Pixel Gladiator

Genre: Action-Platformer / Tower Defense

Players: 1

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Review:

Pixel Gladiator is a game that combines the Action-Platformer genre with a Tower Defense game. Players play as a nameless, faceless guy in a space suit fending off monsters encroaching on his base of operations, either directly, or through various defensive fixtures he can build.

While the game is called Pixel Gladiator, there’s very little here to tie it to that theme. Yes, it features 16-bit-esque pixel-based sprites, but the “pixels” aren’t thematic in any way. And as for the “gladiator” part of things, the game’s conceit is that you’re participating in a televised gladiatorial event, but nothing about what you’re doing really screams “gladiator”, aside from the fact that you’re fighting. In fact, nothing in the presentation is particularly memorable or noteworthy at all. It’s fine, it works, but that’s about it.

As for the gameplay, the idea of mixing a tower defense game with a more action-focused genre is a good one. I celebrated X-Morph Defense for its delightful mix of Tower Defense and Two Stick Shooter genres. And to be sure, Pixel Gladiator shows a lot of promise. Unfortunately, it never quite lives up to that potential.

The mix of base-building and blasting enemies here is genuinely fun, and it’s a good gameplay hook to make players have to decide between using the funds they gather to upgrade their base, or upgrade their own capabilities, as it not only adds a strategic choice, but it also allows for players who want to play this more like a Tower Defense game or more like an Action-Platformer to gravitate more toward upgrades that cater to their own playstyle.

Unfortunately, there are problems with this marriage of gameplay elements. The game frustratingly has players jumping by tapping up on the controller rather than assigning it to a button, making the “platforming” part of the this game feel clumsy and awkward. Also, this game doesn’t really do much to work in the platforming elements – there aren’t any actual platforms for you to jump to beyond the flat land of the level (or in one game mode, three floating islands). Also, this game does that usual Tower Defense thing where enemies swarm the games of your facility, which means there’s no safe way to jump into the fray to fight, since the ground is so blanketed with enemies that jumping among them is a sure way to get hit.

To make things worse, this game provides little in the way of options or anything like that. You basically choose one of three locations to fight in (each with different enemies and different potential base upgrades, and the third one as mentioned being three floating islands above an abyss). There’s no real campaign here to speak of, and disappointingly no multiplayer.

I really like some parts of Pixel Gladiator, and the idea of mixing these two genres seems fantastic, but it’s not very well done here, and that results in moments of solid gameplay interspersed with frustrations, all in a game that’s pretty poor on options and content. If the concept sounds appealing to you, you may enjoy this, but otherwise there are better options out there for fans of both genres.

tl;dr – Pixel Gladiator is a combination Action-Platformer and Tower Defense game that has you shooting monsters while defending your base. Unfortunately, poor controls, a lack of content, and some disappointing gameplay decisions squander this game’s potential. It still has fun moments, but it’s not nearly as good as it could have been.

Grade: C+

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