Game review: PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe - Sony PSP

Tower defence games have become very popular, particularly on portable games devices.

Their main strength is in providing short bursts of exciting yet strategic play as you defend your character’s home or base from waves of invaders.

Monsters Deluxe from Q-Games is one of the most stylish and enjoyable TD games I’ve come across.

This game takes the basic concept of placing armed units (defensive towers) in tactical locations to take out the enemy, but adds an extra layer of sophistication to it.

In Monsters Deluxe you play as TikiMan, who must defend his helpless flock of island dwellers from marauding attackers.

TikiMan is pretty helpless too but he is able to chop down trees and replace them with towers which will automatically fire when enemies are within range.

There are more than 40 levels in the game, each one featuring a different layout, requiring you to be constantly devising new strategies for survival. Each level also brings fresh challenges, such as being restricted on the types of tower you can use, limited cash or only having a small number of trees to work with.

Monsters attack in waves on the ground or from the sky, their routes towards TikiMan’s hut dictated by the landscape on each level, although air attackers have more freedom of movement.

The monsters come in all shapes and sizes, some of them small and fast moving but weak, others slow and lumbering but harder to destroy.

The beasts’ aim is simple – to snake around the map without being killed. Each monster which makes it to TikiMan’s base snatches one of the 20 potato-looking people from his tribe.

Your aim is to build defences which blast the monsters away and stop them getting that far.

For each level there is a target for how many waves of attackers (including a boss monster at the end) you must repel without losing all 20 of TikiMan’s forest family.

If you complete a level without losing any of the island folk then you earn a rainbow. These become important as you need a certain number of rainbows to progress through the game.

To help defeat the monsters there are seven types of tower, ranging from arrows and cannons to anti-air guns and lasers.

The towers have different ratings for attributes such as power, speed and range, with some towers being better at taking out ground monsters, some better at defeating air invaders and others being good all-rounders.

Towers are paid for using gold coins collected from monsters you have killed. You only get given a small budget at the beginning of levels to buy your first couple of towers. Run out of money and you’ll be stuck, though you can sell unwanted towers.

At the beginning of levels only a small number of tower types are unlocked. To make the others available you must collect blue gems, also dropped by slain monsters.

Now is probably a good point to tell you about the major twist which sets Monsters Deluxe apart from other tower defence games.

Most TD games have you controlling things from afar. You’re in charge of tower placement and strategy but it’s like you’re doing it from a remote command centre or maybe a bunker away from the battlefield.

In Monsters you must get involved in things on the ground too, controlling TikiMan himself using the analogue stick.

If you want a tower built you must move TikiMan to the spot where you want it.

To collect coins and gems dropped by exterminated monsters you must move TikiMan over them.

Moving TikiMan around runs the risk of him bumping into monsters. If this happens then he loses some of his loot.

This plants extra strategy into the game, but it doesn’t end there.

A whole other layer of tactics comes into play with the upgrading of towers.

There are three ways to increase your towers’ capabilities.

The first way is to spend blue gems on upgrades. This is quick but delays unlocking new tower types.

The second method is to wait for your towers to very slowly upgrade themselves as they gain experience.

The final upgrade route is to place TikiMan in front of a tower. He then does a little dance which very gradually levels up the tower. The advantage of this is it doesn’t cost anything but it takes a long time and distracts TikiMan from other important duties.

The amount of strategy in Monsters goes far beyond what most TD games provide. This is a thinking person’s game. Strength of force will only get you so far without speed of mind.

Monsters is very challenging, and chances are you won’t complete every level on your first attempt, never mind earn a rainbow. The learning curve is steady and the game always stays beneath the frustration threshold.

Despite the intensity and fast pace of the game Monsters manages to maintain a laid-back feel, thanks largely to the very pleasant visuals.

The graphics, which are incredibly cute and have a lovely hand-drawn quality to them, are very easy on the eye.

Music in the game is very good too, adding extra charm.

Controls in Monsters are simple and intuitive. Moving TikiMan around the environments is easy, as is pulling up the menus for tower placement and upgrades.

There are very few things to complain about with Monsters, though the camera occasionally of its own accord zooming in on certain areas of the map is one small niggle since it briefly means you can’t see what you’re doing which can lead to mistakes.

Overall, with tons of levels, challenges, monsters and towers this game is bulging with content.

Variable difficulty levels and online functionality add even more longevity and replay value to the game.

PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe offers so many things to enjoy that I would now rank it as one of my favourite tower defence games, alongside the classic iPhone game Fieldrunners which has also recently emerged on the PSP in the new Minis range.

Monsters Deluxe is one of the best value games you can pick up for your PSP.

Verdict: 8.5 out of 10 – A monster of a game which combines delightful style with deep, strategic gameplay. One not to be missed.