E3 2011: PixelJunk SideScroller (Q-Games)

This year at E3, Q-Games offered a closed-door demonstration of their forthcoming music generator PixelJunk lifelike as well as a build of PixelJunk SideScroller, playable at the Sony booth on the show floor. The game carries over a number of the art and sound design aspects of PixelJunk Shooter 1 & 2, this time centering gameplay on sidescrolling, on-rails shooting.

A similar style of stage could be unlocked at the end of Shooter 2 by gathering all hidden treasures and gaining a 100% completion rating. The first thing you notice about this latest PixelJunk title is that in place of the brightly animated color scheme of Shooter 2 there is now a more abstract aesthetic dominating. Transparency plays a big part in the new look, bringing to mind the neon outlined figures of Tron or the skeletal polygons of Rez.

Another noticeable addition is the robotic co-pilot that comments on many of your actions. A female voice with shades of vocoder will chime in whenever you switch weapons, or are overheating, or have reached a check-point. The Japanese intonations of "Machine Gun!" and "Laser!" are a reminder of Q-Games' headquarters being based in Kyoto, Japan. The android tinge to the voice samples also furthers the vibe of retro-futurism communicated by the high tech weaponry and old school game mechanics.

The first of three stages included in the demo trumpets the return of stylish particle physics. Pools of lava and water cascade down the sides of valleys and collect in troughs. Straying too close to the flames or taking a hit from a passing projectile will overheat your ship, which can only be remedied by dipping into a pool of water. Spinning does nothing to cool you off, but can still come in handy when collecting items dropped by felled enemies.

As with earlier games, destructible portions of the environment can be blasted away. At predetermined intervals your vessel will slow to a halt while you're tasked with fending off a slew of enemy spacecraft. At any time you can switch between machine guns, lasers and missiles, all of which can be made more effective by destroying green-colored enemies and collecting their power-ups. For instance, your gun can gain dual barrels, spread and an additional rear-facing shot if maximally beefed up.

The second playable stage of the demo introduces obstacle courses. Timing is key in avoiding spiked pistons and spinning blades. Next on display, a boss battle with a giant, multi-eyed fish monster ushers in a bullet hell element to the gameplay, as waves of projectiles spew from the creature's mouth. At the moment it has not been determined whether SideScroller will employ a menu screen to choose between stages or whether they will appear in sequence, as in a coin-op arcade cabinet.

So far, it has been announced that online rankings and the ability to upload play movies to YouTube are being integrated into the game. There are one and two-player simultaneous modes, along with easy and normal difficulty settings. Meanwhile, gameplay mechanics have undergone some noticeable changes since Shooter 2. Square cycles between your weapons, grappling is gone, and spinning is now executed simply by tapping L1. The results are a streamlined set of moves that suit the more hectic nature of the sidescrolling action.

SideScroller's music score marks Q-Games' third collaboration with UK hip-hop duo High Frequency Bandwidth. Reports from the show floor seem to suggest that three of the artists' favorite tracks from both games have been remixed to feature in the new title. Notably, vocalists Dynamax and Aadesh Shrivastava appear to be represented. While the action is fast, often the beats are mellow and cool, a contrast that worked particularly well in the BAFTA-nominated score for PixelJunk Shooter.

Images courtesy of Q-Games. Photo by Jeriaska. For more still images from E3, see our flickr photo set.