Pixeljunk Monsters: girl friendly

Yes, I'm aware this game has been out for over a year, and yes, I was an early adopter who also has the expansion pack. The point of my 'girl friendly' posts is to review games I have played, or attempted to play, with my wife and the impressions we have had. If you haven't played this game yet, and are on the fence, read on...

Pixeljunk Monsters (PM) is a tower defense game built for the PS3 and distributed via PSN, and they now have a deluxe version that is distributed for the PSP in the same manner. I haven't played the PSP version, so I won't be discussing it.

The concept, at least from what I can decipher, is that you are a village chief that has to protect your 20 villagers from being killed by the onslaught of various monsters. The monsters are varied between fast land types (spider like things), slow heavy armor land, physical resistance (requiring elementals to defeat), fast and slow aerials, and bosses. Forgive me if I missed a type, but you get the concept. Your job is to run around the static map (meaning the map you see at the beginning of the level doesn't move, nor does your overhead perspective) and replace trees with weapons (towers) to combat the onslaught. You start out with only enough coin to purchase a few tower types that are very basic, to which you will get coin and gems to spend to buy upgrades to defeat the harder enemy types they throw at you later. Also, you can stop on any of your towers and your avatar will start doing a war dance to upgrade the levels of the tower, making it more effective.

One of the things that makes this title stand out from other tower defense games, besides the great art style, is the music. They found a way to make the music and sound effects keep you in a peaceful, catatonic-like state despite the nail biting you will be doing as the monsters stream towards your villagers. You goal is of coarse to keep them all alive, which nets you a rainbow after completing the level and unlocks new levels. But it doesn't necessarily mean game over if some of your villagers fall, it just means you didn't get a perfect score and some areas might not be unlocked until you do, so give it a retry. That's why the music is important in this game, because your game play is designed to be repetitive, and lets face it, adrenaline-filled rock just wouldn't fit. (Incidentally, you can buy the soundtrack for the game, though I'm not sure it's THAT good!)

Played solo, the challenges are quite hard, and any hardcore gamer will have challenges in defeating each level, especially if they are going for the perfect score. Where the game shines, IMO, is the co-op. Have a friend? Toss them that extra controller, and now there are two chiefs to battle the onslaught. I can't swear to this, but I think all that does to the game engine is cause additional monsters to come each wave, but I could be wrong. Oh yeah, there are 20 waves per level. Anyway, as a co-op, what makes this so great is that the map is large enough that you don't feel congested, so one person can focus on one side of the map, and the other on the other side, and then you'll switch occasionally because your partner will need coins to build towers also, and if all the enemies are getting slaughtered before they reach their towers, then ...well, you get the idea. Also, since the map is static, you don't have to worry about split-screen. Let's face it, couch co-op is best when games don't use split-screen.

My spouse and I have probably logged 50+ hours into this game over the last year, and we continue to pick it up occasionally for an hour here or there. It's that type of game that never really gets old, and is easy to pick up. If you're looking for a couch co-op, have a PS3, and want to bring your girl into your addiction, this is a must-buy! Assuming, of course, that your nice enough to work together and let her get some gems and coins once in a while :P