Last night, PS3 owners got a special treat in the weekly Playstation Store update, and no, I'm not talking about the Street Fighter IV system theme – a downloadable demo of the newest game in the PixelJunk series, Eden. While I am enthused by the PixelJunk concept of innovative idea-based reasonably priced games, Racers and Monsters just didn't grab my attention. With my first playthrough of Eden last night, however, I was instantly smitten.
In this garden-building action-puzzler, the player controls a small "Grimp" character, swinging on silk threads and jumping from calligraphic leaf to calligraphic leaf of thoroughly modern stylized garden. Crashing into pods releases clouds of pollen, which is gathered in seeds which can then be activated to sprout new plants, which allow you to travel farther, to even more seeds, pollen, and techno-organic bliss. It sounds complicated, and at first it feels like it too. I'm not ashamed to admit that I failed the first garden miserably (twice!), but the environment and surprisingly compelling physics were just so captivating that I couldn't stop.
One of the curious but intriguing elements of Eden is that the game instantly supports video recording and upload to YouTube from within the game with absolutely no delay, thanks to the PS3's underused SPUs, so get ready to see a massive tidal wave of videos (like the one above) showing off people's best times and acrobatic prowess. The game also supports local co-op multiplayer, is one of the first PS3 games to utilize the new Trophy system, and BEGS to be played on an HDTV for crisp, monochromatic graphics and lush sound, thanks to the original soundtrack by Japanese multimedia artist Baiyon.
In fact, my only problem with the game and these spectacular features right now is that all these YouTube videos make me want to play it right now. Man, I can't wait to get home and collect some pollen!
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