PixelJunk Monsters Planned for PSP

Kris Erickson • Dec 23, 2008 • Comments ()

Do you like Tower Defense? You know, that uber-addictive desktop flash game where you must build a fortress to survive wave after wave of marauding insect? Well, PixelJunk Monsters took the basic concept of tower defense game and successfully adapted it to the PS3 console in the form of a downloadable title. Now, the developers have announced plans to bring the game over to the PSP as a standalone release. The folks at Q Games were very emphatic that this will NOT be a simple port of the game. The PSP version will include new gameplay modes and other surprises. The announcement follows the similar movement of other PSN titles like Super Stardust Portable and flOw to the handheld. Evidently Sony is eying greater opportunities for convergence between the PSN download service on PS3 and the handheld.

The premise behind PixelJunk Monsters is that players must defend a helpless village against the incursions of various nasty monsters. This is done by instructing your in-game character to build defensive fortifications of different kinds in a sort of rock-paper-scissors system. Unlike the standard Tower Defense game, however, towers cannot be built just anywhere. They must be constructed on top of a tree, and the placement of trees in any given map serves as a template that expansion must follow (no building long winding mazes here, folks. Fallen enemies drop coins, which can be used to build new towers. Gems allow the player to upgrade the stats of specific fortifications.

Since its original release on the PS3, PixelJunk Monsters has attracted a wide following and received several expansions and updates. Hopefully the PSP release will include all of the content currently available for the PS3 platform, which is a heck of a lot to keep us entertained. This will definitely be a game to watch for in 2009.