Sloppy Slot Cars
PixelJunk Racers is a decent concept with a overly-difficult execution.
Published: October 10, 2007
The whole idea of downloadable games is a concept that is finding itself. From concepts to pricing to scale, it's very much a medium in its infancy, which is at once an exciting and unfamiliar proposition for gamers. Sony in particular is really pushing the format as a means to distribute not just small-time distractions and mini-games, as well as add-on content for disc-based games, but full, honest-to-goodness games rather than concepts, and they've done a fantastic job for the most part of pricing the games accordingly.
PixelJunk Racers, from UK-based developer Q Games (not to be confused with Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Q Entertainment, which was started after Q Games), lies somewhere in the middle of mini-game and concept. It's certainly a solid game, and the sheer number of little challenges built around the simple idea of replicating the old slot car racers that you hopefully had the pleasure of playing with when you were little. With the ability to freely control throttle (though obviously there's no brakes) and to switch tracks, the game already offers something different, but when you throw in a whopping 32 different modes, the game has plenty to offer.
Unfortunately, it's also a complete experience that most gamers will never get to because PixelJunk Racers is hard. Really hard. Throw your controller through the wall hard, to the point where it's actually enough to be a turn-off. Sure, the game is like seven bucks, but had the goals been just a little easier for some of the most basic challenges, someone could have played through the entire game and felt like they got their money's worth. Instead, most will probably play all of a quarter of the game. Hell, I only got about 40% through things after weeks of trying and it wasn't until Sony thankfully kicked over a copy of a savegame file that had everything unlocked that I got to see all the different modes presented as a handful of challenges.
Sure, you can play a lot of the challenges in the game's Party Mode, and it's here that you and a bunch or friends (and a bunch of beers) will have the most fun, but when you're all by your lonesome, it's doubtful anyone but those with ninja-like reflexes will actually be able to make it through most of the single-player content -- and forget actually getting all the gold trophies for all of them (useful really more for the leaderboard bragging rights than anything else).
There's also the matter of the game being effectively designed solely for those with hi-definition TVs. While I can understand wanting to make art assets for just one spec, and the backgrounds are wonderfully detailed, the general look and feel of the game isn't such that it couldn't have been pulled off on a normal standard-def TV. There aren't a bunch of nifty effects or little details that really pay off in HD, so it's an odd thing that stuff like text size or screen zoom wasn't added for folks with standard-def TVs. It probably would have meant a few more downloads.
The audio is similarly sparse, with some basic music tracks that are there more for a backdrop than anything else. The game is oddly loud (probably the loudest game I've ever played on the PS3), which is odd considering there's hardly anything in the way of sound effects. You'll hear some funky engine revs, a few turbo bursts and whatnot, but aside from the blaring start horn, most of it is as subdued as the music.
PixelJunk Racers isn't a bad game, it's just prohibitively difficult, so much so that it's actually a turn-off. If you're up for a random challenge and perhaps a little local multiplayer fun and have a couple bucks to blow, the offerings on the PSN are slim enough to warrant a buy, but in a couple more months, things like WipEout HD and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will more or less leave even novel little experiments like relegated to the realm of drunken impulse buy.
PixelJunk Racers, from UK-based developer Q Games (not to be confused with Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Q Entertainment, which was started after Q Games), lies somewhere in the middle of mini-game and concept. It's certainly a solid game, and the sheer number of little challenges built around the simple idea of replicating the old slot car racers that you hopefully had the pleasure of playing with when you were little. With the ability to freely control throttle (though obviously there's no brakes) and to switch tracks, the game already offers something different, but when you throw in a whopping 32 different modes, the game has plenty to offer.
Unfortunately, it's also a complete experience that most gamers will never get to because PixelJunk Racers is hard. Really hard. Throw your controller through the wall hard, to the point where it's actually enough to be a turn-off. Sure, the game is like seven bucks, but had the goals been just a little easier for some of the most basic challenges, someone could have played through the entire game and felt like they got their money's worth. Instead, most will probably play all of a quarter of the game. Hell, I only got about 40% through things after weeks of trying and it wasn't until Sony thankfully kicked over a copy of a savegame file that had everything unlocked that I got to see all the different modes presented as a handful of challenges.
Sure, you can play a lot of the challenges in the game's Party Mode, and it's here that you and a bunch or friends (and a bunch of beers) will have the most fun, but when you're all by your lonesome, it's doubtful anyone but those with ninja-like reflexes will actually be able to make it through most of the single-player content -- and forget actually getting all the gold trophies for all of them (useful really more for the leaderboard bragging rights than anything else).
There's also the matter of the game being effectively designed solely for those with hi-definition TVs. While I can understand wanting to make art assets for just one spec, and the backgrounds are wonderfully detailed, the general look and feel of the game isn't such that it couldn't have been pulled off on a normal standard-def TV. There aren't a bunch of nifty effects or little details that really pay off in HD, so it's an odd thing that stuff like text size or screen zoom wasn't added for folks with standard-def TVs. It probably would have meant a few more downloads.
The audio is similarly sparse, with some basic music tracks that are there more for a backdrop than anything else. The game is oddly loud (probably the loudest game I've ever played on the PS3), which is odd considering there's hardly anything in the way of sound effects. You'll hear some funky engine revs, a few turbo bursts and whatnot, but aside from the blaring start horn, most of it is as subdued as the music.
PixelJunk Racers isn't a bad game, it's just prohibitively difficult, so much so that it's actually a turn-off. If you're up for a random challenge and perhaps a little local multiplayer fun and have a couple bucks to blow, the offerings on the PSN are slim enough to warrant a buy, but in a couple more months, things like WipEout HD and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will more or less leave even novel little experiments like relegated to the realm of drunken impulse buy.
