PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate Review
PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate is an arcade style, twin stick shooter, puzzle game where you control a mining ship that heads deep into the planet to rescue survivors and collect gems whilst killing various enemies and avoiding deadly traps.
With Pixel Junk Shooter Ultimate, Q Games proves that sometimes simplicity is key as they provide a fun and easy to play gaming experience.
The controls are simple, using the W A S D keys and the mouse you navigate a series of changing levels, picking up the surviving miners and gems. The levels get progressively harder, with the first levels providing you with a nice learning curve that allows you to pick up the basics of the game and the mechanics. Before long, you are strategically planning every move and weighing up the potential consequences.
There are secret areas dotted around the levels and as a general rule they are well hidden, I certainly wasn’t able to find them all on my first attempt anyway. This provides the player with some replay ability, and will especially appeal to completionists. If you aren’t a player who likes to discover every nook and cranny, you aren’t forced to seek them out and can simply pile past them as you work your way through the game.
The game itself wasn’t overly long, but you get plenty of content for your money and if you enjoy replaying missions to get better scores, you will certainly see plenty of hours racked up in your steam library.
There’s a nice variety of enemies and as one would expect they become progressively harder and have different attack patterns the further you progress. Their designs don’t particularly wow you, but you quickly learn that figuring out how they will engage you is key, as some enemies will come from underground whereas others will even pour lava on you.
The graphics on the game are clean and simple and if you are looking to be visually wowed, you have unfortunately come to the wrong place. Each design seems to be carefully thought out and although they are generally basic designs it all seems to work. I’m not so sure that if the game had better visuals it would do much for the game, as I think it would lose some of the arcade feel, which I treasured throughout.
As an all-round experience Pixel Junk Shooter Ultimate provides a simple yet efficient game that appeals to the masses. It’s easy to pick up and play and doesn’t require you to dedicate a large amount of time to it in long sittings. It epitomizes what an arcade game should be, fun.
Score: 4 out of 5
Thanks to the publisher for supplying a code for review.