Mega Dead Pixel Review
PROS
- Choosing between painting and destruction is tactical and entertaining.
- Upbeat chiptunes soundtrack.
- Mega Pixel bursts are empowering.
CONS
- Eventually succumbs to standard endless-runner grind.
- Playing in portrait mode numbs your hands.
VERDICT
It's crude and ultimately a tad grindy, but Mega Dead Pixel is still one of the more engaging endless-runners we've seen in a while.
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So there's this happy little pixel falling through space. If it paints enough shapes or collects enough pixels, it will one day become the mega pixel, a wondrous being of liberation and. It's a fun existance while it last, but the ending of our story is always the same: the pixel crumbles back to its original form, and eventually is snuffed out of existence. A moment of silence, please.
Mega Dead Pixel is an endless runner - or an endless faller, if you prefer. You move a descending pixel left and right using the onscreen arrows. If you pass close enough to a pixelated object on your way down, you will paint it. Painting will raise the mega pixel bar at the top of the screen which will allow you to become the Mega Pixel. This is your end game, as the mega pixel boost will allow you to smash through objects you were previously avoiding.
However, with every collision the mega pixel becomes smaller. If you want to stay mega, you need to keep painting, and collect white pixels scattered around the screen. To score high, you'll need to chain painting, growth, and destruction together, and hit that Mega Pixel bonus as many times as you can in one run.
The rest of the game is standard endless-runner fare. There is a shop full of shapes to unlock; bonuses like size boosts; and hats for your pixel to wear. Some missions will grant you extra coin to spend in the shop. There's also a social aspect which involves beating your friends' scores via a Facebook leaderboard.
As a content-rich time waster, Mega Dead Pixel certainly achieves what it set out to do. It's to the dev team's credit that they have created an engaging experience out of such rudimentary art assets (though the soundtrack does go a long way to getting you into the spirit of things).
If there's one major complaint it's that after playing the game for ten minutes, our thumbs started cramping from gripping the phone in portrait mode. Still, while others might find it too rudimentary, we think Mega Dead Pixel is one of the better titles in this genre we've seen in a while.
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