E3 2011: PixelJunk SideScroller

Moving beyond tower-defense and Robotron-style action, Q Games presented a playable demo of their new game "SideScroller" at this year's E3.

Like Gradius, the game is a verticle shmup, complete with special weapons, customizable ship, and power-ups. Weapons include homing missiles, a spin (which provides a brief invincibility), machine gun, lasers, and so on.

Be prepared for bullet hell.

The coolest thing about this game, in my opinion, are the vector graphics. The ZX Spectrum and many arcade machines could use vector graphics (everyone else might remember them from highschool physics class). At E3, Q even had CRT overlay to add to the retro feel of the demo.

PixelJunk SideScroller promises to be an exciting title for shmup fans, look for it this summer on the PSN (if it's working).