Ever feel like you just need to relax and tend to a garden or something? This game makes you feel lost in nature and time. My mom actually watched me play for a few minutes.

I mainly play this game because it's so pretty and I liked the music. It's so relaxing and just lovely. it's my therapy almost. it calms me down.

Pixeljunk Eden made its way into my library on a whim and it turned out to be a solid decision.

This is a good game to play for relaxing and quiet time. Gameplay consists of leading a small creature from plant to plant or to rocks via jumping or spinning. In later gardens there are additional movement and puzzle mechanics which complicate the game in a positive way. The game introduces new mechanics slowly, which keeps frustration to a minimum. There's some need for planning and quick movements at times, but it's not a game that relies 100% on twitch reactions. The main goal is to find all 5 spectra in each garden and there are additional challenges such as collecting all 5 spectra in 10 minutes or unlocking all seeds in a garden. You can go as quickly or as slowly as you want through gardens, which is a very attractive freedom to me. It has an odd graphic style which is pretty fresh. Each garden has its own graphic style and color scheme, which change as you collect spectra. The music is made by an independent Kyoto artist and is a good selection of electronic trance with light beat (get the soundtrack bundle, it's worth it).

Overall, this is a solid puzzle game that has a lot of fresh and interesting attributes - a great thing to play and just relax with.

+ Art style is visually pleasing
+ Gameplay is very simple and casual, but can get decently challenging in the later gardens
+ Audio for the game was very fitting and helped maintain a relaxing atmosphere

- Becomes monotonous after a few hours; I recommend picking this up in small doses

So in this game you are like a little fairy-bug thing, and you jump and swing around and collect pollen to grow plants so that you can jump on them and go higher up to find and collect magic seed-things for your garden. Or something. I'm really not sure and I don't quite care enough to figure out more.

I bought this game on sale for 99¢ and it's a pretty nice game to zone out and click around in. So if zoning out and jumping around a fairly pleasing atmosphere with some somewhat calm electronic background music is your thing, this game is for you.

PixelJunk Edel is a very clear example of how a videogame can be art. With vibrant visuals complimented by the beautiful music and relaxing gameplay, this game is absolutely stunning. Working goal-focussed does not work in this game; the only way to pass the levels is by allowing yourself to wander around. Definitely worth the pick up.

I got this game gifted to me, and was really happy to be able to try it out. I like having games I can play when I want more casual, relaxing gameplay, and PixelJunk Eden serves this purpose very, very well.

If you like artsy, atmospheric platformers with good pacing, then you will really enjoy this game.

The aesthetics are spectacular! The artstyle and background is very refreshing - the theme is plants in a garden (in a variety of colors depending on the level). The sounds and music are very good and add to the relaxing atmosphere emitted by the game.

The controls are fairly simple and easy to learn - instructions are given whenever a new mechanic is introduced. The tutorial is quick and painless - your primary objective is to find these special items throughout the level. The learning curve is minimal - the most you have to worry about is completing your objective before your time runs out, however, it is quite easy to obtain the collectibles that increase your time limit.

During gameplay, there are various pollen-like objects floating around the area, and hitting them will cause the pollen particles to float toward the nearest "plant-budding" area. When enough pollen has accumulated within the circle, touching it with your character will cause a plant to sprout. These structures are essential because your character can stick to any part of the plant, allowing you to jump/move to higher areas. Later, you will unlock a rappel ability, allowing you to swing for a finite amount before propelling yourself in a particular direction. Furthermore, if your rope touches any time-increasing collectibles or pollen-objects, they will automatically be collected.

You have a time limit, and collecting certain items will increase your limit by a few bars (the larger object will refill it by a great deal). As you progress through the game, you will also unlock a teleport-reset ability (very useful for when you accidentally fall a large distance), however, using this requires you to spend a portion of your time limit gauge.

As you collect more of the spectra (level completion) items, you will eventually unlock more gardens. Interestingly, whenever you first unlock a new garden, you MUST complete at least one portion of that new garden (get the first spectra item). Also, as you unlock more gardens, the appearance of the main menu area will liven up with beautiful plant-like structures. There are also various random hint nodes all across the menu that you can move to in order to receive fairly-helpful advice.

Overall, if you are into atmospheric platformers with a unique artstyle, you must try out this game.

Definitely recommend!

Cheers,
DJSF @DJSF's Rogue Reviews

Pretty, relaxing, a kind of modern cross between Bugaboo The Flea and the lonely trek of Rare's Bubbler. Lovely, although easily slipping into "monotonous and pointless" if you don't like this sort of thing. The garden designs get a little annoying later on, but are never impossibly challenging. If anything the biggest problem is the lack of a map, but the layouts are sparse enough that you can hold them in your memory, particularly if you concentrate on one garden at a time. Recommended if you want a spell in the chillout room of gaming.

You like swinging around in a circle, then hurling yourself at stuff? This is your game.

The incredibly chill atmosphere is offset by the ocassional frustration of missing a jump and spending ten-fifteen seconds falling to the bottom of the level. Garden 8 made me put down the game for a few months before I got around to picking it back up to finally finish.

If you're not in the mood for an atmospheric, sometimes frustrating platformer, give this a pass.

Like gardening on shrooms
10/10

9.5/10

It's like an e-cig except the cigarette is a garden. If you overthink really abstract art and flowers like I do then this game is perfect for you. Otherwise it's a solid relaxing platformer where you gradually unlock abilities like being able to swing around and do downward meteor stomps.

PixelJunk Eden is a pretty unusual game. The gameplay is somewhat open, in that although there is a goal in each level (search for and collect the "spectra"), there are a few different ways you can approach it. You can just jump around as much as possible, searching around for the spectra, fleeing from the occasional enemy, and sometimes making a mistake that lands you back at the bottom of the level. Or you can focus on collecting pollen and building the branches - playing it safe - until you just happen across the spectra naturally.

The game is (intentionally) slow paced. Each level is basically the same as the last except that you meet new enemies and unlock new abilities as you complete each "garden". The soundtrack has a very "indie" feel to it, but it's decent - just a little repetetive.

It runs decently on my 4 year-old low-end laptop that only runs TF2 at 10 fps. The game is clearly designed to use a mouse (some of the abilities require a scroll-wheel), but I have no problem playing it on my touchpad.

In the end, I'm not entirely sure why I enjoy the game, but it serves as a good way to take a short break from work/studies and relax. It's carefully designed to be moderately engaging but almost never frustrating.

It's a little weird piece from th gaming industry. You can't tell, if it's good or bad. There is no good or bad. On one hand, you can relax and chill with this game, but on the other, you can try to play it a bit more challengingly and you can get frustrated a lot. It's like a .... I don't know, if you're into jumpy games, you can try it out, it won't hurt you.

Cute game, though whats bugging me extremely is the forced retreat once you get one of those 5 shards or whatever they are called. I just want to continue playing the level and enjoy the music, and not want to be forced to reenter it every 5 minutes.

Very unique platformer. I like to play it before going to sleep, because it's so relaxing. The game really needed to exist.

Has some pretty visuals and decent music (sometimes gets a bit repetitive). The controls are pretty basic as they are essentially limited to the mouse. There are a good number of levels to complete, but there's really not much variety in enemies and you are tasked with collecting five objects per level, which can become a bit tedious. The game hasn't ever crashed and I never encountered a bug, which is good for an indie game. My main problem is if you fall down, you're pretty much resigned to climbing all the way back up (at least for a portion of the game). Worth it if you can get it on sale.

Cool, Weird, and good enough.

Unintuitive and sluggish controls (used xbox 360 for win). Looks kind of nice, I like the minimalistic approach. But the game itself just didn't deliver. Didn't like it.

Dear Pixeljunk Eden:

I don't understand why I play you. You are mind-numbingly boring.

You are also somewhat relaxing, and you set a mood I have yet to be able to put words to.

You vary based on mood, is what I'm getting at. I like you. I dislike you. I don't know anymore have this thumbs up.