PixN’Love: review

• Format: iPhone, iPod Touch
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Bulkypix
• Developer: Pastagames
• Players: 1
• Site: http://pixnlovepublishing.com/topic/index.html
  

Anyone here remember green-screens? Okay, how about the Game & Watch series? Gameboys, Tetris!? Ah, right, okay now I’ve got your attention. Well, honestly if you can’t remember these then half this game will be wasted on you! Pix n’ Love Rush is a game from nowhere, and its roots are actually publishers of books on gaming history. Starting in France three years ago, they became a well known source for the archaeology of games and have recently decided to go international. One of their “check-mate” moves for global recognition has been to release an iPhone game bearing their name, Pix n’Love (Rush).

Pix n’ Love Rush has an instant feel of quality at the intro screen and as most gamers with an iPhone will know that quality feel is hard to come by, most of the time. The infinite mode here is inaccessible off the bat, and the only option open is ’5min play’, which serves as a tutorial and a goal of skill to reach before hitting the full-on infinite mode. It’s laid out like a scrolling platformer and as such, the controls are as simple as an Old Skool game should be; run right, run left, jump and shoot. Though you can only shoot up, the projectiles come back down at an angle and this lends itself to more tactful progression as you’ll quickly have to learn. You can also hurt yourself with your own shots, so they need to be well timed and if you miss, pay attention for their return or you will ruin your own combo-streak. Be warned, this is gaming from yesteryear where you will be punished for incompetence!

There are many phases that Pix n’ Love Rush will run through as you progress which are determined by your combo-counter. Obviously the better you do the higher your combo rises but this is where the magic is; each time you hit a new combo ‘block’ (x2, x5 and then x10) the graphics take a turn to a new era of gaming history. The effect is really second to none, as you score your way through the years of Red L.E.D, Green-screens, 8-Bit and L.C.D displays with a transition that rarely puts you off your stride. Smiles will dawn on faces as homage is paid to certain games that stood above all others in their heyday, and gritted teeth and frowns will stretch the facial features as the unrelenting pace and demand for pixel perfect jumps are coaxed from the player. Underpinning all this is a clever little programme that randomises each level, so you’ll be continually tested. The music too is more than worthy of praise; joyful chip-tunes that hark back to a lost era of computer made music are fitted perfectly into Pix n’Love’s ambience.

Sadly, as usual the iPhone’s touch controls are what let this fantastic little game down the most. Why the Left and Right ‘buttons’ aren’t further away from each other is a little confusing, more so is why the jump and fire buttons are so far apart! These two oddities lead to silly mistakes being made frequently and continually detract from that “Perfect” score at the end of each level, as do falling down holes and running into enemies that are covered by your thumbs, which all can be blamed on the iPhone as a platform itself. What Pix n’ Love Rush does do well though is pay its respects to gaming’s history, and it does so with love, class and affection.

4/5