Axel and Pixel Go on a Puzzling Adventure
One of the great joys of Xbox LIVE Arcade is the originality of so many of the games there. Take this week’s release, Axel & Pixel, developed by Silver Wish Games. This 2D title combines digitized images and hand-drawn art to create a bizarre, cool dream world that you have to help Axel and his dog Pixel escape from.
The gameplay is an interesting combination of classic adventure and puzzle genres. As Axel moves through the the four seasons of his dream world, you have to help him and Pixel get past a variety of obstacles, some natural and some created by your in-game nemesis. These range from simply triggering events, such as getting a huge bee out of your way, to literally putting together puzzles in the game.
Some of the puzzles are rather challenging, but they can all be solved if you have the patience to use the magic cursor to thoroughly explore the scene. If you absolutely get stuck, you also have access to hints on each level—but you can unlock rewards and minigames if you keep your hint usage to a minimum.
The first minigame you’ll encounter in the game, amusingly enough given the news of the day when this was written, is one where you must pilot a balloon through a cavern…
Axel & Pixel should be fun for the kids in the family, but it’s the kind of game that’s really fun to play on the couch with the whole family. My young son and I worked our way through the Spring level last night, and it was a blast to work together to try to puzzle our way through the levels.
