Wednesday, 23 September 2009

Pixel Man



Another Xbox Indie 80 MSP gem. Approximately 68p gets you 30 save-free, iron-man abstract platforming stages. Title screen asks if you're playing? Decline, and you're booted out to the browser. Silly you. Players are granted infinite retries to traverse ever complicating chasm environments. Grey blocks are safe, red blocks lethal, and yellow whisks you off to your next playground. Sound effects are sparse leap-blips, that tickle that 8-Bit recall gland. Early stages are wander warm-ups, that teach you about spatial geography and objective placement. Before long you're juggling pixel-perfect jumps and moving through several fixed screens, with no apparent route in sight. Progress in Pixel Man is a sublime tension: every leap takes you closer to your goal, but further away from an anti-restart safe landing.

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