Pixie Review

Posted by Meg
Dec 03 2009

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Pixie is a new, exciting Mac game produced by independent game developers, Phelios, Inc. and EMV Software. It was created with the PTK Game Engine. Phelios is a popular maker of PC and Mac games such as Doulber Gold, Kaijin, Abracadabra and many more. A couple of EMV Software’s best selling games include Warblade and Deluxe PocMon. The two developers collaborated and created Pixie, an exceptional and varied game play with sophisticated graphics and animation by Paul Conway, music and sound effects by William Lamy at audiobank.fm.

The game begins with Pixie, the main character, spending her day playing,  flying in the magical forest and meadows not realizing that nightfall has quickly befallen her. Not only is it dark and scary, there are a lot of ominous looking creatures following her. In order for Pixie to escape this dark and dreary environment and return to her lovely home and friends, she must use her magical beam to surround the creepy crawlers and buzzing flying insects in the maze and create a beautiful garden filled with flowers, butterflies, leaves, mushrooms and colorful patterns, and in turn, destroy the night bugs. After filling 85% or more of the maze with Pixie’s magical powers using her rays (the direction of the beams can be changed by right clicking the mouse or by pressing the space bar) she moves on to the next level/maze.

In the process of killing off the creepy crawlers and frantic insects, she can collect gold coins and different magical powers. If enough gold coins are pixie-1collected, they can be used in the magic shop to purchase different levels of power. The shop is available at every 5th level if she has 3 or more gold coins. Hitting the return key will reveal the contents of the purchases from the shop. There are some great items in the store such as Extra Life, Smart Bomb, Shot Speed, Freeze, Ghost, Shield and Health potion. It’s really advantageous if you have a lot of coins to spend on these worthwhile helps. They can extend and add to your play.

In addition to the shop powers, there are bonuses flying all around, both good and bad, to enhance or hinder Pixie’s power. These bonuses can be extremely powerful, such as the smart bombs which will destroy many bugs in it’s path and turn them into gold coins, pixie-2but she must be wary of the red bombs which will destroy all the good patterns that Pixie has already covered. Another great bonus is the reverse filler. When Pixie aims her beam to cover a small area, this bonus will cover the larger area or the opposite, bigger space. A good bonus is the fast shot, but Pixie must watch out for the bad pixie-4bonus the slow shot or speed. When Pixie is moving in slow motion, it is extremely frustrating to avoid the insects or maneuver her shots so don’t get caught in that bonus, because it is not a good thing.

Another way to cover the dark game board is to aim Pixie’s beam to divide exactly 50% of the space and by doing so, the entire board will fill with the beautiful flowers and good things in life. This is a fast and rewarding way to finish one level. Only if all the levels were like that, but if they were, then the game would not be as challenging and exciting as it is with the different shaped (rectangles, circles, irregulars, houses, faces, etc.) game boards and the many and varied evil villains both crawling and flying. The developers have balanced the frenetic speed of the play in each level. Some will be fast paced and the speed of other levels will be almost relaxing, but you always need to be wary of the insects.

Each level becomes more and more difficult to beat the ever increasing and faster bugs. Yuck. When Pixie begins to get a rhythm and is avoiding the deadly flying insects, an insignificant caterpillar will come along and destroy her, or she will get entangled in the deadly spider webs making it almost impossible to collect the gold coins, or a nasty bug will undo all of Pixie’s beautiful work. Eventually she pixie-boss-21reaches 2 boss levels. This is when the fun is exponentially increased to a whole new level. All the gamers out there will be pleasantly surprised or dismayed, but will quickly get into the swing of things by trying to figure out your strategy. You will have to use all your past gaming knowledge in order to destroy the bad guys. I won’t go into it any further so as not to ruin your fun, but you’ll know when you get there what I’m talking about.

Pixie will become a classic game like Mario with all the expertise needed to conquer all the evil arthropods created by the manic game developers who have put together one awesome game. Don’t let the cute and petite Pixie fool you. She can be very powerful and deadly with her magical aim. Casual gamers and children will be able to go far in this game, and by doing so, will develop more skills in order to reach Pixie’s home, and hardcore gamers will find the challenge and difficulty levels as well as a fun, reminiscent and exciting play.

*As of 4/09 there are new upgrades: new bosses, new bonuses (incl. a 100% fill bonus!), new effects, more gold coins.

Pixie Features:
100 levels
2 Boss levels
Gold coins
Potion Shop
Good and bad bonuses
Online high scorers
Great graphics, sounds effects and music
Upgrades are free

Rating: ★★★★☆

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