It’s not every day that you come across a charming real-time strategy game, yet that’s what you have with Pixal Junk Monsters. To give you some idea, this game was clearly designed for the Japanese market. The plan to get them more involved into RTS games, which for some reason have never really been adopted in Japan. Don’t worry though, this game is available for download, in English and not Japanese, from the European Playstation Store, all for £4.49.
This is the Pixal Junk teams second outing on the Playstation Store, their first effort was the accomplished Pixal Junk Racers, which you may or may not have played. Although its quite a change to go from a racing game to a RTS, Monsters is actually quite good. Its main features is that it is simple, challenging and addictive. A combination that ensures you will spend a good deal of time on this game, hours flew by on one session and I hardly even noticed. And importantly, for the most part it was an enjoyable experience.
The game itself involves the protection of your little group of small creatures, who are centralised around a single building in the middle of the map. You control a larger creature who you can move around the map and interact with different aspects, though you have ZERO combat ability. The maps themselves are of a reasonable size and are covered in trees, which as you might expect, might drop money or ‘gems’ as you walk under them. Monsters, of many different varieties, arrive from different areas of the map. If any of these mean and nasty monsters reaches your building, they take one of your little creatures and disappear. As you may expect, you lose if all your creatures are taken. However, they need not fear, after all they have you as their gallant defender!
This is the whole of the almost non-existent story line, one of the main disappointments of the game. So how do I stop these monsters I hear you ask... simple really, using money you start with and collect from fallen enemies (naturally), you convert the trees into defensive towers of various kinds. This is where the game turns into a rock/paper/scissors type scenario. With the different towers having specific advantages and disadvantages over the different types of monsters. These monsters attack in ‘waves’, with each ‘wave’ containing a single type of monster, the game is won when you have defeated the final ‘boss’ monster, with at least one of your own little creatures left alive.
The controls are simple and work well. You move with the analogue stick or d-pad, and press X when you approach the towers, trees or your building to access the respective options. They do not take long to get used to and they will soon become second nature. This does not mean this is an easy game by any means. Very quickly you will need multiple play through to learn the monsters waves so you can prepare your defences accordingly.
The graphics are solid, everything is crisp, clear and very smooth. There are a few nice touches that are noticed which add to the game, but this is not one you will remember just for its looks. Same with the sound, it does the job, no more, no less.
The game does also contain an offline co-op mode, which is quite some fun and can help you get past levels you were unable to do by yourself. As for online features, there is the now standard leader board, but that’s about it.
