Tower defence is a genre of games that has a plethora of titles, which spawns across a multitude of devices and consoles, and even social networking sites. Many of them are similar and average, and overlooking new titles of such a genre is easily done. PixelJunk Monsters: Ultimate HD, however, is not a title you should miss and is one of the standout exclusives to the Sony platform you should own.
This is a HD upgrade of the 2009 PSP game, PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe, with some added features for the Vita system.
The premise of the game is simple; you play as Tikiman, an adorably cutely designed character, with the objective of protecting the even cuter Tikibabies from being eaten by the waves of monsters trekking their way through each of the landscapes. Using Gold, earned through defeating monsters or found in the surrounding trees, you must build cannons for ground enemies, air enemies or both in an effort to thwart the monsters plan to devour the adorable babies.
One of my favourite things about this game is the presentation. The graphics and music blend together perfectly, and create such a satisfying and delightful experience to play. The art style, as mentioned above, is all very cutely drawn and animated, with areas themed in forestry, sandy beaches and mountainous rocky cliffs. It all has a very unique and happy feel to it, with the Tikiman being a fun and silent little protagonist to control, the Tikibabies being adorable critters to watch over and the monsters being obscure, bizarre, and sometimes creepy creatures to fight. For me personally, I just found the art direction to fantastic and so well suited to the vita’s screen.
But by far, the highlight of the game for me was its soundtrack. Composed by, “Otograph,” a Japanese electronic music group, the music in this game is phenomenal. Complementing the bubbly art style, the score is very peaceful, pleasant and whimsical. It’s very easy on the ears and for a game that demands strategic thought, it fits in perfectly, with calming and catchy melodies. I found myself pausing the game quite often and turning up the volume to just to sit there and listen, it was just so wonderfully sublime. Simply bursting with charm and personality, it instantly became one of my favourite soundtracks, and made the game tremendously entertaining.
Thankfully, the gameplay certainly isn’t lacking either. PixelJunk Monsters is definitely one of my favourite takes on the genre of Tower Defence. As I mentioned above, you use Gold to change the surrounding trees into various different towers and turrets, and collect gems that can be used for either upgrading your towers, or purchasing a new type of weapon, such as an ice turret to help slow down your foes. Alternatively, you can upgrade your defences by standing beside them, and watching Tikiman do an adorable little dance.
The game doesn’t play at a fast pace, meaning you can scout out your area and make strategic guesses as to where you should place everything. Once the battle begins, it’ll have you in a flood of emotions. One second you’ll be cheering yourself on as you watch an armada of enemies fall and you achieve the coveted Rainbow ranking in each stage, but then you’ll be heartbroken as you watch sneaky shielded creatures casually stroll by your armaments and see your Tikibabies disappear one by one. It’s quite odd how easy it is to get invested in the gameplay, and it certainly pays off when you perfect clear a round, giving a wonderful sense of accomplishment from outsmarting the swarms of monsters.
Online Co-op mode is also a delight to play and quite easy to get set up in. With my experience of the game, I played with a friend, and it made for some exhilarating fun. You can play through any of the single player levels, and when you get into a groove with your partner, the game becomes an easy challenge to master. The enjoyment of the game is not diminished and is only doubled with a partner. There were some elements of lag throughout most of the matches; however it was nothing game breaking, and was only a minor annoyance on an otherwise thrilling online session.
For once with a game, I’m hard pressed to find some minor nit-picking issues. I had genuinely enjoyable experience playing through it, and was surprised at how quickly I grew to love. However, it’s not without its minor flaws here and there. One of the new features boasted about for the vita were the touchscreen controls, however I felt that they were somewhat gimmicky. You need to be somewhat precise with your presses, and scrolling through the tower menu and running across the screen with touch just felt somewhat awkward and fiddly, but is thankfully remedied by the tight controls of buttons and analogues.
PixelJunk Monsters: Ultimate HD is a game not suited to everyone’s tastes, and with the steep difficultly spikes throughout the game, it certainly isn’t the friendliest to newcomers. However, for those willing to give this a try, a game an addictively enjoyable game is presented, with challenging gameplay, over 70 levels to tackle, and hours upon hours of replay value, this is an absolute breath taking little gem of a game worthy of gracing your handhelds library. At €13 on the PlayStation store, it’s a reasonable price to pay for one of the most entertaining games I’ve played in a while, that’s perfectly suited to the handheld, pick-up and play style.
90/100