Double Eleven’ PixelJunk Monsters has been around for quite some time but released on the Wii U’ eShop last week. In PixelJunk Monsters, you’ll learn to defend your town against hordes of enemies by building towers. That’s right, this tower defense game isn’t messing around and brings some easy to learn but hard to master gameplay to the Wii U.
The reason why we create towers
So every tower defense game has to have a reason why you should create those deadly towers. In PixelJunk Monsters you are the Tikiman who is trying to defend his Tikibabies from the hordes of monsters that are attacking the village. In order to stop those monsters, you can approach a tree and built a tower on that spot. You can build several towers, ranging from crossbow towers to take down regular ground troops to anti-air turret towers to stop those flying enemies.
The real goal of the game is to ‘rainbow’ a level, which means you finish the level without losing one of the Tikibabies. The game continues after one baby is lost but for the veteran player, it won’t really feel as a victory. Thanks to this system, the game finds the right balance for the veteran players and the newcomers. New players will be happy to advance to the next level, even if they lost some Tikibabies along the way. Veteran players, on the other hand, will search for the right set of towers in order to rainbow the level before advancing.
Time to create those towers
The best part of PixelJunk Monsters is the variation of the towers. You start the game with rather straightforward towers. You have the crossbow tower to take down the regular troops and you have the turret tower to take down the air units. The more money you gain, the more towers you can create. Besides money, the enemies also drop gemstones, these are used to research and create new towers. If you manage to collect enough of those gemstones, you can create new towers. These towers are more powerful and are able to take down multiple enemies at once, the only downside to them is that they often cost you more money to create them.
Besides creating new towers, you can upgrade your existing towers by dancing around them. That’s right Tikiman will dance around the tower to make it stronger. It sounds silly but it’s greatly animated and just adds to the great atmosphere the game manages to offer. It’s not the best-looking game on the eShop and some might even say it looks like a browser game but it’s far more than just that. The visuals and sound really add up and create a certain atmosphere that’s hard to put away. Playing PixelJunk Monsters is always a lot of fun!
Fun for the co-op gamer
Another great feature of PixelJunk Monsters is the inclusion of a local co-op multiplayer. In this mode, you and your friend will work together to defeat the enemies. Having an extra pair of eyes and hands is great for games like these. One player can focus on collecting money and gems for example, while the other can focus on building new towers. The co-op offers a lot of fun and is a great mode to have, especially on the family friendly Wii U system.
| The Good: | The bad: |
| + Easy to learn | – A bit short |
| + Right balance | – Not that good looking |
| + Co-op mode |
PixelJunk Monsters seems like a rather plain or even boring game but never judge a book by its cover. Beneath the simple graphics, you’ll find a very addictive tower defense game. The balance is just about right and you’ll always find enough challenges to keep on playing. Bored of playing on your own? Invite a friend over and enjoy the local co-op mode. It’s great to have this game on the Wii U’ eShop and it’s definitely worth a shot.
Score 4 out of 5:
