PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate review for PC

Platform: PC
Also on: Mac, Linux, PS Vita
Publisher: Double Eleven
Developer: Q-Games, Double Eleven
Medium: Digital Download
Players: 1-2
Online: Leaderboards, Co-op
ESRB: E – Everyone

I have to protect my people.  They may not be able to fight for themselves, and maybe we’re just better off without them, but against my better judgement, I am compelled to ward off any incoming threat.  I no longer feel my legs as I run, I build towers tirelessly, and when I am struck down by the diligent march of enemy waves, the sense of pain has been replaced with the sound of my purse dispensing funds unto the land.

They came last spring, as if from nowhere, from whatever rotted hellpot in the suffocating ocean depths woke from its slumber.  Maybe it was the volcano that stirred the monsters, who began attacking new colonies in the center of our island; marching south as they were warded off.  Now, rainbows have returned to decorate the woods again, but to the north I have tracked remaining forces who grow stronger by the day.

They must have been spying on me in battle, studying my tactics for counterpoint as they bait me further onto the peninsula.  Just when I am prepared to face their worst, do my encampments falter.

A stranger has aided me at times with silent cooperation, punctuated occasionally with a symbol of trust or instruction as we establish a plan.  Some days my friend seems almost familiar, and others it’s as if we’ve never met before– scrambling to be about our wits as wave after wave of monstrosities creep closer to the villages.  My comrades are never to be counted on as a permanent ally, however; their temporary presence in the forests being the one certain thing about them.

Ultimately, I am alone.  I alone have danced through colored flags.  I have tasted the heart of the last monster.  I will be the choke point.  I have affixed a bottleneck at the horizon, prepared to wear down the most sinewy vulgarity that approaches.  I am made the monster. I have stood by helplessly as our people are disemboweled.

The gold on our towers is mine.  The cries of our enemies is mine.  The singular road from each town is mine; a ghostly trek made to cut off enemy forces at the head.

In time, they will seek the volcano, where in the ash you can trace my staggered footprints to the last village.  My only hope is that in my wake will be found a countless mass of dusty carcasses who never managed to reach the small few I protect.

Everyone who’s anyone has already played PixelJunk Monsters, and now all those nobodies on PC, Mac, and Linux can enjoy it too, with its arrival on Steam.  Not to mention they’re getting the complete package considering all the DLC bundled in. PJMU seems to have had a buggy release but in my experience has stabilized beyond these growing pains into the game we all expected to arrive on its initial approach.

Grade: A-