A Pixel Story

Precision platformers get away with having a brutal difficulty level through a correct combination of factors: rapid respawns, no forced waiting, short levels that are also well-designed, and extremely precise control. This game falls short in 3 of those 4 categories.

The rapid respawns are decent, though there is still a bit of hesitation that can throw your timing off.

Certain challenge areas will actually make you wait for quite a while for everything to either line up, or because the patterns don't take into account a good player with enough practice and skill trying to first-cycle obstacles.

Many of the challenge levels are also a bit too long with a mishmash of obstacles rather that focusing on only a couple concepts and pushing them to the limits. In addition, there are a lot of BS moments with random guesswork littered in the second half of many gauntlets.

Your character is slow, clunky, and has to deal with very imprecise obstacles many times. For example, a common mechanic is pushing left or right to alter your velocity from springs. The problem is that the movement is entirely momentum based, which has no business in a precision platformer. Other mechanics are also poorly thought out. There's this one puzzle that led to me just quitting the game outright. Late in the game, you start to manipulate clones in order to be in two places at once and there's a gauntlet full of lasers and moving platforms that you must pass to progress. The gauntlet itself isn't really that bad. The problem is that unless you literally get you clone started at the EXACT FRAME and platform positions as when you started, the clone with crash and burn somewhere along the way. Skip this one...

Even after playing through the whole game, I cannot figure out why the developer wanted to include such awkward vertical movement mechanics in it. It feels like they literally serve no purpose and make the game difficult to enjoy. Essentially, when you perform a "jump," your character's left/right momentum gets locked for 2/3 of the jump's duration.

At its core, "A Pixel Story" is a casual/exploration platformer. Most of the content is not too difficult and focuses more on the story (which didn't really feel engaging to me). But the game also has some atrocious difficulty spikes that, combined with the awkward movement mechanics, make for a very weird experience. I cannot recommend this to casual players because of said difficulty spikes, but I also cannot recommend this to players looking for a challenge because the majority of the game is still very casual-focused.

Honestly this just isn't fun.
When you're in the air, you have to worry about velocity, but you have a constant speed on the ground. Pair that up with platforming that expects precision from you, and you have what may be the main problem with this game. When trying to work with the floatiness of the controls in order to land on a precarious spot, you may inadvertently run off of that ground and into a death pit as soon as you land. This isn't to mention things like springs which purposefully fling you to your death, forcing you to play trial and error with just how long/many times you should press an arrow key to make up the difference and land safely -- and this is just the beginning of the game.
This game has those "hardcore gamer" challenge areas, by the way. I think I'll just go play Super Meat Boy again.

I originally intended to at least complete the story of the game, but I'm not sure I can force myself to do so, nor that I want to despite only scratching the surface of the second area. There are other games to play.

A very neat gimmick and a surprisingly nice OST. Whoever designed those challenge rooms is an absolute sadist.

Amazing history, great graphics.
Reminds me of my childhood due to the difficult levels and intense gameplay.

Strange jumping physics, pixel perfect jumping required even outside of challenge rooms, and no way to rebind the controls. It looked and sounded like a charming game at the beginning, but the bad controls grated on me too much to keep going.

Its a cute platformer with some fun platforming and basic story but the controls are why i can't recomend this game! You are NEVER standing still! Not even on the menu screen! When you want to exit the game and it says yes or no the select is shooting left and right really fast that you have to hit the button at the right time just to exit! On top of that there are parts of the game where you have to stand on a thin platform while it's rising waiting to get to the higher platform but your character is always moving left naturally so it makes it really frustrating moving your joy stick left and right just to struggle to keep him on!!

So I'll give this a positive review under some stipulations.

1. The spring pads are "random". You'll never know if a given spring is incredibly strong or weak until you touch it.
2. Some of the mechanics are designed so that they don't work the moment you respawn. Waiting 5-10 seconds after every respawn for certain rooms for the platforms to get into position is monotonous.
3. You won't 100% the game, the challenges are grueling difficult
3a. Because of springs you'll always reach a new part of the challenge room and die to a spring because you can't expect what it will do. Wasting lots of wasted effort.
3b. Sometimes the hardest parts of the challenge are at the very end. You'll need to waste an hour of your time just getting to these sections over and over to practice them.


But despite all this, I did enjoy the game.

This is a beautiful game! It's like pc mario but EVEN BETTER!! Truly a hidden gem of the steam game world.

A charming puzzle-platformer that gets more complex and elaborate the further in you get. What begins as very simple platforming quickly becomes a fun and inventive trip though several unique worlds, each adding on to the existing mechanics in play, ranging from a teleporting mechanic to having programmable npcs that need to perform specific tasks to help you get through an area.

The music and art is, as mentioned, charming and lovely, and the game's sense of humor is very much worn on its sleeve. Highly recommended.

Really anoying, its a nice concept but for a platformer the controls are kinda clumsy and not rensponsive enough, I got stuck for 20 minutes in 3 parts wich was really frustrating, specially becouse I didn't know where to go in the next part of the puzzle and had to do it all over again.
As I said nice concept but not really impemented nicely enough, dont recomend

Here is my first review of a game on steam, english isn't my mother tongue. Sorry for the mistakes, I'll maybe update it later to give a french version too.

I've played the game without controler, only with my keyboard. Done this review after finishing the game 100% except deathrun.

PROS :

CONS :

SUMMARY :

This game is amazing.

I hate that you can't change controls, but the game is still amazing.

I rate this game 1,543 Magical Teleportation Hats out of 1,545 Magical Teleportation Hats.

Hard, inspired designs by Cave Story, and video game references galore. I rage-quitted after getting to the volcano, but don't let that stop you! Great game! Great soundtrack!

The most refreshing game on the store! A parody of the genre of computer games and how they've changed over the last 30 years. Love how the graphics keep improving as you travel through the genres and it keeps introduceing new mechanics to keep you on your toes from beginning to end. A great story and some really good music earns this game a 10 out of 10 from me. Never used to like platformers like Mario and Sonic, but if this is a taste of how platformers have evolved then I can honestly say I'm now a fan. Miss this and you will definately regret it!

looks great.
fun story.
old school hard.
more please.

TL;DR: Check out my video at the end!

A Pixel Story is a very enjoyable game that puts a great spin on a traditional platforming genre. I love the Pixel-styled artwork as well as the numerous computer-related humor and gaming references throughout. The music is awesome, too!

Some of the level progression can be quite difficult, but it's not like they throw you at a wall from the beginning. The level design teaches you as you move forward, both giving you enough to learn how things work, and still able to rack your head around some obstacles. Their extra Challenge Rooms are definitely a control-breaker.

I don't think it shows much of it in the trailer video, but later on in the game it isn't just jumping on platforms anymore. There is a lot of timing and thinking involved to move on ahead. They really introduced some cool concepts with the teleporting ability, and I found myself enjoying the different parts.

I wish they integrated the story a bit better. You gain background story by collecting the Memory in the game, but it's usually just flavortext inside the menu. You can essentially progress through the game without ever reading any substantial storyline. NOTE: I've only played the beginning area, so that might change later on. But if you DO read it, it reveals quite a bit of history and story in the game that does open it up to more than just jumping around on platforms.

I don't play a lot of platforming games, but this is definitely a fun one. A bit difficult at times, but definitely satisfying.

8/10, I would recommend to any platform loving gamers out there.

And if you're still not sure, check out my First Look video below! I talk about the game concepts and show some gameplay.

https://youtu.be/Z8Icz2Gisl8

This game has very fun, classic, platformer mechanics with a twist. You can teleport to a chosen place(where you place your magic teleporting hat). You drop your hat and can teleport to it when you want to. It is very challenging and is one of the most fun platforming games I have ever played. 10/10

Amazing Puzzle Platformer with a neat little teleport mechanic thats improved upon each "world" you visit; Lots of odd grammatical errors in the speech bubbles throughout the game

TL;DR:

A great puzzle-platformer that will delight as much as infuriate sitting at a great price point
Recommended 8/10

Synapsis:

You are a pixel from the classic game "Pong" that has fallen out of your original place in the game to a place deep in the system. You awaken to find a helpful robot named Search who informs you that you are the "Chosen One". You come to find out that this means you will be essentially repairing the system. You do this, following a few tutorial puzzles, with the help of a hat that allows you to save your position and thus transport back instantaneously when needed.

The puzzle difficulties ramp up quickly normally showing themselves to be more infuriating due to precise timing requirements and less about how much they boggle the mind. You will me made to do a minimum number of puzzles to acquire colored gems called "Memory" in order to advance in the story. In addition, more challenging puzzles are available by opening doors with the coins you pick up along the way.

As I am writing this review I am, I believe, still very early in the game and enjoying it thoroughly. The puzzles keep me on edge and though the story is fairly cliche, it is keeping me interested enough to continue speculation of whats to come.

Like puzzle games? Like platformers?....If the answer to either of these questions is yes I can recommend you pick this title up. The price tag is great for what you get, having seen recent titles as good as this going for twice the cost.

Absolutely love this game!!! hard puzzles and smooth gameplay 8/10.