Flash game freebie: Pixel Legions

On their own, individual pixels seem small and insignificant, but when you put hordes of them together, their value becomes readily apparent. No, we’re not talking about retro videogame art – this is war. It’s a war fought by throngs of tiny, pissed-off glowing pixels. It’s a war that will draw you into its fold and completely annihilate any chances of escape. Thought you were going to get some work done today? Think again. Pixel Legions is calling.

For a real-time strategy war game, Pixel Legions looks pretty skimpy at a glance. You’re basically commanding a big square to spit out smaller squares that form into masses of squares that charge ahead to attack other squares. But this simplicity still leaves a lot of room for tactical strategy, and each stage offers surprising new twists to challenge your battle commander skills. Every level presents an arena-style grudge match among various colored pixel armies. You’ll start out fighting against one or two factions early on and wind up battling close to a dozen armies in later stages. Each side has a larger pixel base that spits out a small group of pixel warriors every few seconds. These bases are mobile but slow, and they’ll temporarily stop producing units when swarmed by enemies, leaving them vulnerable to destruction.

You can send your soldiers around the battlefield with a click or draw a specific path for them to follow, and they’ll automatically attack any nearby enemies they come into contact with. Smaller pockets of soldiers form together into larger swarms, and size definitely matters when things get crazy. Attacking enemies from multiple sides, sending a smaller team ahead of a larger force to stop a base from producing enemy units, and pushing across the map en-masse are only a few possible strategies. The maps themselves also throw in clever tricks to capitalize on. You’ll find levels with power pylons that beef up your army strength, impassible walls and choke points, random bombing runs that indiscriminately destroy pixels within blasting range, and more. If you’ve got a strategy gaming itch, Pixel Legions is a quick and awesome way to scratch it. Check it out atPixelante.

May 25, 2010

I'm a freelance writer and game journalist with a love of all things gaming and geeky.