I picked up two new games for my PS3 the other day because the girlfriend is busying away on the 360 with Dead Rising so I had to find something else to play in the mean time. I contemplated whether I was going to write up about Heavenly Sword or PixelJunk Monsters first and as you can see by the title, I chose Monsters. I’ve probably put more time and effort into it anyways.
It’s not a new game, so you probably already know about it, but if you don’t it’s a Tower Defense game. Desktop Tower Defense is probably the most notable TD game ever made, but this one is quite different actually. For one, there are different levels with set paths for the enemies; secondly, you can only build towers on top of trees; lastly, you control a character that has to run around to pick up money, gems and plant towers. So, unfortunately for you Desktop Tower Defense experts, your skills won’t really transfer over.
But PixelJunk Monsters is really quite interesting. It took me a few plays to really get into, but each level truly requires a different strategy. Because you are limited to where there are already trees to place down new pieces, you have to be clever with what you place down and what you upgrade. It will surely take several attempts just to clear some levels, let alone perfect them.
The fact that you are controlling a character instead of able to just place wherever you want at any given time changes things up a lot to. It takes you time to get to a new place to put down a tower so you have to plan where you’re going to put what. You also have to be watching the enemies your towers are defeating because if you want to pick up the money/gems they drop you have to physically be there.
The gems are another thing I’m not quite sold on. As you get gems you can use them to level up towers (which can also be done by dancing on towers for extended periods of time) or to buy new tower types. Once you’ve bought a new tower type you are then able to place that tower down just like any other (which all cost money to place of course).
In the early levels you’ll find yourself thinking it’s impossible to buy new towers because you just don’t get that many gems. So you have to really plan out one tower to buy and use the rest of the gems for upgrading. But as the levels go on you’ll find yourself with more and more gems so it makes more sense to buy new towers to help stop the onslaught of enemies.
My biggest complaint is controlling the guy. He is so freakin slow it can be really painful at times as you watch yourself miss things. In fact, the whole game moves really slow. The time between towers firing shots seems like forever when there’s one guy about to kill your people and your tower that’s right there just won’t shoot. But life goes on. It’s really a quite good game and pretty addicting. It gives you that feeling of always being able to do better which is what keeps you coming back. I hesitated to drop $10 on it, but I’ve spent $10 on much less worthy titles on XBL so I say go for it.
