Pixeljunk Shooter

The Pixeljunk games by some have been regarded as some of the better PSN games available.  I have not been one of those people.  I never really enjoyed myself playing any of the games and honestly wasn't expecting much from Shooter.  I was one of many who thought Pixeljunk Shooter and Gravity Crash both looked very similair in gameplay...and seeing as I disliked Gravity Crash, my hope for Shooter went down even farther.  However when I found that the two games were highly different from one another I decided to give Shooter a shot...what I found, was one of the better PSN games released this year.

 

Shooter is a bit of a misnomer for this game.  Sure you do some shooting but this game is a big rescue mission.  You pilot a ship flying through a planet that is being mined to find...well I'm not sure as to what exactly the point of this mining trip is but you need to go rescue the survivors.  There is a story here.  It's nothing ground breaking but for a PSN title it's what it needs to be.  There are three Episodes and about 5-6 levels in each episode.  Each level contains survivors you need to rescue in order to continue as well as special diamonds that'll open up the boss stage of each episode.  The story progresses as you rescue special survivors that wave around different colored flags. These survivors often foreshadow events to come.  Some talk about strange markings as warning signs of some giant creature waiting for them....the usual.

 

It's the gameplay however that'll have you in love.  You'll traverse through a valcano, ice cave and a mining area.  Thus finding yourself in contact with magma, water, ice, oil, rock and much much more.  You'll have to use these different materials to your advantage in order to advance.  Water and magma together will harden into rock while water and oil together will turn into gas.  This creates a pretty deep gameplay mechanic and really gives you this feeling that you're rescueing someone as you dig through layers of rock and magma just to free one little guy screaming for help.

 

There is some shooting in this game however.  You'll find the planet is home to many bat like creatures as well as enemies that'll release bags of water and magma upon your poor defenseless ship.  None of these are all that dificult to handle but do help to at least offer up a little bit of variety in the game.  Which brings us to the boss fights.

 

With three boss fights in the game Shooter nails everyone of them.  Each boss fight will have you shooting at different weaknesses that make themselves apparent while also dodging their attacks.  The boss fights don't take advantage of the fluid dynamics which is a bit of a bummer but they're still plenty of fun and some of the better portions of the game.

 

Shooter isn't all happy fun times and joy....the game ends way too fast and to be honest I hate that the inevitable "encore" pack will probably be the real ending.  While I don't feel ripped off and Shooter was definitely worth the value I don't know if I'll jump once the DLC hits.  This along with the fact that I feel Q Games misses out on a great opportunity to expand on an otherwise great fluid mechanic.  The game does also offer a multiplayer component but I didn't feel that it changed the gameplay all that much other than allowing you and a buddy to play through the levels together. Pixel Junk Shooter is a great game and one you should be adding to your PSN collection soon if not immediately.