Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Blast your way into a new PixelJunk title

The latest PixelJunk game is firing up to be unleashed on PLAYSTATION 3 - find out what brilliant developer Q-Games is up to.

Q-Games has picked up a large amount of attention from its PixelJunk titles, a series of PlayStation Network games which combine quirky, addictive gameplay with a fresh graphical look. The most recent addition is PixelJunk 4 (working title), which takes you deeper underground...

'Junk in the trunk

PixelJunk 4 follows the trend of its predecessors by having totally different gameplay to the rest of the PixelJunk titles. This time you're controlling a small subterranean exploration vehicle around a number of cave-like caverns as you rescue various survivors trapped there.

However, there's more to it than just flying in and scooping them out. These caverns and complexes have a number of different hazards to deal with which can leave your little ship destroyed in seconds if you're not careful. Firstly, there are a few beasties and mechanical enemies which are looking to deplete your shields by either bumping into you or firing projectiles at you, among other methods.

That's not all you have to worry about - the high temperature of the environment, which includes hazards such as super hot magma, also means your craft is constantly getting warm, so you have to make sure you don't overheat and explode.

Pocket rocket

Thankfully, there are various solutions to all of these little problems. Water is trapped around each environment which can be released to cool your ship and also solidify the magma into destructible rock. By getting creative with the life saving liquid, you can create or rid yourself of the molten rock and even usher the magma onto enemies to destroy them - something you can also do with an unlimited supply of rockets at your disposal.

With some imaginative use of water and rockets, puzzles can be overcome and survivors placed in previously impossible locations can be rescued, allowing you to fill your survivor quota and open the door to the next level. Just make sure you don't shoot the survivors by accident...

PixelJunk 4 is already shaping up to be as fiendishly fun and addictive as its stablemates, with a host of little touches, power-ups, and extras that reveal themselves over time, to compliment the hypnotic visual effects typical of a PixelJunk title. Keep reading eu.playstation.com for more as it comes.