Judgement: Recommended
View review on Steam
"A fun yet challenging tower defense game that's like no other! Although PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate may lack several convenient features that you'd often find in any typical TD game, it manages to present a refreshingly-new format to the TD genre, giving TD "old-hands" like me something different to enjoy."
PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate isn't your typical TD game! In this game, you'll control the elder of a Tiki tribe of around 20 tiki people, and your goal is to protect them and your home from the various monsters that will try to slay your people.
And how you can do that? Well, you possess magical powers that will allow you to transform the trees in the surrounding forests into defensive towers. There are usually plenty of trees for you to turn into towers in each level, but this unfortunately means that your character actually has to move to a close-enough location before you can start constructing your tower. Thankfully, there's no need for your character to stick around once the construction has begun.
The game features several different types of towers, but you'll always start the game with only 3 types - the arrow tower, the cannon tower, and anti-air gun. These starter towers are usually sufficient - at least for the easy levels - and there isn't really any need to unlock the other 3 types, which basically are the more powerful versions of the first three towers. You can unlock new towers by collecting gems dropped from the creatures you kill and spending them at your home base.
Like most TD games, your towers can be upgraded as well. They will gain upgrade points from the creatures they kill, but this method of earning points can be insanely slow. Instead, you can move your elder to a tower (stand right on the tower) and he will start doing a little jig to hasten the upgrade points-earning process. Of course, if you don't want to wait, you can just use gems to instantly upgrade a tower.
Another interesting thing about this game is how loot is picked up. Unlike many other TD games, the coins or gems dropped by slain monsters aren't automatically picked up. Instead, you have to move your elder to pick up these loot by holding down the left mouse button and swiping your mouse cursor over the items. If you don't pick up the stuff in time, they will disappear. By the way, "holding down your mouse button and swiping to move" is also a much better and more flexible way to move your elder from place to place. Personally, I find clicking to move a tad bit slower.
Oh, and not to mention, while your moving your elder around, be sure NOT to get too close to the monsters or your elder will die. Coins will then spew out from your elder's corpse and although you pretty much instantly respawn, you'll still need to go around picking up the coins you've thrown out.
Due to the rather increased "demand" that's placed on your elder, you can probably expect a lot of "micro-management" where you'll not only need to pick up your loot, but also build new towers and upgrade existing ones. To put it simply, the gameplay can feel rather tedious at times because of this. However, this doesn't at all mean that the game's completely not enjoyable.
In fact, for me at least, I find that all the tedium seems to add to the challenge of the gameplay, occasionally forcing me to choose between staying around to upgrade a crucial tower or running towards the bunch of coins and gems as fast as I can before they disappear.
The game also comes in several difficulty levels, and an online/local co-op mode where you can work together with another player and coordinate with him or her when it comes to defending your tiki people. Graphics-wise, the game's visuals may not look like much, but they do have their charm.
P/S: The "convenient features" that I've mentioned in the summary mainly includes the "speed-up" button and also the "next wave" button.
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33780629-The-Midcore-Gamer/
PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate isn't your typical TD game! In this game, you'll control the elder of a Tiki tribe of around 20 tiki people, and your goal is to protect them and your home from the various monsters that will try to slay your people.
And how you can do that? Well, you possess magical powers that will allow you to transform the trees in the surrounding forests into defensive towers. There are usually plenty of trees for you to turn into towers in each level, but this unfortunately means that your character actually has to move to a close-enough location before you can start constructing your tower. Thankfully, there's no need for your character to stick around once the construction has begun.
The game features several different types of towers, but you'll always start the game with only 3 types - the arrow tower, the cannon tower, and anti-air gun. These starter towers are usually sufficient - at least for the easy levels - and there isn't really any need to unlock the other 3 types, which basically are the more powerful versions of the first three towers. You can unlock new towers by collecting gems dropped from the creatures you kill and spending them at your home base.
Like most TD games, your towers can be upgraded as well. They will gain upgrade points from the creatures they kill, but this method of earning points can be insanely slow. Instead, you can move your elder to a tower (stand right on the tower) and he will start doing a little jig to hasten the upgrade points-earning process. Of course, if you don't want to wait, you can just use gems to instantly upgrade a tower.
Another interesting thing about this game is how loot is picked up. Unlike many other TD games, the coins or gems dropped by slain monsters aren't automatically picked up. Instead, you have to move your elder to pick up these loot by holding down the left mouse button and swiping your mouse cursor over the items. If you don't pick up the stuff in time, they will disappear. By the way, "holding down your mouse button and swiping to move" is also a much better and more flexible way to move your elder from place to place. Personally, I find clicking to move a tad bit slower.
Oh, and not to mention, while your moving your elder around, be sure NOT to get too close to the monsters or your elder will die. Coins will then spew out from your elder's corpse and although you pretty much instantly respawn, you'll still need to go around picking up the coins you've thrown out.
Due to the rather increased "demand" that's placed on your elder, you can probably expect a lot of "micro-management" where you'll not only need to pick up your loot, but also build new towers and upgrade existing ones. To put it simply, the gameplay can feel rather tedious at times because of this. However, this doesn't at all mean that the game's completely not enjoyable.
In fact, for me at least, I find that all the tedium seems to add to the challenge of the gameplay, occasionally forcing me to choose between staying around to upgrade a crucial tower or running towards the bunch of coins and gems as fast as I can before they disappear.
The game also comes in several difficulty levels, and an online/local co-op mode where you can work together with another player and coordinate with him or her when it comes to defending your tiki people. Graphics-wise, the game's visuals may not look like much, but they do have their charm.
P/S: The "convenient features" that I've mentioned in the summary mainly includes the "speed-up" button and also the "next wave" button.
Watch me play!
https://youtu.be/RfjU2iVuCaIOverall
Most tower defense games tend to be pretty similar to one another in terms of its gameplay, but PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate manages to take a somewhat stagnating but much beloved genre and infuse it with some new life! The new format they've introduced can feel tedious at times, but personally, I find that all that extra work does make the game a lot more challenging and hence, entertaining. Side Note
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Review posted on 07/03/2019, 11:24:00.