E3 2011 Hands-On: Pixeljunk Sidescroller - Preview
by Karl Koebke , posted on 11 June 2011 / 3,152 Views
Pixeljunk Shooter and Shooter 2 were great games all about exploring and the way in which different elements can interact with one another but I don’t think anyone would call them difficult. These games sidestepped the norm for twin stick shooters and went for a sense of wonder over a sense of tension. Seems Pixeljunk wants to prove they can do just fine making tension as well and have made a true SHMUP in the Shooter world called Pixeljunk Sidescroller.
Pixeljunk Sidescroller is a left to right side scrolling shooter set in the world of Pixeljunk Shooter. This means that all of your favorite fluids will make a return and the Sony representative promised me that you would revisit all the environments from the Shooter series and be interacting with all the fluids though some would be re-imagined for the focus on combat over exploration.
The level I played was a pixilated version of the common cave levels in Shooter. Three weapons were available to switch between: missiles, cannon, and a laser and each could be individually upgraded through pickups throughout the level. Music is done by the same group as for Shooter 2 so fans should feel right at home. The fluid mechanics remained the same and even the overheating of your ship and cooling it down with water was there except that you never seemed to naturally cool down and water was not nearly as plentiful. So you don’t die instantly with every hit (thank god) and water turns into a health pick up instead of the ever present safety net it seemed to be in Shooter.
One thing to make obvious is this game is straight up SHMUP and with that comes the requisite bullet hell. Even in the first demo level I played I died quite a few times in one room where they locked me in with three orbs shooting out an almost unfair number of reflecting bullets. There are checkpoints throughout the level but like the old days you only have a certain number of lives so gameover screens are very much possible.
I also got to try (and fail) a boss fight. The boss was similar to one from Shooter 2 but all of the abilities had changed. Fields of interlacing bullets shot out of his mouth that I had to weave my way through, and rocks fell from the ceiling. If I could say anything disappointing about it I’d say that there wasn’t any clever little trick to the boss fight like there were in Shooter. This is mostly because it’s a different style of game, but it would’ve been fun if the fluids had been used for the boss fight as well. Then again I died after a couple minutes so maybe later in the boss fight it changes up to include some fluids.
Another E3 attendee tried out the other demo level which was set in one of the mechanical environments from shooter, but that one was apparently even tougher than what I played because he died extremely quickly. Could just be that I’m awesome though, I’ll have to let you know when I get the full game. A two player coop mode was an option on the demo but there was only one controller so I didn't get to try that out for myself.
It’s certainly a departure from the other games set in that world but I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily a bad thing. Even though I died so much I cried myself to sleep in the hotel that night I still enjoyed the challenge. I look forward to much swearing and maybe a bit of a feeling of victory when the game releases on PSN later this year. I’ll just have to make sure and save up for a replacement controller, just in case.
