It’s not often you see a game that debuted on a console make its way over to Facebook, but that’s just what’s happening with Pixeljunk Monsters. The charming tower defense game originally launched on the PlayStation 3 but is now in an early alpha state on Facebook. Despite the fact that it’s still rather early, the game is shaping up to be one of the platform’s best.
It’s not often you see a game that debuted on a console make its way over to Facebook, but that’s just what’s happening with Pixeljunk Monsters. The charming tower defense game originally launched on the PlayStation 3 but is now in an early alpha state on Facebook. Despite the fact that it’s still rather early, the game is shaping up to be one of the platform’s best.
PJM is the type of tower defense game in which you control an actual character as you build and upgrade towers. In this case, it’s a little tribal fellow who is in charge of protecting some small creatures found at the end of each level. To do that, you’ll need to build towers on top of existing trees to repel the swarms of spiders and giant rock men that will eventually come. Each level already has a number of trees in it, but you can also add additional ones by planting seeds.
As is the norm, enemies will drop coins that you can collect to build additional towers to defend against even more enemies. But unlike most games, that money can’t be spent on upgrading towers. Instead, to boost the strength or range of a tower you’ll need to dance in front of it for a certain amount of time. Since you can’t do anything while dancing, this provides a nice challenge as you attempt to balance upgrading existing towers with collecting coins and building new ones.
It simply feels like a solid and fun TD game, even in its early state with limited tower and enemy variety. The levels are well designed and the presentation is some of the best we’ve seen so far on Facebook. The visuals are bright, colorful, and feature well animated 3D characters, and the music is upbeat and charming.
It’s somewhat surprising that there isn’t more tower defense games on Facebook, and the quality of PJM only makes this absence even more glaring. It looks and plays great, and is a perfect fit for the platform, with bit-sized levels that can usually be completed in just a few minutes. If the full version offers a bit more variety, in terms of locations, enemies, and towers, it could become quite the danger to productivity.
Pixeljunk Monsters is expected to launch in full on Facebook this year, though no specific date has been announced.
