pixeljunk

Well this turned out to be disappointing. As a big fan of the original PixelJunk Monsters, this sequel with its incredibly pretty clay graphics (rather than the somewhat minimal ones seen in the first game) was a certain buy. I’d played the demo and yep – it was great.

Sadly, the demo didn’t make clear the horrific loading times. Starting a level? Wait for ages. Want to restart? Wait for ages. Complete a level? Wait for ages. And I mean ages. Literally several minutes in some cases. The entire game took less time to download and install than it takes to restart a level. That can’t be right, can it?

And although loading times aren’t the end of the world, they certainly make a difference between “oh I’ve screwed this up, restart!” and “oh I’ve screwed this up, off it goes!”. Why no instant restart? Exactly why does the game need to load all the assets in again even though they’re already loaded? It’s frustrating and kills the fun.

Perhaps the loading times are there to bulk out the game, as there aren’t many levels here either. Around 20 in total, which doesn’t seem nearly enough for a tower defence game, especially since many of the maps look like they were intended to be reused (with blocked off routes opened up) but never are.

Thankfully, the actual game itself is still as good as it ever was. It’s just a shame it’s been hobbled in between the good bits.

The post PixelJunk Monsters 2 (Switch): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Last time I completed a PS3 game, I asked “Now, what do I spend my remaining £3.80-ish on?”. Well, here’s the answer – PixelJunk Monsters. And, since it was really cheap, I got Hungry Giraffe too. And still have 22p left for Sony to steal.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been playing Monsters off and on. Usually one level at a time, and usually this takes about 20-30 minutes. And you know what? It’s the best Tower Defence game I’ve ever played. I don’t know what makes it the best, but it’s really simple, I like the slightly wonky graphical style, and it’s nice to have a Tower Defence game with a definite end.

There’s one level I simply can’t do (you only have four trees – with each tree a starting point for a tower) so constantly have to sell and buy towers to fit the incoming swarms. No matter how hard I try, I can’t do it. Not that it matters, as there’s more than one route to the end on the game map, and I opened up all the big stone gate things without it.

Not much else to say, really. It’s just very nice. And yes, I am 5 or 6 years late to the party as that’s how old it is. Tch.