E3 2011

PixelJunk Shooter Hands-On

Justin Calvert
By Justin Calvert, Executive Editor

PixelJunk 1-4 now has both a proper title and cooperative play. We check them out at Sony's E3 2009 booth.

Sony is showing off a whole lot of games at E3 this year, and one of the more unusual offerings is PixelJunk Shooter, which was known simply as PixelJunk 1-4 before the winner of Q-Games' game-naming contest was announced. There's shooting in the game, so technically the title works, but this is as much a puzzle game as it is a shooter.

The version of PixelJunk Shooter on the E3 show floor appears to be slightly different from the one we saw at Sony's press event in Los Angeles a little over a month ago. The levels in which you rescue workers with your grappling hook while using water to solve puzzles involving molten lava are unchanged, but now you can play them cooperatively with a friend. Adding a second player to the mix definitely makes the game more interesting and, at times, easier. You share the same pool of lives, though, so before you shoot out any walls that are holding back lava flows, you need to make sure your friend isn't anywhere he shouldn't be. Co-op play also isn't split-screen, so if you're trying to pull in different directions, you'll just end up hitting an invisible wall.

Enemies in the game, or at least those in the demo, rarely pose much of a threat even though it often takes several rockets to kill them. That's because, other than bats that fly around, most of them are either slow-moving or rooted to spots on the floor/walls/ceiling. There are projectile attacks to watch out for, but most of these take the form of spewed lava that won't necessarily kill you on contact--especially if there's a pool of water nearby that you can fly into to cool off.

If you haven't done so already, you should definitely check out our previous coverage of PixelJunk Shooter from the aforementioned Sony press event. We look forward to bringing you more information on the game just as soon as we get to see more of it.

Justin Calvert
By Justin Calvert, Executive Editor

Justin Calvert's youth was largely misspent playing Commodore 64 and Amiga games. He left the UK's Official PlayStation Magazine to join GameSpot in 2000, believes that he's one of the best Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe players in the world, and is still searching for a game that's as good as Paradroid.

7 Comments

  • Roggirek

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 7:38 am GMT

    Yes! Offline co-op FtW!

  • alano0031

    Posted Jun 4, 2009 2:27 pm GMT

    Ill play this with a mate offline, much more fun to be able to see his anger if either of us mess up, even voice chat limits the interaction that two people can have in one room.

  • pakhair

    Posted Jun 4, 2009 2:46 am GMT

    Looks Nice............

    The PHYSX makes me remember World of Goo................

  • king_bobo

    Posted Jun 3, 2009 1:34 pm GMT

    @ VixDiesel - I agree, but this is PixelJunk. How many co-op games have they made that are online?

  • vix

    Posted Jun 3, 2009 9:36 am GMT

    please seay co-op is online....

  • HardCor1981

    Posted Jun 3, 2009 5:50 am GMT

    This is really awesome. I wasn't sure if I would be purchasing, but now that I know it has Co-op...I'll be buying DAY ONE!

  • WarPrime

    Posted Jun 2, 2009 11:16 pm GMT

    This looks like ti might have some fun game play. I like the idea of finding places to make the water and lava mix so you can shoot through it.