Find PixelJunk Monsters too hard? Help is on the way.
PixelJunk monsters is one of the best selling games on the PSN at the moment. But along with the fun of dancing in front of arrow towers that shoot down giant bumblebees, comes the controller throwing frustration of trying to complete some of the later levels. But don’t worry if you experienced this urge to fling your DualShock across the room, help is one the way.
Nerfgun over at Citizen Game wrote an email to Dylan Cuthbert, founder of Q-Games, explaining the difficulty him and his fiancee are having with the PixelJunk games and asking him to look into adding the ability to play the game on an easier difficulty. Not too long after Dylan replied:
Hello Ryan,
Heheh, your mail almost made me lose my tea all over the PC keyboard.
You’ll be pleased to know that one thing we will add to Monsters in an upcoming patch is a difficulty setting menu – you won’t be able to use the online ranking (that wouldn’t be fair) but you can advance on any difficulty you like… even expert (which yes, is harder than the default setting). The patch will be free.
As for Eden, well… that’s way too easy a game to make it any easier, surely???!
At least in co-op you can reach out and catch your betrothed if she falls, the veritable juliet to your romeo so to speak.However, we do have lots of ideas for the expansion pack as the controls are too much fun to waste on just one set of game rules. I’m sure we will try and add a more namby pamby mode for the “lighter” people out there.
Regards
Dylan
We will keep you updated on the PJ Monsters patch and the PJ Eden expansion when more info is released.
I had an email correspondence with Cuthbert as well in regards to PJM very shortly after it was released – and he was even a bit more glib in his response.
What bothers me is that if almost EVERYONE universally exclaims that the time limit added to PJE turned a potentially stellar game into a great game that gets overwhelmingly frustrating, then maybe there is a point to it. This isn’t just fanboy outcry, here. This is the general sentiment from professional reviewers. I realise that your game is your creation, but you didn’t make it for you – you made it for consumers who spend money on it. Up until the demo was released all the playable versions I had seen had no timer. People’s expectations were set at that gameplay element, and the switch at the end was not only unnerving, but enough to sour a lot of people off of the game. I can honestly say that I have little to no interest in finishing anything after garden 2 because I don’t have the time it would take to dedicate being as proficient as is required to do so.
Anyway.. PJ have some good games, but they need to listen to their audience’s critiques – and not just praise. And I mean that constructively. I eagerly await their next release, but in the meantime I also await some patches that make the game more enjoyable for more people.