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Name: PixelJunk Shooter

Q-Games have released their fourth PlayStation Network game in the PixelJunk series this week which is PixelJunk Shooter for the PlayStation 3; many eyes have been upon this title since it was first announced during the E3 convention in April 2009. Originally titled PixelJunk 1-4 (which still echoes within the title) fans were given 13 days to think of a name for the game, although "Shooter" wasn't the most popular choice for a name, it's the one that Q-Games went with as it encompasses everything the game is, an all out honest to goodness shooting game.

The action in PixelJunk Shooter sees you on a rescue mission, miners have become trapped below the planet Apoxus Prime while mining for energy; you must take your ship and fly below the surface of the planet and retrieve the miners who've become trapped in the tunnels and have no way to reach the surface on their own. Unfortunately, the environment they've got themselves trapped in is far from ideal for a rescue and you must your piloting skills to find and rescue them. Many dangers are lurking below the planet, strange breeds of enemies, molten magma and poison gas are but a few of the obstacles you'll encounter along your path.

The game is essentially split into the three different regions of the underground; these are referred to as episodes. Each episode of the underground is split into five different cave systems you must navigate which brings the total number of levels to 15, each of the three Episodes compromises of a boss that must be defeated after collecting enough of the treasures to unlock the door to that section. The first levels of the game introduce you to the basic concept, piloting your ship, locating the survivors and then bringing them aboard your ship with an extendable tether, the little folk are dotted around a maze of tunnels which you must negotiate to ensure their survival. Pretty soon you're introduced to one of the main enemies of the game, heat; being near the molten lava does your ship no good and pretty soon you'll see the temperature gauge rise, if your ship gets to hot then the ship won't be able to fly and will come crashing down. Thankfully there are pockets of water stored away below the surface which will enable your ship to cool down and carry on its rescue mission. Some miners have become trapped behind soft rock which can be blown away with the ships cannon, you'll need to be careful though as a shot to an already exposed area can hit the survivor, killing him instantly. Your cannon will also come in handy for shooting the pesky aliens that litter the underworld, these come in various shapes and sizes from minor annoyances of flying creatures that are nesting, to other more dangerous types which will shoot lava at you. Thankfully as you come up across the meaner aliens you'll be able to make use of your ships second line of defence which comes in the form of a series of homing missiles.

Should you rescue (or kill) all of the survivors from a particular region then a set of gates will open allowing you passage to deeper parts of the tunnel system where more survivors await your rescue. It's not all bad news though, treasure can also be collected as you find it dotted around the landscape, sometimes hidden in soft rock; this isn't just to give you something to find either, progression through the game depends on you collecting this treasure. As the game progresses you'll encounter ever increasing danger whilst trying to perform your heroic duties, some survivors will be trapped below molten lava where your ship can not travel, you'll have to find some way of dousing those fires before you can attempt a rescue. Luckily there is normally some water within a short range which can help with that directly or by picking up a piece of the local fauna which either holds water or can absorb water from a local source. Once the magma has been cooled it turns into soft rock which can be then shot through with your cannon. Naturally, the deeper you go underground then the more enemies you'll encounter, each with their own unique quirk and a particular method you'll use to deal with them.

Control of the game is simple and intuitive; it's a multi-directional shooter, one analogue stick controls the way you move and the other the way you shoot. You've one button for your cannon (which can be held down for the homing missiles) and you've one for your tether to scoop up the miners, no need to memorise a load of buttons here then, all a good and standard arcade fare.

Multiplayer comes in the form of a local two player game, it's a shame that there's no option for PlayStation Network games, this game would lend itself perfectly to that, but, you can still challenge your friends scores via the online leaderboard, you've to be signed into the PSN at the time of playing, but, that's nothing unusual.

It's got to be said one of the majorly fun parts of this game is the physics that drive the liquids on the game, it's the star of the show really, although not incredibly detailed graphically, the liquid in the game acts superbly and interacts with the scenery and action on screen tremendously. Magma is the first liquid obstacle that you'll encounter with it's counter being water which can cool it down into soft rock, when the two meet they react to each other as you would expect, the water will turn to rock forming a crust on the magma which can then be shot to allow the water to get deeper down; this can be a battle when you encounter a large pool of magma as the water will evaporate as well as running off the forming crust. The water also has a real weighty feel to it as well; the way it shifts about and reacts to the environment is impressive, blast a small hole in a rock and the water will squeeze through and drip down, blast a large hole and it will thunder through flooding whatever lays beneath. Your ship will also drag as it encounters the water as well, feeling decidedly sluggish as you manoeuvre your way through it, or becoming obviously heavier if your ship is caught in the downward flow of the water, it's something Q-Games have done with great effect even though it might sound resoundingly simple.

The graphics on the game are fairly simplistic, but, then they don't need to be anything else and form part of the games charm, there not detailed but you know exactly what everything is and what it's supposed to be and that's the main point of them after all. The soundtrack to the game on the other hand is utterly superb and really helps pull you into the game, it's produced by High Frequency Bandwidth and has been designed to be dynamic, changing the layers of the sound to the action on the screen and it all works like a charm, the music becoming tense when danger is around or giving a relaxing ambience when things are relatively calm.

As always, Q-Games have excelled themselves with the presentation of the game, an excellent menu system which is easy to navigate and straight forward enough. As with all the PixelJunk series of games you've got the option of playing this game on your PlayStation Portable via Remote Play. The game translates well to the PSP controls, albeit you lost the option of using both analogue sticks obviously, but the controls adjust and map themselves to the buttons instead, it's a bit weird playing the same game with different controls but it can't be helped, and gives you the option of playing the game in a different room, or, via the magic of Broadband which would allow you to carry on playing while you're at the other side of the world should you so wish and you can't argue with that can you?

Something else worth mentioning is the ability to record your game session and then export it out and upload it onto the internet via sites like YouTube, this is a great bonus feature that should be included in more games in this day and age, you can show off your skills for real to your friends when they ask how you managed to beat there score, a game that gives you the ability to truly brag and show off your gaming prowess is never a bad thing.

This is probably the best PixelJunk game to date, sure the others; Racers, Monsters and Eden have their place and are great games themselves and are each in their own genres separate from this title, but somehow this seems to ooze style and charm to the next degree and as you'll tell by our score, comes highly recommended.