Though the PixelJunk Shooter series has always done a good job sort of imitating the mechanics of a classic shmup in an adventure game’s clothing, SideScroller is about as direct an homage as you can get to classic shooter series like R-Type and Gradius. Think of this one as something of a spinoff from Shooter – the heat and water mechanics (avoid the former and restore your lifebar by cooling yourself off in the latter) are still around, and your butterfly ship can still do a spin attack. The same colorful visuals and sometime-focus on destroying environmental obstacles are present too, but this time the game is strictly on-rails and you can alternate between three upgradeable weapon types.
Movement feels a lot like Shooter – we hope the developers include an option to drop the analog stick sensitivity. The game is also probably as hard as the series it seems to have spawned from, although seasoned shmup vets probably won’t have too much trouble with it, particularly given the lack of guaranteed instantaneous death if you accidentally collide with an incoming projectile.
The demo’s boss level, pitting us against a giant multi-eyed subterranean creature that looks a bit like a deep sea angler, was about what you’d expect from a shmup: plenty of screen-filling bullet-hell patterns, spit out in often overlapping waves. The boss made it feel like SideScroller might be keeping the organic feel of Shooter 2, though that could just be for the level shown.
SideScroller is perhaps the best-looking PixelJunk title to date, its trademark vibrant colors and simple line-art style meshing Geometry Wars and Gaijin’s Bit.Trip series, with a variety of neat retro-styled effects that gave the game an arresting visual design. Basically, a PixelJunk interpretation of classic shmup gameplay feels like a great thing and a natural fit – we want more of this game. Look for SideScroller’s release sometime later this year.
Jun 16, 2011
