If there's a haven for gamers looking for something new, it's been the bite-sized downloadable games on the Playstation Network. Within the past year, Sony's online store has collected some interesting and engaging software for fairly reasonable prices; and while the same can be said for the likes of XBLA or even WiiWare, the content here is more inspired than either competitor's. Continuing this trend is the one-to-watch Q Games' Pixeljunk series with its latest iteration: Pixeljunk Eden-a 2D platformer which takes a simple jumping mechanic and applies it to an open-world melting pot of audio-visual stimuli, creating something very different.
The most definitive feature about Eden is its visuals, which are likely to confound anyone trying to make sense of a screenshot. This is mostly due to the highly stylized nature of what each of the ten gardens looks like, as well as your character's inconspicuous look and the overall unorthodox tone of the game's design. At any point, the game could be mistaken for digital art, turning heads in a coffee house. The floaty nature of Eden, in the motion of pollen wisping around the screen, or the silky string your Grimp spins to whip to and from hanging plants, and even the dreamily easy techno pumping along almost procedurally to the garden's growth is really a something to see. It's quickly understood once played, and looks gorgeous in motion.
Your character is a speck of a creature called a Grimp, whose job it is to collect pollen and grow the virtual garden, climbing higher with each new plant seeded. Your goal of course is to pollinate seeds in order to reach a total of five Spectra in each garden-glowing symbols which when collected help grow the overworld garden and help you to reach new gardens. The exploratory nature of the game is slightly hampered by the ever-depleting health bar which undermines the sleepy tone of more than half of the gardens. For skilled players this won't turn into an issue so much as Lost Planet's heat aspect didn't bother many, but to newcomers it may be a little off-putting.
The common complaint with the design of the gardens is that each time you collect the newest Spectra (culminating to a total of five in each area), you're kicked out to the overworld. This makes each visit to the gardens longer as you've got to collect so many of five, instead of just the one you didn't get. It's an open world game, but the thought process of putting a player through the rings again instead of removing Spectra collected or simply letting players go for broke right from the start is a little confounding. The most positive way to look at it is to take it as an ushering to vary your time spent between gardens instead of completing one at a time. It certainly doesn't feel as repetitive that way, but to those insistent on compartmentalizing Eden by gardens, it will take away from what can be a consistently refreshing romp through the levels.
I'll take a shot at explaining the mechanics, but they're much easier done then said. By default, your Grimp will grab anything it touches, but holding down a face button will have you spin and bounce off hard surfaces or pass through plants. You can direct the Grimp to jump in any direction with the joystick, and from plants, the Grimp will jump with a string of silk attached to itself like a bungee cord from which you can spin a few revolutions. The triggers will reel you in while spinning and tapping the jump button will release you - where on the other hand you'll have to get used to double-tapping for any jump you don't intend to swing from. The small bit of Sixaxis implementation is simply that players can jolt the joypad downwards in order to rocket your Grimp back to earth or break up enemies. It's a time-saver, and handy for landing wary jumps.
These mechanics can take some time to get used to, since the game is very specific about your motions. For me, it took a little more than an hour to feel comfortable in the gardens, while consequently a friend picked up the game almost naturally.
Additionally, Q Games has included some nice features for those who can utilize them. Firstly is the remote play, which is always welcome with PSN games, and plays surprisingly well for a game as precise as Eden when it comes to controls. The only differences being a dumbing down of visuals (there's no directional assistance when jumping), and it's a little slower than playing on the console. The Sixaxis motion control also doesn't apply, and can feel missed if players take to it on the console. It's still a very impressive and playable translation for those with a PSP on hand.
As well, two more players can join in with up to three Grimps in a garden to spread out and pollinate faster. This isn't a separate part of the game so much as it is a nice touch which only adds to the experience.
There's also the welcome feature of uploading videos straight to Youtube from the game itself. The recording feature is simple to call up, and the R3 button will pause and resume video without having to weave through an interface just to self-edit a video every time you miss a jump. It's a handy alternative to saving play sessions online to view only on a Playstation 3, as Youtube serves as both online advertising for the game, and a guidebook for those having trouble acquiring trophies or hidden seeds. It's a standout feature that not only works well, but is a smart move on the developer's part in general. It would be great to see more games adopt this sort of feature.
The implementation of trophies is another handout to gamers who have long awaited the PS3's answer to Microsoft's Achievements system. They're not the easiest to gather, but for a game that initially has put off all but the hardcore gaming crowd, that may not be such a detriment. Those with true talent will walk away with 100% of the trophies in Eden collected, while others may be lucky to get one.
For some the allergy season may be coming to an end, but for those of us with an itch for platforming (or pollination), we'll be seeing a few more weeks of staying up late with reddened eyes and bad puns. Pixeljunk Eden is a fantastic game for the ten bucks it asks in order to play it. For those interested, there's a sizeable demo up on the PSN, so there's no reason not to give it a run through. The few detriments Eden has are hidden well and can be argued as an attempt to challenge the player, or simply as poor design choices. That doesn't change the fact that as a whole, it's a game that makes you feel thankful for playing, instead of wondering if it
