Fume XL
No matter how long i play i never have the chance to see those.
They only appear in short period and then i dont see them anymore nor have the chance to get bigger ones.
Reviews for "Pixel Purge"
Huge Potential, but Ultimately Lacking
This game is the first game I have actually signed into to rate/review. That being said, I have played countless shooters and tower defense games. This game ranks high among and has the potential to be one of the best free shooter flash games I have ever played.
The core concept is really solid and works nearly flawlessly as is. Over polished pixels seems to bring a new age feel to old school classic gaming. Pixel Purges' fatal flaw seems to be in the transition of difficulty starting around when your ship reaches level 15. Strategy becomes incredibly linear late-game and demands a ridiculous luck factor, relying heavily on finding power-ups amongst a mess of explosions, overlapping enemies, pixel blocks, etc. Somehow I managed to reach level 30 with the following strategy which can only vary slightly if you hope to surpass a certain level:
Step 1: Level 1-2 Spread/Speed of Shot, Critical Strike, and Pierce first since it is so cheap and will advance you fast.
Step 2: Max Spread/Speed of Shot to keep up with the sheer amount of enemies and collect every power-up you come across, as they disappear too quickly to consider saving most of the time.
Step 3: Around level 12 to 15 increase Critical Strike and Pierce to level 4 to prepare for the strength of the higher level monsters.
Step 4: Begin to level Health Regeneration and Pixels per Monster to level 2 to 4. This will save you in tight situations when the inevitable monsters surrounding you since they appear from the SIDES of the map and you will be generally either cutting corners around the map or zigzag shooting with dual power-ups through the center at this point.
Step 5: Nothing matters now other than to finish maxing Critical Strike, Pierce, Pixel per Monster, Health Regeneration, and then if you are somehow still alive you may want to invest in the somewhat shitty magnet ability. This is up for debate since going for the points upgrade may be more entertaining since you absolutely need it to get a decent spot on the high scores.
My ideas for improvement are as follows:
-Change how the difficulty progresses to a timer or amount of monsters killed. Maybe even a combination such as level 1 (30 seconds or 30 monsters killed) whichever comes first, as this could add to strategy of upgrades and pace of killing.
-Make some scenery changes as you progress to further show or compliment the attackers that arrive.
-Come up with an idea for the arena that won't limit players to avoiding the edge of the map (think Super Smash TV where you knew locations monsters could come from but still there was a randomness to it)
-Make the ship level reflect upon your ship, whether it changes shape, size, or color. A glow effect around the ship could also help to make sure players don't lose their ship in the madness of stuff going on.
-More power-ups and work on their timers since it seems useless to have 3 speed power-ups appear on the map at the same time.
-More monsters and vary them more per level. Right now it just feels like as soon as a new one appears, all the other types weren't balanced out. Sure it's random as hell but having the old monsters appear just as often doesn't add fun to the difficulty, just extreme annoyance. I avoid even shooting those damn things that explode into 50+ mini purple monsters since they tend to get lost in the shit storm and I hardly benefit from them without the %points upgrade for getting huge combos. Less monsters types at once, but I do love their abilities.. just it is hard to appreciate them when ALL the other types are there just getting in the way.
Hope this helps you improve this game. With improvements, I would probably be willing to pay for a game like this.
EpicShadow responds:
Nice review. We agree with mostly all of that, and have talked about nearly all of that during development. Glad to read a detailed, intelligent review. Perhaps you'll see these things in a sequel or XBLA release :)
Almost great
Simple yet addicting gameplay. Creative storyline. Really nice achievement system and unlockable storyline. I liked it, and would like to call it one of my all time favorites.
However, there were some flaws that just ruined it for me. The main one was the difficulty ramp. It's fairly easy for most of the game, but then the one last "Platinum Chain" achievement is virtually impossible. I don't mind difficult games, but I don't like the way this one sneaks up on me. When I spend a few hours on a game I like to be able to finish it.
One way to fix this would be to increase the bonuses. It would also be nice if they were something other than just extra skill points. Skill points are nice, but get kind of boring.
That's about all the flaws though. Overall good game. Good luck in future submissions.
refreshing and addictive gameplay
I really enjoyed playing pixel purge. The presentation of an oft used game play mechanic made it feel fresh and new, and the enemy animations are nicely done. The only quirk I encountered was trying to tap the space bar when frantically trying to avoid monsters. My only real face-palm moment was the music selection, which seems to be the go-to trance usually used for these types of games. Good work!
Fun but overwhelming
It's well done but I'm not really into these "too much stuff" games!