DoctorFinger
10-26-2009, 01:11 PM
Axel & Pixel Review
Title - Axel & Pixel (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/a/axelandpixelxbla/)
Platform - Xbox Live Arcade
Developer - Silver Wish Games (http://silverwishgames.com/)
Publisher - 2K Play (http://www.2kgames.com/2kplay/)
ESRB Rating - E (Everyone)
MSRP - 800 Microsoft Points ($10)
Editor - Michael "DoctorFinger" Chauvet
What's Hot: Beautiful art style; some wonderfully creative and interesting puzzles; cute little minigames; decent challenge level if you want to be a completionist.
What's Not: Some puzzles just seem random; there's no connection between the puzzle and the solution; pretty short with little replay value. Axel & Pixel is the sort of game you'll either love or hate. Fans will rave about the wistful and imaginative visuals, the cutsey sensibilities and the fun puzzles. Detractors will talk about the lack of depth and challenge. Yes, it's a point-and-click adventure, one of the lost genres of gaming. And yes, it's aimed more squarely at kids than its XBLA contemporaries Sam & Max and Return to Monkey Island. But how does it stack up overall?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2432/4046849216_312eb1662b.jpg
Pretty much the definition of "bucolic"
You play as Alex, a painter who lives in a bucolic little cottage in the country with your dog Pixel. While having a nightmare, you and your canine companion are trapped in a dream world by some sort of evil...rat I guess. You have to chase the...rat to escape, and you'll end up chasing him across 24 wonderfully hand drawn chapters centered around the four seasons. In each chapter you'll have to figure a way across, around or through a series of obstacles by using your environment. A big scary bee in your way? Make the flowers bloom on the other side of the map to get him out of your path. At first this concept sort of threw me for a loop. In the vast majority of point-and-click adventure games you can only manipulate the environment directly around your character, in Axel & Pixel you can sometimes affect objects regardless of where you are in relation to them. Some objects still need you need to be near to manipulate them, but others, not so much.
At times you'll be too busy gawking at the scenery to be bothered to actually advance. Everything in the game looks hand drawn with a style which runs from cute to slightly creepy. The animations are all intentionally jerky, which combined with the gibberish language Axel spouts and the ethereal soundtrack really reinforces the dream world setting of the game. The denizens of the worlds you meet overflow with charm, personality or menace, all without a single line of dialogue or text to support the visuals. The puzzles themselves are often wonderfully wacky and cartoony, adding to the experience.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2751/4046849754_05349b3b91.jpg
We really do need more games with hang-gliding
Most of the puzzles are the simple sort you expect in a game like this: combine X with Y to make Z, which you need to advance past an obstacle. Sprinkled in are some QTEs (quicktime events), some light cryptography and a trio of vehicle minigames, which can be accessed outside the main structure of the game as well. Each chapter also has a number of hidden collectibles for you to find, the hunt for which adds some needed challenge to an otherwise fairly short and easy game. There are also a number of puzzles which have seemingly random solutions. Maybe I just don't "get" the solution, but there were several solutions in the game which seemed to be completely divorced from logic.
While the game has a ton of personality, and some really engrossing puzzles, it doesn't quite rise to the level of greatness. The presentation is beautiful, but it does get a little flat and repetitive after a while. Still the solid challenge curve and the art design make it a game worth playing if you're a fan of adventure titles. Action junkies need not apply in this case.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2591/4046850278_2a7324000f.jpg
You can see the evil rat thing in the far right of this screen
Score: (4 out of 5 Cogs)
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG4.png
Michael says, "Axel & Pixel has a wonderful aesthetic, with some genuinely fun puzzles and challenges. There are just a few too many random seeming puzzles to make it a truly great adventure game. It's a wonderful experience if you want to play with your kids, or are already a fan of point-and-click adventures, but it won't convert anyone to the genre"
Title - Axel & Pixel (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/a/axelandpixelxbla/)
Platform - Xbox Live Arcade
Developer - Silver Wish Games (http://silverwishgames.com/)
Publisher - 2K Play (http://www.2kgames.com/2kplay/)
ESRB Rating - E (Everyone)
MSRP - 800 Microsoft Points ($10)
Editor - Michael "DoctorFinger" Chauvet
What's Hot: Beautiful art style; some wonderfully creative and interesting puzzles; cute little minigames; decent challenge level if you want to be a completionist.
What's Not: Some puzzles just seem random; there's no connection between the puzzle and the solution; pretty short with little replay value. Axel & Pixel is the sort of game you'll either love or hate. Fans will rave about the wistful and imaginative visuals, the cutsey sensibilities and the fun puzzles. Detractors will talk about the lack of depth and challenge. Yes, it's a point-and-click adventure, one of the lost genres of gaming. And yes, it's aimed more squarely at kids than its XBLA contemporaries Sam & Max and Return to Monkey Island. But how does it stack up overall?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2432/4046849216_312eb1662b.jpg
Pretty much the definition of "bucolic"
You play as Alex, a painter who lives in a bucolic little cottage in the country with your dog Pixel. While having a nightmare, you and your canine companion are trapped in a dream world by some sort of evil...rat I guess. You have to chase the...rat to escape, and you'll end up chasing him across 24 wonderfully hand drawn chapters centered around the four seasons. In each chapter you'll have to figure a way across, around or through a series of obstacles by using your environment. A big scary bee in your way? Make the flowers bloom on the other side of the map to get him out of your path. At first this concept sort of threw me for a loop. In the vast majority of point-and-click adventure games you can only manipulate the environment directly around your character, in Axel & Pixel you can sometimes affect objects regardless of where you are in relation to them. Some objects still need you need to be near to manipulate them, but others, not so much.
At times you'll be too busy gawking at the scenery to be bothered to actually advance. Everything in the game looks hand drawn with a style which runs from cute to slightly creepy. The animations are all intentionally jerky, which combined with the gibberish language Axel spouts and the ethereal soundtrack really reinforces the dream world setting of the game. The denizens of the worlds you meet overflow with charm, personality or menace, all without a single line of dialogue or text to support the visuals. The puzzles themselves are often wonderfully wacky and cartoony, adding to the experience.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2751/4046849754_05349b3b91.jpg
We really do need more games with hang-gliding
Most of the puzzles are the simple sort you expect in a game like this: combine X with Y to make Z, which you need to advance past an obstacle. Sprinkled in are some QTEs (quicktime events), some light cryptography and a trio of vehicle minigames, which can be accessed outside the main structure of the game as well. Each chapter also has a number of hidden collectibles for you to find, the hunt for which adds some needed challenge to an otherwise fairly short and easy game. There are also a number of puzzles which have seemingly random solutions. Maybe I just don't "get" the solution, but there were several solutions in the game which seemed to be completely divorced from logic.
While the game has a ton of personality, and some really engrossing puzzles, it doesn't quite rise to the level of greatness. The presentation is beautiful, but it does get a little flat and repetitive after a while. Still the solid challenge curve and the art design make it a game worth playing if you're a fan of adventure titles. Action junkies need not apply in this case.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2591/4046850278_2a7324000f.jpg
You can see the evil rat thing in the far right of this screen
Score: (4 out of 5 Cogs)
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG4.png
Michael says, "Axel & Pixel has a wonderful aesthetic, with some genuinely fun puzzles and challenges. There are just a few too many random seeming puzzles to make it a truly great adventure game. It's a wonderful experience if you want to play with your kids, or are already a fan of point-and-click adventures, but it won't convert anyone to the genre"