PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate out, brings sequel to PC for the first time

PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate

The PixelJunk series is a sorta-related bunch of shootery, rhythmy, racingy games, mashing genres together like pixel minestrone. The first PixelJunk Shooter (it's a twin-stick shooter, but also an exploration game) came to the PC back in 2013, while its sequel remained in PlayStation land until last week.

PixelJunk Shooter 2 is now on PC. Sort of, anyway. You won't find it on Steam, but you will find PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate, which mashes both the original game and its follow-up together. They've been grafted into one continuous game, while the art of both games has been overhauled. Confusing? Maybe. Here's developer Q-Games explaining what's what:

"We’ve combined Shooter 1 and 2 to make a seamless story mode featuring all of the levels from the two games. We’ve also changed up the Graphics and UI of both games, we’ve completely overhauled them to create the new ‘Ultimate’ art style. Among a host of changes and improvements that make, what we believe, this to be the best edition of the game ever for Steam."

There are a raft of other changes detailed at the preceding link, including a new treasure tracker that lets you know how much loot is in each area, and even a Photo mode. If you own the original, and you have a save file, you'll be able to import it into Ultimate and play the sequel's levels without having to do all the original ones first. There are also discounts—a launch discount, and various other discounts for owners of previous PixelJunks—going on for the next day and a bit. (Ta, PCGamesN.)

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.