Everything you love (or hate) about PJM and PJM Encore in a neat portable package.
I'm one of the few people who passed on the original PixelJunk Monsters and its expansion, PJM Encore, when they were released on PSN last year. The reviews were great and everyone on my friend's list was playing them, but there's something about tower defense games that really rubs me the wrong way. It could be that they usually lay on the remedial branch of the strategy tree, or that they usually lack any visual or audio uniqueness, or maybe because I find most of them boring (like Crystal Defenders), but in any case, aside from playing the original demo for little less than 30mins, I decided to skip the PixelJunk series...
...that was probably a mistake.
Fortunately for me, the Tiki-Gods decided to release PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe for the Playstation Portable. PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe is not only a combination of PJM and Encore, but also comes packed with a new island, a couple of new bad guys, new weapons/towers, and, most importantly, both adhoc and infrastructure co-operative multiplayer. Now, I don't mean to knock the original game(s), but I get the feeling that PJM is even better on the PSP... not saying that the game shouldn't have been released on PSN, just that from the little bit that I played, Deluxe seem to retain all of the original PS3 experience and then some. Visually and aurally it holds ups perfectly and I'd argue that the gameplay itself is better suited for a portable platform.
As with all tower defense games, PJMD has you fighting wave after wave of enemies with immovable defense turrets that you need to buy and build. The more enemies you kill the more gold and gems you receive, meaning the more turrets/towers you'll be buy or upgrade. The twist with PJ is that the village you're protecting with these towers is home to your tribe, and for every enemy that passes your line of defense, one of your tribe members
are taken. Run out of tribe folk and it's game over. The biggest issue I have with PJ in general is that, for all of it's cutesy-wootsiness, fun looking critters, and potato-head tribes people, the game is still unforgivably difficult. Don't kid yourself into thinking this is a kids game. While I still don't think the strategy in PJ is as sound as other types of games in the strategy genre, you'll often find that your original plan falls to pieces fairly quickly. Ironically, this difficulty can either be a huge turn off or the only thing that keeps you playing.
Actually, it can get downright jaw-clenching in some portions of the game, but that only makes the PSP's multiplayer that much more entertaining. I'm not for games that I can completely walk through (okay, maybe I am a little), but playing levels with an additional person is a breath of fresh air after getting pummeled in SP. And even though I speak of the difficulty with distaste, it's actually a testament to how addictive the game can be, as I'm still kind of itching to re-try those particularly devilish levels that repeatedly kicked my ass.
For $20 I think that the PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe is a worthwhile purchase for those who have put PJM off for this long. It's also a very good candidate to have stored long term on your Memory Stick or PSPgo as it's the kind of game that will probably age well (think Tetris or Patapon or Locoroco... very pick-up and play friendly; games that are more about gameplay than anything else.) Despite getting masochistically frustrating at times, there's a certain "je ne sais quoi" that PJM has, and Deluxe is no exception.
