Watercolor shrubery and punishing gameplay infuse into a palette of gaming nirvana or puzzling excess of art malaise.
This continues with the irreverant and beautiful Pixeljunk Eden. The game is rather simplistic in its execution: you collect pollen inside of a garden to make seeds. The seeds are then activated to create plants. You use plants to get Spectra, a light and sound symbol that changes the look and feel of the garden itself.
The way you make through the garden is by swinging on silk and moving through the plants. This isn't a simple platformer: You need to time when to release your silk and at what momentum you currently have to reach the next plant, pollen or spectra.
At first, this may cause some frustrating moments, such as barely missing a seed or plant and falling all the way down the bottom when for the past 5 minutes you've climbed your way to very top of the garden. This is slightly exasperated by the timer in the game, which forces you to pick up gems that increase your time in the stage.
The game results as a "space-out" game like Flow, where the game is meant to be serene and relaxing, and a "total concentration" game, like Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2. These two different ideologies seem to create a totally unique feel and concept to standard platforming, which to fans of platformers this will be a distinct treat.
The game also has a unique and likable personality, which seems to be a growing trait with Pixeljunk games. The lush gardens have vibrant and visually appealing colors, while the sounds produced from the music and the effects add on to its trancian like effects.
The problems of the game have really nothing to do with the gameplay itself, but the design of the game. As much as I do like the challenge of collecting spectra on a time limit, it still feels counter-intuitive when part of the game is discovering how the garden actually grows and evolves.
There's also a rather odd difficulty curve to the game as well. The game goes from Garden 1 to 2 with little difference in difficulty. But, suddenly, get to Garden 3 and it's highly difficult to get past the enemies that patrol the area.
Pixeljunk Eden is a game that really needs to be played in order to be understood and to see if you'll give in to its charms. If you do, it will be an addicting game that even fans of Geometry Wars can get into. But it's for a selective crowd.