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Hot Pixel
  PSPAction_VarietyUC  
  opened by paleface at 19:28:31 12/24/07  
  last modified by paleface at 12:27:18 03/05/24  
  paleface [sys=PSP; cat=Action_Variety; reg=NA]
           
Hot Pixel is a "micro-game" collection, shamelessly derivative of the WarioWare (see entry 296) games by Nintendo, but replacing the "crazy" Wario theme with a w1ck3d 5k@73r theme that's perhaps a little intentionally goofy in its attempt to look hardcore and "street."
 
Just as in WarioWare, each stage pits you against a short series of short minigames of increasing difficulty, culminating in a "boss" minigame. Beat that and you unlock the next stage of minigames. Also just as in WarioWare, once you've beaten a minigame in the main mode, you can replay it over and over, with the difficulty gradually escalating, just to see how high a score you can get.
 
Hot Pixel's minigames are by and large not as inspired or brilliantly designed as those in the WarioWare games, but they seek to make up for quality with quantity, including, according to the back of the case, over 200 minigames. Whereas in WarioWare, at least the first one, all the games used pretty much just the D-pad and a single button, Hot Pixel's games sometimes make use of all the face buttons, and the shoulder buttons; this adds complexity, but that isn't particularly well-suited to very quick action games like these "microgames" (to steal a WarioWare term), and as a result they're often less intuitive than those in WarioWare, so the first time you try a new stage, you may crash and burn quickly, simply because it isn't always immediately clear what you have to do to beat each little game and its short time limit.
 
Still, I've been able to grok most of them by the second time around, and 200 games, admittedly, is a hefty number; there are certain to be at least a few that I won't mind replaying over and over for score. The few I've tried that in so far have almost all turned into borefests that I lost more because I'd stopped caring and hoped to die (in the game) than because they got overwhelmingly difficult, but, to be fair, I've had that problem in WarioWare as well.
 
I was surprised, when this game was announced, to see a Western company attempting the very Japanese minigame challenge approach, and although it isn't quite as good game-for-game as the WarioWare series, it's a respectable foray into the genre. I doubt it was financially successful, and I don't expect to see much more of this from Western publishers, but hey, you never know.
 
  paleface 19:39:29 12/24/07
           
Hot Pixel attempted to add something to the genre by introducing "playlists," which I think are just custom lists of minigames to play through. I guess you can make these and share them online, or something.
 
You can also "rate" each minigame, presumably so that you, or someone else, will later be able to see at a glance what you thought of it.
 
  paleface 19:46:00 12/24/07
           
Download added: 09_get_cans.jpg (19269 bytes)
  "Hop, hop, run into can. Done. (Correct picture this time.)"
 
Whoops, mis-captioned number 11. Should have said: "Goal reversal: instead of avoiding oncoming cars, crash into them. Hardcore."
    
 
references:
· WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ (GBA)

 
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