The movie Pixels is about classic 80’s video game characters attacking Earth, and now there is a game based on the film (available on Android and iOS, but reviewed on iPad here). You’d think that a game that has Pac-Man, Centipede, Frogger, and Q*bert in it would be monumental, but it’s just yet another tired Tower Defense clone. So it’s not very eventful at all. Kind of like the movie.

Each stage is in a city like New York or London, and you can set foot soldiers, launchers, and other military types to shoot down waves of pixel enemies before they reach the base. You can even set a ‘ghost car’ to mow down rows of enemies or bosses like Pac-Man. If too many baddies reach the base, you lose the level. Between waves you can use points earned from defeated enemies to build and upgrade more attackers. You can also choose two characters from the movie that you can freely move around on the screen to shoot down any stragglers, but it is hard to control them. You can even choose to play as Toru Iwatani, the creator of Pac-Man. I’ve always wondered how he feels about having an actor play as him in a movie. Now I wonder how he feels about being in a video game, too!

For a free-to-play game, you really don’t have to deal with many of those typical annoyances. Even pop-up ads are scarce, but there are at least two buildings or signs that say “Dave & Busters” on them in every level. Did you know that Dave & Busters actually got its start near where I live? Anyway, kind of like the movie, this tower defense game just isn’t very fun. It gets pretty hard and just isn’t that interesting. All the enemies, locations, and even the music are the same. But then, I don’t really like too many tower defense games anyway. The only one I liked was one based on Regular Show, and it was more like a ‘reverse tower defense’ game.

Kid Factor:

Since you’re just shooting silly beams at pixels, it isn’t really that violent. Reading skill is needed for the text, and younger gamers will get frustrated at the difficulty. But if you’re OK with your kids watching the movie, they’ll be OK with the game, too.

Tags: Game Reviews, Movies with Children