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Sacred Reviews: PixulaAtomata (Tech Demo)

I'll admit writing an in depth review that requires over 300 words for "PixulaAtomata" is going to be difficult if not impossible since there really isn't that much to cover. And in some ways this is less a game and more of a toy. Which is something even the developer admitted:

author=GameOverGames Productions
In the words of Will Wright, this isn't a game so much as a toy. :P


At any rate this project is one of those old life simulators where various forms of life are represented by different pixels which all have slightly different attributes. Though the lack of color coding makes it difficult to tell which pixels possess which attributes. Though I suppose the fizzling and bubbling of the various pixels is captivating in a way. At least for a short while sort of like a kid with their first lava lamp.

Though the game does offer a few options for interacting with the life contained within the confines of this small world. For starters you can create a new pixel where your cursor is located by clicking the left button on your mouse. This pixel will usually die in a hurry and have little impact on the world if it's not created near a cluster of thriving pixels. I suppose this shows the harshness of surviving on your own in a desolate world. You can also cause a mass extinction by clicking on the right button and if you do this enough times your pixel world will become a black void with little going for it. Thankfully you can overcome this issue by clicking on the center button on your mouse to repopulate the world. And in some ways I think repopulating a few times is a good idea since it means your world will truly be thriving, but it may not stay that way since mass extinctions can occur at random in this simulator. So you might go from a thriving ecosystem to a world full of large empty areas in a split second.

And that's really all there is to this toy. There isn't some grand story behind it and it's utterly lacking in the music department. Which is disappointing since I think the soundtrack from some of the old SimCity games could have made this world of pixels feel a lot more meaningful.


Five Seconds of Game Footage