If you guys happened to miss my review for Swap!, you might not be familiar with Arkedo, an indie studio who have taken it upon themselves to develop and release one new game per month. (They also happen to be responsible for the excellent Big Bang Mini.) The Arkedo Series project got a rocky start: Anthony hated Jump!, and while I liked Swap!, it didn't exactly blow me away. On the positive side, at least their games seem to be getting better.

The third game in the series is called Pixel!, a retro-styled platformer whose mechanics include "zoom in pixels to find the way out," which only makes sense if you watch the above video. There's a lot to like about Pixel!: the blue tones are soothing and the cat protagonist is absolutely charming (dig on that special MEOW attack!). The pixel-zooming mechanic seems to take cues from EA's Henry Hatsworth in that your success in the puzzle side-game has a direct influence on your success in the platforming sections.

Depending on how into the European indie scene you are, this story might not mean a lot, but I thought it was interesting: Arkedo teamed up with office-mates and comrades-in-arms Pasta Games for Pixel!. Why is this important? Because Pasta Games has a history of adding new spins to the platformer genre. Exhibit A: Maestro! Jump in Music.

In any case, Arkedo and Pasta Games hope to submit Pixel! to Microsoft in about a week or so, and I'm assuming I'll be playing the game before year's end.

[GamerBytes via GameSetWatch]

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