Adventures of Pip (Hands-On) (PC) Preview

This is the story of the Pixel Kingdom - a place where everyone is a collection of pixels. Sixteen years ago, the princess was born with the power to make more pixels from nothing. This power was desired by the Skeleton Queen, and now the kingdom has been attacked, the population has lost their pixels and the princess has been taken. Pip, the hero of the story and someone who was born as only a single pixel, has gone forward to do what he can to rescue the princess.

As expected from such a story, the graphics are simple 2D work, but all of it looks nice. There are the landscapes, enemies and NPCs that, despite different resolutions at times, all look great together, rather than seeming mismatched. No worries of the different styles looking like a mess together. The music and sound effects are also very good and deserves a lot of praise. Even after repeated playthroughs, it was enjoyable to listen to. It goes well with the action.

Controls work very well. Pip can move around with ease, jump with the best of them and even has some other skills, like dashing, wall jumping and some combat options. Players will find these actions simple to use, no matter the controller used, be it keyboard or gamepad.

Now onto the gameplay, and the abilities of Pip. After a bit of progress, Pip gains the ability to absorb pixels from certain enemies, which allow him different skills needed to progress. While Pip can do little more than walk and jump as a single pixel, he can fit in smaller spaces. His second form is much more agile, being able to run around, jump up walls without a worry and can punch enemies giving him trouble. The third form has so many pixels that he is now too heavy to wall jump, but he can push heavy rocks around and has a sword for taking down walls in his way. In either of the later forms, he can also explode, which will take him down a form, but takes out otherwise indestructible blocks.

This mechanic works well, forcing players to change forms constantly to pass through areas, giving the action some puzzling. It makes for unique gameplay, which will hopefully be continued in the final release.

The gameplay so far also has a number of secrets to find and civilians to rescue - something that should offer incentive to replay the game several times. Even this trial offers plenty to do, and was yet to be 100% completed at the time of this preview.