the Tommy|Zor era

While I would love to have the opportunity to come home every night, crack open a few zillion beers and play a 40 hour game (hey buddy, did you see that? I stole your strikethrough joke @$$*#!fucker and made a reference to you), I cannot afford such luxuries all the time. So, what’s a guy to do? Pick up a casual game – one that is involved, fun and can occupy time without feeling like a grind.

Enter the world of PixelJunk’s Monsters, a downloadable game for the PS3. At its core, it is a tower defense game. My first exposure to this style of game was back in the day of Warcraft 3 and I thoroughly enjoyed the concept. Tower defense is a strategic genre in which one must defend a base by building towers along a route that many enemies will travel through. It becomes a rock, paper, scissors type of thing where some towers are stronger against certain types of enemies, or some enemies are immune against certain types of towers. On top of determining what types of towers are best to use, you also have the option of upgrading towers. Now the real strategy comes into play: do you build more towers that are weaker, or a smaller variety but upgrade them? Where do you place them on the map? It’s a fun strategy game where the common man has a chance… unlike Starcraft. Fucking Starcraft.

Up until this game, the only tower defense games I knew were meant and designed for a computer. I initially thought the idea of a tower defense game for a console would be obtrusive and difficult to work with. I am proud to say that I have been proven wrong on both accounts. Monsters is your basic tower defense game, but it has a charm to it. Your home base is a house with little creature villagers and it actually upsets you when an enemy gets through your defenses and kills one of your villagers. The game is very colourful and while some say the music is its sticking point, I disagree. The music actually grew on me and I couldn’t imagine the game with anything more suited for it.

Get ready for your first of MANY waves of monsters

The game starts you off nice and gentle. The first few levels introduce you to the game, how to play, how the towers work and all that yazz. After your tutorial, however, it’s time to rock and the game fucking knocks you on your ass. You will make many errors when playing, but the real charm is your drive to replay levels. You have the option of getting rainbows on completed levels (finishing the level without letting a single enemy get to your base) and you will find yourself going back to those levels… again… and again… and again… and again. It will piss you off, it will make you cry, yet you still keep coming back. Kind of like dating v2… or reading this site… or reading my articles with their goddamn ellipses…

There is also an option for 2 players. I’m normally with v2 on this point and believe video-games should best be reserved for a self-indulgence – but I give this game the exception. 2 players in this game encourages communication, because if you don’t articulate what your intentions are, the game will destroy both of you. It’s also a great way for 2 people to kill a lot of time when they have nothing better to do… or they do have something better to do, but decided to play games instead. It’s also a game where both men and women can play together without consequence. Now that is a rarity.

There are few levels of video games in this world that will shatter your self esteem… this is one of them

My recommendation would be to at least download the demo. The beauty of the casual gaming market is its allowance for you to get a preview before you put down your hard earned pennies. That being said, it is worth the meager purchase price as you will get every dollar’s worth… twice.

One more thing, don’t forget about the expansion pack