Price: $9.99  | Release Date: January 24, 2008 | ESRB: E (Everybody) | System: PlayStation 3

5 Stars - Amazing, a must buy game

The PixelJunk series of games, which includes Eden, Racers, Monsters and the latest Shooter, has always been associated with quality products. They deliver innovative gameplay combined with cutting-edge original music. Monsters, the second in the series, has been around a while, and yet it's still fun.

Essentially, Monsters is a tower defense game. For those unfamiliar with the genre, you will be trying to stop wave after wave of monsters of varying description and toughness from reaching your home base and killing your people. In short, kill the monsters. But unlike a more traditional game, where you would control your character and go on a rampage yourself, a tower defense sees you building various defensive structures to do your killing for you.

Don't be fooled by the cute artwork though; Monsters is not for the faint-hearted or weak willed. Six different monster types (with some variation between species), each with their own abilities and weaknesses, will be coming for your flock, and it's up to you to build the correct combination of ten different tower types in order to destroy them all. You get lots of fun towers, including Tesla towers, flame-throwing towers and powerful anti-air Laser towers. Some monsters will be immune to some towers and weak to others, so it's a matter of learning when each monster will be coming and having the right tower ready to kill them.

The original game features an island of 21 stages, which you can attempt on one of three difficulty levels, from Casual all the way to Hard-core. There are also ten unique trophy challenges, which task you to complete a stage according to certain criteria, such as not upgrading a tower, or not letting any monster through.

Music wise, there is an original composition by Otograph, which consists of something termed "Japanese ambient techno". Meh, I could take it or leave it, and if you happen to feel the same, the game supports custom soundtracks, so load up whatever you have on your hard drive and defend monsters to your own soundtrack. Speaking of additional features, you can also record your amazing strategy or nail-biting close round while you're playing, and either save it onto your hard drive or upload it straight onto YouTube.

Monsters is a blast to play, and learning the different stages, monster paths and spawn order is a real joy. There are a number of little touches that make the game fun, such as having to dance near a tower to upgrade it, that really add to the fun factor of the game. You can also compare scores to an online leaderboard, or find a friend and play co-op, which is also a real treat. Team up and upgrade your towers in twice the time, or play block your friend so he gets hit by the monsters and steal his coins. It's all good.

The Verdict: So Monsters is definitely a fun game, and I have no doubt that most people will enjoy it. You're looking at a fair chunk of play time too, especially if you try and perfect every stage, so there is really nothing stopping you from going out and buy this game. As an added bonus too, if you find you enjoy the game, you can buy the expansion for additional stages and challenges. And for all those on the fence, grab the demo first -- you've got nothing to lose.