Hot PXL updated hands-on

Features
By published

We peel back the streetwise veneer to find a bunch of extremely playable microgames

Hot PXL 's 150 mildly edgy, street-flavored microgames are collected into chapters with names like "Kidult," "Admirer" and "Struggle," all of which revolve around a particular theme like junk food or trendy materialism. Each one is bookended by short, bizarre video clips (starring Djon, naturally), and each climaxes with a longer, appropriately themed boss level.

Regardless of what you might think of the attitude behind the games - which include activities like being the first to grab a pair of shoes at a store, making a car transform into a robot or collecting toxic-waste cans as Godzilla on a skateboard - they're a lot of fun for the short time they're in front of you. Deep down, after all, they're really just about jamming on a button or guiding some random thing to a goal. And the visuals, which range from photorealistic to graffiti-esque to ultra-pixelated, vary so wildly that you won't have time to think about whether the whole presentation is pretentious or not.

Mikel Reparaz
Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.