PSN
Publisher: SCEA
Developer: Q-Games
Release Date: 10/25/2011
Genre: Shoot-‘Em-Up
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Players: 1-2
Source: Review code provided by publisher

[nggallery id=2113]

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:

Q-Games’ brilliant PS3 tower defense game PixelJunk Monsters is on its way to PSP this fall as PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe, a “remixed” port of the original PJ Monsters — plus all the PJ Monsters Encore content — newly expanded with exclusive new content just for the PSP. What’s being added, you ask? How about a whole new island with over 10 brand new levels, two new tower types, new music, new unlockable bonus content, and of course, new monsters. The PSP version will also support co-op play locally and online. Sounds like a winner to me.

PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe – The Biggest Version Yet is Portable [PlayStation.Blog]

Watching this new PixelJunk Eden trailer all by itself, I honestly have no idea what’s going on, but in some strange way it’s completely mesmerizing to behold. To me it looks like microscopic organisms jumping and flinging around some psychedelic underwater garden, which I discovered after reading the fact sheet isn’t too far off what the game actually is. Watch with me now.

[gv data=”/wp-content/uploads/Games/PixelJunkEden/Trailers/PJ Eden SCEA PSDay.flv” width=”416″ height=”352″][/gv]

PixelJunk Eden Fact Sheet

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. (SCEA)
Developer: Q-Games Ltd.
Platform: PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3) via PLAYSTATION®Network
Genre: Organic Platformer
Release: Summer 2008
Rating: TBD

OVERVIEW
Welcome to the garden of PixelJunk Eden, a refreshingly different platform game wrapped in a vibrant world exclusively on PS3. In PixelJunk Eden, the latest downloadable entry to the PixelJunk series from developer Q-Games, living and luminous plant-life grows in real-time to form a lively stage. In this constantly evolving environment, players control a small creature called a “Grimp” (from “grip” and “jump”) to explore a dynamic setting alive with color and sound. By smashing into enemies, the player releases batches of pollen that can help the lush alien plants change and grow. As they develop, players can leap, swing and soar between them to get further through the undergrowth and gather all the bundles of energy and light from the level before the time available runs out.

PixelJunk Eden is the third game in Q-Games’ PixelJunk series, which blends simple, addictive gameplay with crisp and attractive graphics designed for optimal viewing in full 1080p High Definition (HD)*.

KEY FEATURES
Distinctive Visuals and Music – Features 10 unique stages with stylishly designed graphics and original music from award-winning Japanese artist Baiyon.
Dynamic Animations and Effects – Organic growth animations for each plant, plus environmental and particle effects bring the setting to life and keep it constantly evolving.
Rumble Support – Feel the thrilling effects of clinging, attacking and falling from plants.
Trophy and Online Support – Players can compete for trophies and track single player and co-op high scores on the online leaderboards.
Remote Play – Supports Remote Play for PSP® system.