Xbox 360
Does anyone else feel that modern games have begun to rely a bit too much on fancy graphics over actual gameplay? If you've ever played a console shooter in the past two years, you'll know exactly what we mean. After months of baited breath for your next fix of FPS fun, you hit up the sequel only to find that, yep, it's just the same old experience in a new sparkly tuxedo. There are admittedly some games out now that look beautiful and play like a god-send, but for the large part all it takes to sell copies these days is window dressing. So hats off to PixelJam for taking things back to the old school and delivering six charming nostalgia trips that favour gameplay over glamour.
RatMaze 1 and 2 is the tale of a simple search for food in a gaudy, labyrinthine prison. It's a heated rush to collect cheese-based fodder, with your mouse scampering around at high speed in order to set a time-based high score. When we say labyrinthine we mean it, especially in the second iteration of the RatMaze formula. There are other non-cheese based distractions such as mouse holes, balls that must be pushed into said holes by your rodent to earn bonuses (admittedly, still cheese) and the search for the theme song itself. This tune manifests itself in the form of a clickable web link and is hidden somewhere in one of the two mazes.
DinoRun is a run-for-your-life dash away from certain extinction at the feet of a meteorite explosion. You take control of a small dinosaur, fighting to reach the finish before being swallowed up into the destruction that threatens to kill off all of its kind. This game features both single-player and multi-player options and it is when racing multiple human opponents that the title's true frantic competitiveness shine through. It's survival of the fittest (literally), with the winner gaining points that can be spent on customising their prehistoric pet.
Pizza City offers slightly more depth in the single player stakes, with your tips from delivering pizzas being used to buy better cars to ferry fast food faster with. The object of the game is, unsurprisingly, to deliver pizzas in the quickest time and with the least crashes. In reality this is easier said then done, with large collections of cars and pedestrians clogging the roads between you and your customers. There are bonus points for running over clowns and robbers though!
Where there are great games, there are some mis-fires as well. Cookie Party 2 is fun but falls foul of buggy and inaccurate collision detection, meaning that your character rebounds off walls and even slight bumps. With most of the levels featuring large drops, this can quickly become a problem. Also, Gamma Bros. is simply too intense and difficult to be enjoyable in short bursts, the sheer amount of enemies on screen proving too much for your pilots' slow firing laser. This is a game that requires shed loads of perseverance and patience. These titles are both still playable, but just not quite as polished or inspired as PixelJam's other efforts. But don't let these gripes detract from the overall package.
Six pieces of gaming pleasure, with no unnecessary additions. Let the nostalgia commence!
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Under the previous scoring system (before 09/09/09) this game received a score of eight out of ten.