PixelJunk Monsters is still one of the best games released on the PSN. The terrific tower defense gameplay coupled with the cute 2D artwork and simple controls really makes this title stand out. Gamers who played through the title multiple times have been looking for more, and the team over at Q-Games has delivered with the recent expansion, PixelJunk Monsters Encore.
Encore brings an entire new island to the game, Toki Island. When you load the game after purchasing the expansion, you have to choose whether to play on the original Tiki Island or the new Toki Island. There are 15 new levels to play through in the new expansion and five new music tracks to accompany those stages. All the tracks are still performed by Otograph, so the feel of the original game remains as you go through the new levels.
There have been a few changes, mainly in the towers and their cost on Toki Island. The Ice Tower is now a standard item which you can build at any time. I’m happy to see this addition as the Ice Tower can really help to slow down the waves of oncoming enemies. In addition, the Telsa Tower has a reduced gem cost, so you don’t need to collect as many blue gems to unlock the Tesla Tower. Something to keep in mind, however, is that the towers you have unlocked on Tiki Island do not carry over to Toki Island, so you’re essentially starting back from scratch. This is remedied by having to go through the Easy section of the game first, similar to how Tiki Island is setup.
The difficulty level has definitely been ramped up for PixelJunk Monsters Encore. Even the Easy levels aren’t all that easy on Toki Island. In the first Easy level, you have waves of enemies coming at you from multiple locations, so you need to position your towers properly to prevent a full invasion.
PixelJunk Monsters Encore is definitely a terrific expansion to an amazing game. However, the difficultly level could be a barrier to entry for a good portion of players. I would say you definitely want to buy this expansion, but only if you’ve already completed all the levels on the original Tiki Island. If you haven’t, stick to completing the original game before picking up this expansion pack.
Overall: Buy it Only if you Completed the Game
