The digital delights of Sony’s scrumptious PlayStation Network service know no bounds. Aside from letting punters compete in online gaming, stream films, browse the Internet and more, its premier attraction rests in the copious supply of downloadable games ripe for the picking. From PSN exclusives to PSOne Classics, minis and plain old add-on content, Sony’s online space is chock full of goodies battling it out for your hard-earned digital dollars.
Welcome back to another installment of Inside PlayStation Network, where every Monday – Friday we’ll pluck a PSN release—be it new or old—and put it in the spotlight for a thorough dissection. Fancy getting a new PSN game but don’t know what one to plump for? Perhaps this feature will help. Didn’t realize that a game was available in your region until now? We’ve got you covered. Or, perhaps you were musing over what those lucky Japanese folk were tucking into over in the Land of the Rising Sun? You can be sure our coverage will extend to those rare regional exclusives as much as those firmly embedded on the public consciousness.
Today, we scrutinize PSP mini Pix’n Love Rush.
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Developer: BulkyPix
Region(s) available: North America, Europe
Players: 1
As you might have guessed from the game’s title, Pix’n Love Rush is based around fast-paced gameplay sessions, and as such the game’s levels have been tailored for bite-sized consumption. Boasting a retro-esque aesthetic sprinkled with a hint of old school platforming, the game offers up three game modes to devourer: Classic Rush, Cursed Rush and On-Off Rush.
Each mode shares similarities with the other, though they all play fundamentally different from a gameplay perspective. Classic Rush is the main attraction, and is a decidedly simple affair: gobble up all the circles with a ‘+’ icon in them, blasting foes and being careful not to obtain the items with containing an ‘-‘and colliding with halo-harbouring bees. The stages themselves are a side-scrolling affair, each one moving in different pattern (up or down, left or right). Fail to keep up with the perpetually scrolling screen and you’ll end up brown bread, just like in the good old days. You can also pick between a 5-Minute or Infinite time limit, with the latter only ending when your health dries up.
Moving on, Cursed Rush acts like a survival mode, tasking players with traversing a course as it moves left to right for as long as possible. Five difficulty settings are up for grabs here, each one making the stages more condensed thus affording less margin for error. On-Off Rush, meanwhile, has you moving horizontally while nabbing sun and moon-style symbols, depending on the time of day.
Your first run has you picking up one particular item, before sending you back to collect the other after hitting an on-off switch. There’s two distinct game types on offer here, namely Arcade and Puzzle, both of which are a timed-based affair. In puzzle however, you have to obtain all items on offer while Arcade tasks you only with making one pass. Gobbling up multiple symbols in a row will bag you some extra time.
Join us again tomorrow for another glance Inside PlayStation Network.