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PixelJunk 4am out this spring, spectator mode detailed
Q-Games' music thing, PixelJunk 4am, will be available this spring on the PlayStation Network. It's been a rough road trying to describe the "game" to the masses, so the developer will be holding a public preview next week in San Francisco. PixelJunk 4am Art & Music Director DJ Baiyon, who was also responsible for the music in PixelJunk Eden, will be there to perform, and there'll be free play for everyone.The PlayStation Blog has also detailed how the spectator mode will work for the game. A free app will be available on the PSN for everyone, and allow them to "stream any live performances currently happening worldwide." Players will be able to follow their favorite performers and provide feedback through those fancy social networking sites, like the Twitters and Facebooks.Hopefully, the GDC performance will finally give us the audio-visual opportunity to properly encapsulate the feeling of 4am.
PixelJunk Eden leaps to Steam with Encore included
The prominent PlayStation PixelJunk franchise went to Facebook with PixelJunk Monsters Online, and now the series' acrobatic trip-tastic platformer, PixelJunk Eden, is coming to Steam.Available next week, on February 2, the main game will include the "Encore" DLC expansion, and the full chemically augmented soundtrack by Baiyon will be sold separately [Ed. note: Finally!]. The regular price will be $10 for the game and $6 for the (17 song) soundtrack, but both items will be discounted 20 percent for a limited time after launch."Lots of stuff is new – the main cool feature is that your Grimp (the little character you control) now has the ability to warp back to his last resting position!" Q-Games' Dylan Cuthbert said of added features in the Steam version. "It uses a little bit of your energy but if you're careful you no longer have to worry about missing an important jump – fall too far, just hit space and warp back.""Also, rather than having to collect all the Spectra (these are the objects that let you grow your main garden) repeatedly we now save your progress in each garden, so you can just start from the last Spectra you grabbed when you go back in."Hurray for Eden taking away its buzzkill elements! It's all about the flow, man.%Gallery-145799%
PixelJunk Monsters Facebook ready for wave after wave of players
PixelJunk Monsters Online, the first entry in the PixelJunk franchise not to appear on PlayStation devices, is now in open beta on Facebook. Announced over the summer, PixelJunk Monsters Online is based on the PSN tower defense game, which has sold over 500,000 units. Now you can play it while waiting for TPS reports to collate. PJO features the tower defense gameplay of the original along with a world map, and sees players defending their lands from waves of monsters. The objective is to collect gold and gems to expand territory and defend more tiles -- of course, your friends will be doing the same. That's when the fighting starts, followed by nasty Facebook messages, and eventually it culminates in a peace accord over buffalo wings at T.G.I. Fridays. %Gallery-141974%
Pixeljunk Sidescroller's launch trailer blows up a lot of stuff
Q-Games fans looking to get their hands on the studio's latest, PixelJunk Sidescrollers, will get a chance to shoot a lot of stuff on October 25. In the meanwhile, it seems we must all be content with watching things get shot in this launch trailer.
PixelJunk SideScroller moves right into PSN on Oct. 25
Q-Games' PixelJunk SideScroller will fly from left to right onto the North American PSN next week. The October 25 launch date comes from Q-Games' Twitter feed (which scrolls vertically). SideScroller is the latest downloadable title from the talented developer of PixelJunks Shooter, Eden and Racer. The studio is also working on PixelJunk 4AM (formerly Lifelike), which we've managed to encapsulate as such: "You have to play it to understand it!" %Gallery-131153%
Pixeljunk 4am's cube of sound
"You have to play it to understand it!" That's about as big a cop-out as I could possibly conjure up, but if I learned anything from my half-hour, hands-off demo of PixelJunk Lifelike during E3, it's absolutely true of this particular game. It's devoid of pretense, tutorial or any semblance of a UI, simply asking the player to grab a PlayStation Move remote and, you know, make music happen. The stars aligned after I had a chance to try out Q-Games' curious music generator -- now titled Pixeljunk 4am -- during Fantastic Arcade, while two of my contemporaries listened in to my on-the-fly composition. While the tunes I created couldn't be considered "club bangers" by anyone with two functioning ears, the game's mechanisms revealed themselves completely during my demonstration: It is, at its recondite core, a game about pulling techno-sounds out of an imaginary space-cube. Yeah, describing this is going to be tough.
Time for a change: PixelJunk Lifelike is now PixelJunk 4am
You might have thought Q-Games' gestural PlayStation Move music generation and visualization game, PixelJunk Lifelike, couldn't possibly be any weirder. As if taking that unspoken feeling as a challenge, Q-Games just renamed it PixelJunk 4am. It's not necessarily so random. "4am represents the exact mood and feeling we've captured," 4am musician and collaborator Baiyon said in the announcement. "4am is that deep night hour. In clubs, the music drifts to a new level entering a deepened state that often seems removed from reality." To help you bring the concept in line with your own reality, you can view the trailer above and even check out an interactive teaser thing here.
Deja Review: Star Fox 64 3D
We're of the firm opinion that your time is too precious, too valuable to be spent reading a full review for a game that was already reviewed many, many years ago. What's the point of applying a score to a game that's old enough to be enrolled in the sixth grade? That's why we invented Deja Review: A quick look at the new features and relative agelessness of remade, revived and re-released games. If you've spent any time with the Nintendo 3DS -- especially if that time was spent with the handheld's aeronautical launch title, Pilotwings Resort -- you're probably aware that flying games are right in this handheld's wheelhouse. Moving forward through the sky as objects and other pilots move towards, around and behind you looks invariably dope with the 3D slider turned on; this law is no less incontrovertible in the system's latest first-party remake: Star Fox 64 3D. But games can't live on dopeness alone -- they need meat on their bones as well. Star Fox has no lack of content, but if you owned the Nintendo 64 original and thoroughly explored its brief and branching campaign back in 1997, you've probably seen that content plenty of times before. Much like Ocarina of Time 3D before it, Star Fox 64 3D is banking on a single bulletpoint to earn your purchase: You've never seen that content quite like this.%Gallery-128694%
Kinect bundles include Child of Eden for a limited time
Considering buying a Kinect for the express purpose of entering the techno-organic wonderland of Child of Eden? Microsoft has just made that process about $50 easier, by bundling a download code for the game with specially marked Kinect sensors. According to Major Nelson, the new bundle will be priced identically to the current $150 Kinect package, will still include Kinect Adventures, and will be released in "limited quantities." You can get it in any region except Japan, because Child of Eden has yet to be released there. From a consumer perspective, this is a fantastic deal, allowing easy and cheap access to what is most certainly the best Kinect game. From Microsoft's perspective, it seems a bit weird to use a game that didn't exactly light up retail as an incentive. Maybe it realized that more people need to play this.
See every side of PixelJunk Sidescroller
In case you frequently get confused by the series name, PixelJunk games often turn out not to be junk at all. In fact, in a bizarre twist, they're often quite good. They always look good, as you can see for yourself in this trailer for Q-Games' new PSN shooter, PixelJunk Sidescroller. Or Neon Gradius, as we're calling it. Even the logo shows influence from Konami's series. As Gradius-inspired shooters go, this one is a lot easier to take in than Otomedius.%Gallery-131153%
Browser-based Pixeljunk Monsters coming later this year
Yesterday, during the Casual Connect conference, Q-Games' Jesse Venbrux revealed the new browser-based PixelJunk Monsters game, the first PixelJunk game not to be tied to a PlayStation platform. A press release from Q-Games offered just a bit more information about the upcoming game, which appears to be officially titled PixelJunk Monsters: Social Network Version. The browser version will be free-to-play when it launches this year. As seen in the first screenshot, it features a new world map. Speaking of screenshots, Q-Games included a couple more, which we've placed in the browser-based, free-to-play gallery below.%Gallery-128965%
PixelJunk Monsters migrating to browsers
As the nation's nerd and nerd-adjacent humans sully themselves with the masses at Comic-Con, attractive casual game developers are wining and dining at Casual Connect in Seattle. Sandwiched in between said wining and simultaneous dining are talks like the one today from Q-Games designer Jesse Venbrux. As promised last week, Venbrux unveiled the new Q-Games project: A browser-based PixelJunk Monsters game. According to PSN Stores, the new version of the tower defense title will feature a less linear design, smaller levels, new towers and monsters and, of course, additional social features to compliment services like Facebook. From what little information is available, it seems like there's little that won't be revamped in the browser that is, for the moment, untitled.
Q-Games showing new game at Casual Connect next week
On July 21, during the Casual Connect conference, developer Jesse Venbrux will reveal a new project he's working on at Q-Games, creators of the PixelJunk series as well as X-Scape, Trajectile and other DSiWare games. Q-Games head Dylan Cuthbert teased the upcoming announcement on Twitter, sharing the above screenshot. We declare it to be ... adorable! Before joining Q-Games, Venbrux created the Karoshi series of suicide puzzle-platformers, as well as They Need to Be Fed for iOS, Android, and PSP (which is the main focus of the presentation). It seems safe to assume that this new project will be somehow classifiable as "casual," given the venue.
Iwata Asks how Miyamoto learned English
Beyond founding Q-Games and helping to father the PixelJunk series, Dylan Cuthbert has done some other extraordinary things in his years working in the game industry. He recounts some of those adventures in a recent Iwata Asks column, woefully exclusive to Japanese readers for now, but thankfully summarized by Andriasang. But why is Cuthbert appearing in an Iwata Asks ... you ask? Because he helped create several of Nintendo's major Star Fox titles, of course (including the original), and he's heading up development of Star Fox 64 3D as director. Cuthbert actually didn't work on the Nintendo 64 title, as he had left Nintendo and was busy working on Blasto for Sony's PlayStation at the time. Also detailed in the piece is an interesting fact about how Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto learned how to speak English. When Cuthbert began working at Nintendo, he had only a rudimentary grasp on the Japanese language -- after initially impressing staff during a visit when he was 18 to show off a 3D Game Boy engine, he was hired on, regardless of language skills. Miyamoto had an equally unimpressive grasp on English at the time, and it seems that the two worked together to help each other out. Miyamoto is said to have had a particularly hard time in by of with prepositions. We feel your pain.
PixelJunk Sidescroller preview: Normal is Hard
Though I wouldn't characterize any of Q-Games' titles as being especially easy, none possess the penchant for punishment boasted by the recently announced PixelJunk Sidescroller. That's fairly appropriate, considering the hellacious difficulty barriers that are customary for the shoot-em-up genre. Still, it's tough to stop and smell the audiovisual roses that pepper the stylish developer's games when you're also concerned with weaving through wall after wall of small, spherical bullets. Preparing myself for a somewhat relaxing synesthetic experience, my decision at PixelJunk Sidescroller's difficulty screen was absentminded: "Normal should be fine," I said, with unknowing hubris. It was far from fine. %Gallery-125576%
PixelJunk lifelike preview: Mad Maestro
The half-hour long uninterrupted PixelJunk lifelike preview shown to E3 attendees was prefaced with virtually no introduction or explanation, save for Q-Games founder Dylan Cuthbert explaining to the crowd that the game which was about to be demonstrated is not a game, so that we logically shouldn't expect any gameplay. He also added -- before handing the reins to PixelJunk Eden composer Baiyon -- that the studio's unique music generator/visualizer could only be understood by seeing it in action. However, if there was any elucidation to be gained by the bewildering, psychedelic 30 minutes which followed, it sailed far, far over my head.
PixelJunk SideScroller coming to PS3
Well this seems like an odd omission. A new title from Q Games, PixelJunk SideScroller, is in the works but Sony didn't see fit to mention it during its otherwise pretty damn great press conference. What would "pretty damn great" plus "a new PixelJunk" have rated the presser? We'll never know. The shooter features two-player local co-op and a look that's not too dissimilar to the aesthetic of PixelJunk Shooter. Makes sense, you know, what with all the shooting.
PSN devs offer mixed reactions to cost of outage
As consumers scramble to deal with the ramifications (identity theft!) of the PlayStation Network breach and subsequent outage, PSN developers are struggling with anxieties of their own. "PSN being out definitely affects our bottom line," Q-Games Dylan Cuthbert told IndustryGamers, "but as long as the people who were going to be playing Shooter 2 and other PixelJunk titles will get right back in there playing them when it comes back up, we'll be happy and hopefully income won't be dented too much." That could prove to be a big "but" -- Cuthbert's comments came before we knew PSN users' personal information had been stolen and consumer trust in Sony perhaps irrevocably damaged. Speaking to Develop, a UK-based developer, wishing to remain anonymous, observed that "people will be a bit more wary about using their credit card on PSN, so obviously we're nervous about sales." "There may be a lot of people who won't want to spend their money through PlayStation Network now," the same developer added. "We're expecting a 5–10 percent drop in business." The dev estimated that the studio has already lost "thousands" in expected revenue.
PixelJunk Shooter 2 review: If it ain't broke, add multiplayer
Sequel design 101: Make your game bigger. Given one of the only complaints fans had with the original PixelJunk Shooter was its length, the explosion of content in the sequel makes sense. Over a year in the making, Shooter 2 has bigger bosses, bigger levels and a bigger feature set. But, bigger doesn't always equal better; while Shooter 2 will keep fans busy, it's one of the few "disappointments" from the studio's otherwise impeccable portfolio. The most significant addition to the Shooter formula is the new competitive multiplayer feature. I was skeptical at first, doubtful that PvP would be able to retain the game's unique charm. I was proven wrong with my first online battle. The subtle changes to the core mechanics make for an interesting game of cat-and-mouse. Just like in the main game, you must rescue survivors. But, in versus mode, there's someone else hellbent on rescuing more of them than you. Each of the maps offer different strategic options, taking advantage of the unique liquidity of the game's levels. Risk maneuvering through an active volcano to avoid enemy fire, for example. Or, try having a shootout in the water, to avoid heating up. Flashier players may even try to steal survivors from an enemy base.%Gallery-118677%
Second PixelJunk Shooter 2 'survivor' video just as weird as the first
Care to watch a a Q-Games developer talk about medication, bathroom usage and Thai curry tacos? Yes, it's another PixelJunk Shooter 2 "Survivor Files" video, and it's just as bizarre as the series' last installment. Perhaps even more so, which we didn't know was possible.
