E3 2008: PixelJunk Eden Hands-On

Another incredibly stylish new game from Sony, PixelJunk Eden is a cute and rather addictive platform game.

There's a great moment about five minutes into PixelJunk Eden, when the game stops being a confusing but pretty platformer and becomes incredibly, relentlessly addictive. That doesn't make it any easier for us to describe what the game actually is, but we had to apologise to the people queuing behind us for taking so long with it.

You control Grip, a tiny creature who lives in a huge open landscape. Grip's only way of getting around is by firing short grapple lines from which he can swing. The idea is to climb your way up the branches that populate the flat world and swing from your grapple line to collect pollen. When you swing into special flashing orbs, you make huge new branches spring to life, and this allows you to go higher and higher.

The idea is to reach the top of the level and get to the exit. However, much of the fun comes from just swinging around and generally taking in the arty visuals and simple beats. The only restriction you have is the life bar on the bottom left of the screen, which gradually decreases unless you fill it up with pollen. We had a large number of people gather around just watching us play PixelJunk Eden because the stylised visuals are very easy to appreciate.

We made it through two levels of PixelJunk Eden on the Sony stand--the first one had a black background and blue plants, and the second had a more stark pink foreground. It's a game that demands to be seen to be appreciated, so make sure you check out Brian Ekberg's interview with the team from the first day of our live E3 2008 coverage.

15 Comments

  • peetowser

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 3:02 am PT

    lol @ I'll rent it
    rofl @ "my sis, my gf" comments, meaning you need to be some inferior category of gamer to like this game, etc...

    OK for those of you who wanna keep playing the demo, erase your save game...

    For those of you like me who think 10$ is a steal for this, I saw somewhere it was supposed to come out the 31... so today.... on the PSN...

    Were they wrong or did Gamespot overlook that??

    I guess we'll see later today when the PSN gets updated...

    If its there I'm getting it first thing heheh With Monsters and now Eden, I'm really looking forward to the next PixelJunk game!

  • burstlimit514

    Posted Jul 28, 2008 11:07 pm PT

    the demo is really fun! I never thought i would get intersested in a game like this. and its challenging also.

  • Panman_Dan

    Posted Jul 25, 2008 2:32 pm PT

    Wow this game is amazing, I downloaded the demo and played it until it prompted me to purchase the whole game to continue enjoying my gaming experince.

    The sound and visuals are amazing!

  • aaaaaa12

    Posted Jul 21, 2008 10:15 am PT

    My GF will love this....

  • leofiregod

    Posted Jul 20, 2008 7:38 pm PT

    maybe one my sis would like

  • ognen

    Posted Jul 20, 2008 9:18 am PT

    cool

  • TehFuneral

    Posted Jul 18, 2008 12:24 pm PT

    ill prolly give it a try.

  • Macgyver40

    Posted Jul 18, 2008 11:59 am PT

    i'll rent it

  • jakeboudville

    Posted Jul 16, 2008 11:39 pm PT

    Might give it a try when i have the time in the future

  • lettuceman44

    Posted Jul 16, 2008 8:01 pm PT

    Interesting. It sure looks good.

  • Hungry_bunny

    Posted Jul 16, 2008 5:42 pm PT

    I really like the look of this game.

  • VixDiesel

    Posted Jul 16, 2008 12:41 pm PT

    Definitely want this game.

  • grambyte

    Posted Jul 16, 2008 12:30 pm PT

    This looks amazing, if it's fun I don't know yet...

  • playstation_wii

    Posted Jul 16, 2008 11:56 am PT

    The swing mechanic feels really good in this game.

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