The recent flood of adventure games has been one of the more appreciated retro-revivals. While the heyday was undoubtedly conceived through LucasArts stellar mid 90’s offerings, recent titles, like Telltale’s Sam and Max series, have introduced a new generation to a seemingly archaic style of gameplay. While the state of interactive media has evolved considerably since then, the charm of old school adventure games remains as strong as ever. Axel & Pixel, a new Live Arcade offering from Silver Wish Games, looks to capitalize on the genre for the downloadable marketplace.
Hittin’ the Road-er-Dream
The setup is rather simple. Axel and his dog Pixel fall asleep, enter a dream, and get locked out of their house by a devious purple demon. To get their key back, they’ll need to trail the demon through 24 different levels. Each traditional level is no more than a screen, and it’s up to you to drag a cursor around and find contextually appropriate things to investigate, engage, and use to proceed. It’s very much a point-and click affair, with the constant goal of finding a means to exit the screen and pursue the demon further.
Progression is also typical adventure game fare. It starts off rather simply; you’ll find a way to bring water to a flower, which will allow it to grow, and then enable it to be climbed. Toward the later levels the complexity increases; you’ll have to rearrange broken eyeglasses to refract beams of light to melt a log, which also happens to be covered in bugs that you can get rid of, that is, if you manage to figure out a way to shoot water out of the fish statue across the screen. Run on sentence be damned, the contained insanity of your tasks is physically impossible, but, in the context of the game’s setting, highly appropriate.
It can be played a few different ways. You can sit back and actually think about what needs to be done, or you can click on everything in sight and hope to figure it out eventually. But, with almost no red herrings to speak of, unlimited continues, easy quick time events, and some generous hints, you’re almost guaranteed to make it to the end.
Axel & Pixel is able to get away with turtles with tank treads, giant dragon flies, balloons made of golf balls, and branches that flush ponds like toilets thanks to its narrative setting. Axel is an artist, and the game happens to take place through a day dream. You’ll move through all four seasons in the process, but merely reaching the end isn’t your only goal. Occasionally, pieces of the setting can be arranged in such a way that will inspire Axel to break out his caves and start sketching. There are also dog bones to collect, and tubes of paint to obtain. Completing the game is rather easy, but picking up all the sketches and paints to help Axel finish his work is considerably more challenging, and provides an incentive to go back and get what you missed.
It’s not all pointing and clicking, as Axel & Pixel features a handful of different levels. Switching around tiles of wires and putting together a block puzzle were nice, but real breaks are offered with the three action oriented levels. Navigating a hot air balloon through a cave and using a fan to push a sailboat down a river played similarly, but driving a rally car through the desert was the standout. The physics on the car were quite impressive and, while there wasn’t a whole lot to do with the car, driving it over hills and trying to align the wheels felt surprisingly good. All three minigames are available to play outside the narrative, should you so desire.
Afternoon Delight
Apologies in advance for my lack of a thesaurus, but my big take away from Axel & Pixel lied with its inherent charm. The game, like so many others in its genre, has to make up for a lack of traditional interactivity somewhere, and the route Axel & Pixel chooses to go involved romancing every nostalgic heartstring of my younger existence. The visuals lack traditional animation, but instead the water colored, stop-motion nature reminded me of TV shows I watched in my childhood. Subtle music and otherworldly, larger-than-life visuals also do well to support the youthful atmosphere; the game is about as charming as they come.
Unfortunately none of this lasts very long. Axel & Pixel required about three hours to march through, and there isn’t much more mileage beyond trying to collect all of the extras or mess around with some minigames. You’re paying for an experience, and if rediscovering the charm of childhood or simply spending an afternoon blazing through an old school adventure game isn’t your thing, you may want to look else ware.
