Axel and Pixel. It does sound to me like some sort of “pixel, puzzle game”.
How about that? I was somewhat correct!
As I sat down on my floor with a coke while my room is being slowly broiled by my room mate running the heat like crazy, I was getting ready to play a game in which I never heard of.
The best way to start reviewing something is to erase any thoughts of any previous gaming experience to make room for new opinions about games/life/transvestites.
This charming little Xbox Live arcade game brings a new meaning to the word “think”.
A lot of us have lost the way’s of thinking games. Remember games who’s logic made no sense but they made sense to us?
(because we are badass gamers with no life)
Gaming logic makes no sense, just like Wonka candy.
My first reaction is that the graphics remind me somewhat of Little big planet and the arts of Tim Burton. It has that underground feel to it where you cut together various medium to work as one. They have language select, They didn’t have Swedish nor Polish which are my two primary languages, they did however have the two countries in which Poland has had the most quarrel with, Czech and Germany.
Hey! Artists ride bicycles! I should know! I have strong legs!
It begins with a man with a very lovely Red barrette being all artsy while taking a nap. Without him knowing, an evil rat comes into the picture, playing bad music to the point where the little red barrette hippie artist starts to dream. In that dream he discoverers that the pesky little rat has the key for him to return to the real world. Not only isn’t he a rat anymore, I have no fricken Idea what the heck he is!
He looks like that! You tell me what the heck that is!
Obviously this is a very bad dream because a giant ice troll breaks your house. That is how the game beginnings.
This is to the letter “a puzzle game”. For you people who have no patience, don’t bother with this. You’ll only get annoyed. For us who enjoy the random mind f#ckery, this is the type of game I could spend days just figuring everything out. Your Left thumb stick is a little glittery/sparkly/oooh shiny! Cursor.
You move the cursor around the map to find animations, objectives and even object. With it you click and make things happen for you in the game play.
For instance, A Giant ice rock fell and blocks the bridge from being rolled out by my dog that is running in a hamster wheel but it cannot stay there since there is in fact, a giant ice rock blocking the locking mechanism. God i can’t believe I just wrote that into once sentence. Now the Troll is blocking the reflection of the sun for you to use to melt the ice block. So you throw snowball at him. Make sense doesn’t it? You throw soft snowballs at something that is bigger then the pyramids and is made out of the same substance.
(told you games like this doesn’t make any sense, that is why they are fun!)
Penguins to the left of me, Snowmen to the right, here I am. Stuck in the middle with you!
Either way, you defeat the monster by a series of Quicktime events (you know, press X..press A…Press A B), he moves his fat ass out of the way and the sun melts the ice block and your dog can run now freely in the wheel to release the bridge while you click the locking mechanism hence, securing the bridge.
“Motherbleeper stole my Dawg!”
This game reminds me of Discworld. If anyone is familiar with Terry Pratchett’s novels in which Discworld game is based on you’ll understand the comparesment, if not, shame on you. Go read Terry Pratchett and hope that you not get sodomized on the way by masterchief. Go ahead, I am waiting….
Another game this reminds me of is monkey Island. The logic is the same.
Except for random click and play in the correct order type of functionality, you also have jigsaw puzzles, you have some obstacle courses and plenty of quicktime events.
Make a game formula “click and play+quicktime=$$$.
I have a slight suggestion of something that really annoyed me. Once an action or a set of events have been made, The earlier events were still available, which annoyed me since my guy went and did things he didn’t have to do. I guess this will prevent me from clicking all over the map in hopes that I don’t have to think to much. Because once Axel is stuck in an insane animation sequence, oh boy.
In game R-Kelly impression
Also, note on the red barrette that Axel is an artist, which means that on some levels, you’ll have the possibility to use his San Fransisco new hippie style to just draw something. Come on. you know you want to!
The first few levels are easy enough and then it gets a bit challenging, remember that sometime things don’t make sense. So just go with the flow and drink a lot of cough medicine and you’ll go through this game just fine.
I’ve known worse pass times and even with all the hippie jokes aside, I did enjoy this game, I still do.
The animations are funny, the music is relaxing, the sound effects are adorable and the functionality is so easy that even a brain dead chimp can play this game.
Great pass time, definitely worth the play.
I’ll be going back to the game for some more mind f$ckery.
Silver Wish Games & 2kgames
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