PixelJunk: SideScroller provides tight gameplay and stylish presentation in a sadly brief package that isn’t substantial enough to justify it’s price tag. In a game that provides a certain nostalgia for classic arcade shooter fans, it’s a shame that the game doesn’t offer significant longevity or replay value.
 

Players familiar with classic sidescrollers such as the R-Type series and Ikaruga will find themselves immediately at home with PixelJunk: SideScroller. Its classic neon look, presented in stunning HD, along with its tight, responsive controls and almost insane difficulty, is reminiscent of the retro shooters of old. Coupled with an impressive techno-enthused soundtrack, developer Q-games has provided what appears to be a winning formula. Sadly, the game ends up feeling more like a mini-game than a full arcade title.
 
You are armed with three basic weapons, a laser, machine gun and bomb attack, all of which can be upgraded by collecting power-ups from befallen enemies, and interchanged via a tap of a button. There are a mere three stages in the game, each with four sub-sections and an end boss, with the game taking at most two hours to complete, with nothing unlocked but hard mode for your troubles. While there is an online leaderboard for the hi-score chasers out there, this isn’t implemented strongly enough to make you want to go back and improve on your scores, in the way that other games (such as Joe Danger and Pac Man: Championship Edition DX) constantly keep you coming back for more.
 

 
On the plus side, this is a fantastic-looking game. The art style and sound are terrific, with some great music that can either match or contrast the action on-screen. I loved the curved framing of the screen to represent a classic CRT TV-monitor of yesteryear, further adding to its arcade feel. The colour schemes used are great and allow you to easily distinguish your ship from the enemies. The lava and other liquids flow brilliantly, moving in all kinds of polygonal shapes and sizes. It’s a shame that some of these effects aren’t utilised more, as areas involving the flow of liquid are some of the most fun and visually wonderful.
 
The action is fast and frantic, and while the insane difficulty can leave you very frustrated at times, the sense of achievement felt when you defeat a stage makes it worth the effort. Playing through on both casual and normal, it was hard to see a discernible difference between the two difficulties, as there is still the same amount of enemies on screen firing just as many bullets at you, in which it still takes just two to die. One helpful implementation is that losing all your lives does not kick you back to the start of the level, but gives you the option to reset your score continue from your last checkpoint on casual difficulty (which may seem like a worse punishment for hi-score hunters).
 
There is an option for co-op, which feels a little tacked-on and can make levels harder to complete, as you have to share the same amount of lives as in single player. It can also make manipulating the levels more difficult, as you are concentrating so much on dodging enemy fire. Having an additional player can therefore feel a bit overwhelming.
 
Summary
 
In spite of the tight controls and impressive art style, there simply isn’t enough game here to justify an investment. PixelJunk: SideScroller can easily be completed in less than an hour, at most two, and with very little replay value, due to its ineffective implementation of hi-scores and leaderboards, there is little incentive to play through multiple times- which is a shame, because the gameplay is solid. There just isn’t enough of it, sadly.