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Alawishus Pixel is a puzzle platformer that has you going deeper inside a mysterious cavern, room by room, to find out what happened to an unknown explorer.
The game opens up with your character entering this giant cave and then finding a sign, by pressing Y you read that someone else has ventured into the maw of this cavern and it’s up to you to save them. The first few rooms are practice rooms that allow you to become familiar with the controls. The player gets his directions from signs that are posted in each room. The signs are quite well written and break the fourth wall numerous times.
The controls are very basic, Y is to read anything in the game while A is to jump and X is to run. The B button is pressed to restart whatever room you’re currently in and for me this is the first thing that grabbed me as a very clever design. Early in the game I accidentally pressed the button quickly and the screen fizzled for a second them went back to normal. In Alawishus Pixel you need to press and hold the B button to restart a room. When holding the button you’ll see the room fizzle and finally disappear. I love this design because it allows a user to accidentally press a button for whatever reason and not be penalized for it.
The creator of this game took a lot of time to make sure the controls were spot on…
The other controls in the game are done very well. Alawishus has just the right amount of heft to him when you move about and the jump is perfect when it comes to timing and control. The creator of this game took a lot of time to make sure the controls were spot on and this is the kind of care I appreciate in any sort of game let alone a puzzle platformer.
The controls are so good that I was a little sad that each level of the game is only one room. The controls are so well done that I wouldn’t mind an entire level of traversing a world with these controls. As it stands, each room is a level and your objective is to escape the room with whatever is in the room. The idea is to move and manipulate objects so that you’re able to make it to the next door and farther into the cavern.
The game’s story is very well done. You know there’s someone out there and they “talk” to you through the signs, there’s a compelling feeling that you want to clear the next room just to see what happened to him. There are rooms that don’t feature one of the signs that tells the story and that just makes you want to clear two rooms before you put the game down. As you complete more rooms trying to solve the mystery of the explorer you’ll uncover even greater surprises.
The sound is your basic fare and fits the genre nicely. It’s the basic sounds from all of the actions going on while you navigate each room.
The music is fantastic with a catchy upbeat melody that captures the essence of old school gaming.
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COULD BE HELPFUL FOR ANXIETY BECAUSE
Puzzles are challenging but not too hard
- Quality platforming required in every level
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COULD BE UNHELPFUL FOR ANXIETY BECAUSE
- If you’re too anxious some of the levels may be hard to complete and since each level is only one room there’s not much else to do while you figure it out
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WHY YOU SHOULD BE PLAYING THIS
Everything about this game works. Sometimes an indie game comes off as a rough around the edges game but in the case of Alawishus Pixel everything is polished to a near flawless design. This is one of the shining examples of the great games that are available in the XBOX Live Indie Game section. For 80 Microsoft points it’s at a price point that everyone can reach and everyone should take the time to play it.
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This review was based on the Xbox 360 version that was provided by the reviewer.
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