By Craig Pearson on January 27th, 2012 at 3:55 pm.
Is it a puzzle game? Is it a platformer? Why PixelJunk Eden is a bit of both, even if it hides it under the sort of abstract silliness that makes it impossible to describe in a precis. I’ve rewritten this intro three times already, and still haven’t managed to fully understand what the hell you do.
You’re in control of a Grimp (a portmanteau of ‘grip’ and ‘jump’) a creature that has to pollenate an evolving plant world, beating up enemies and grabbing bundles of energy and light. It’s abstract, but rather pretty and a treat for the senses as it is your fingers. I’ve roped in Adam, who has played the PS3 original, in order to give you a clearer picture.
Tiny creatures fling themselves through neon gardens by shooting webs from their asses in a bid to eat the pollen that fuels their miserable lives. An invisible god-like DJ observes and commentates through the medium of his turntables from somewhere in Japan.
… Okay, that wasn’t helpful. Let me now turn to Wikipedia, a bastion of crowd-sourced clarity, to further our knowledge.
In PixelJunk Eden, players, as “Grimps”, swing from abstract plant shapes to move about the garden, attacking the six-sided pollen carriers in order to gather the small pollen particles that can turn dormant seeds into activated seeds. The new seeds can be used to create new plants and gain further mobility in the garden.
Rrrriighht. Erm. So, it’s an abstract platformer for one to four players, and is out on Steam next week. That’ll do.
Via Kotaku.
27/01/2012 at 16:02 ulix says:
It’s a platformer. I don’t see the puzzle element.
Game is sort of open-worldy, in that the level’s are quite big and you can take several routes through them.
Very good news though. Have this, Shooter, Shooter 2 & Sidescroller on PSN, and they are all very very good (and gorgoeus).
Shooter especially is a real indie gem (if you can call Q Games “indie”… Dylan Cuthbert seems to think you can).
28/01/2012 at 04:28 lurkalisk says:
It is indeed an indie studio, as they, you know… Aren’t owned by anyone. AND Eden here is also an indie game, as it was made with no 3rd party funding.
That’s what “indie” means, after all.
28/01/2012 at 17:57 ulix says:
Surely there should be some kind of size limit to still call a studio “indie”. By your definition Valve would be an indie developer.
27/01/2012 at 16:02 Tuco says:
I’m guessing that means that, given enough sales, more PixelJunk games are coming to PC after this.
27/01/2012 at 16:06 Jams O'Donnell says:
That would be swell. I love Pixeljunk Monsters on my PSP, but they’ve never shown any sign of making PSP versions of their other games.
27/01/2012 at 16:45 Snidesworth says:
Here’s hoping. Pixeljunk Shooter is a great game, as is its sequel. Both would benefit from a PC release.
27/01/2012 at 18:48 _PixelNinja says:
I really hope that would be the case — just like O’Donnell I loved Pixeljunk Monsters and would really like to see it come to PC aswell as Pixeljunk Shooter.
28/01/2012 at 03:01 siegarettes says:
That would be fantastic. Pixeljunk Shooter and Sidescroller both seem to be quite the thing, so I’d love them to come to Steam as well.
The BIT.TRIP series also seemed to be a good fit for Steam as well, so I’d like the rest of those to come over as well.
27/01/2012 at 16:06 nobody says:
Great news! Come, come, ye plastic box exclusives. Welcome back to the homeland. Tell your friends the air here is sweeter and the streets are paved with electrons.
27/01/2012 at 17:22 Shortwave says:
YES YES!!
27/01/2012 at 16:07 Milky1985 says:
I read “grimp” as “gimp” and wondered what short of abstract shape they would be swinging from.
Not sure what that says about me or the ammount of saints row 3 I play.
27/01/2012 at 16:31 Prime says:
It’s always nice when previously SONYBOX exclusives slip their bonds and arrive in our gloriously independent lands. I may even pur-chase this seeing as how I like abstracty thingies very much (Archipelagos, anyone?) and also in the hope that Pixeljump’s other games make the crossing with their fabulous flooid fizziks intact.
27/01/2012 at 16:59 obie191970 says:
Seriously – This is one of the best games on either box. Simply mesmerizing to play.
27/01/2012 at 17:21 Shortwave says:
I would have a heart attack if Pixel Junk put out their games on PC.
This is going to sound bad maybe but meeeeeh.
I use my PSP for very few things.
- Writing basic beats and musical score on the go
- Classic ROMS
- A remote for my PC from bed
- AND PIXEL JUNK MONSTERS!
I think it might be my favorite tower defense game ever, ha.
And yes, I would buy it a second time just to have it on PC.
27/01/2012 at 17:25 Jams O'Donnell says:
- A remote for my PC from bed
Tell me hoooow! (and yes, I do run cfw)
27/01/2012 at 19:18 Bhazor says:
You seem to have forgotten about the Metal Gear and Valkyrie Chronicles games.
27/01/2012 at 19:48 Shortwave says:
http://jjs.at/software/pspdisp.html
PSPdisp
It allows your PSP to work as a PC monitor and sends input signals.
Allowing the analog pad to control mouse movements and such, on screen keyboard.
It even allows for sound to be sent as well.
Sometimes I run Skyrim on my PC or Crysis 2 maxed out and have it going to my PSP.
Trick people into thinking I somehow managed to get them running on it.. >.<
It's hilarious.
"Check it out guys, Skyrim maxed on my psp" Hahaha.
NOW THAT’S CLOUD GAMING… >.< Kay not really.
But it's way cooler.
27/01/2012 at 19:52 Shortwave says:
Man, I tried so hard to like the Metal Gear Games on PSP.
I seriously, seriously did. I just couldn’t do it.
And I’m one of those people that MG on PSX changed forever.
27/01/2012 at 17:23 RobF says:
This is excellent news.
27/01/2012 at 18:00 Zeewolf says:
I want all the Pixeljunk-games. ALL OF THEM! Muahahaa… *cough*
Especially the one that’s a bit like Gravity Force/Thrust/et.c. Shooter?
27/01/2012 at 18:07 Treebard says:
Eden isn’t perfect, but there isn’t another game quite like it. I found it rather lovely, and I’m glad it’ll be on my PC soon.
27/01/2012 at 20:02 MonolithicTentacledAbomination says:
I think the game would be noticeably better if your guy was a “grump” rather than a “grimp.”
27/01/2012 at 21:35 mittortz says:
OMG YESSSS! Insta-buy. After I sold my PS3 a couple years ago to fund my gaming PC, this is what I missed the most (really). In the hope that all PixelJunk games to PC, I encourage all those with even a remote interest to purchase this, as you will not be disappointed. PJ Shooter was great too, but I never got to play the sequel.
28/01/2012 at 18:24 noproblem says:
This game is excellent, loved playing it on the PS3. It should really benefit from the increased speed / precision of a modern gaming mouse. I only played a few levels of Encore though, because it seemed way easier than the later levels of the main game.
Shooter is really good too, but I didn’t get into Shooter 2. I have not played Scroller and I have always wanted to play Monsters, but my hatred of tower defence games (Defence Grid no included) has always made me wary of the purchase.
28/01/2012 at 21:53 Fiatil says:
This is awesome news. Pixeljunk Eden is one of my favorite games on the PS3, and it coming to PC after all of this time is a really nice surprise. Now we can only pray for Pixeljunk Monsters to come along too.
28/01/2012 at 21:59 jamesgecko says:
Will this run on crappy integrated graphics cards? An important question.
12/02/2012 at 11:46 Yachmenev says:
So when are you gonna cover this some more RPS? No article when the game was released, and no “wot I think” so far? The game needs attention.