+ 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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Some people like shooting up teh newbs on Modern Warfare and then 420 blazin it with their dogs to relieve stress. Me? I'll stick with PixelJunk Eden. The smoothest, most relaxing experience I've ever seen on Steam.

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.

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.

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.

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

Very calming!

Pixeljunk Eden is an unusual, beautiful, and elegant game. The "game" aspect is actually subdued compared to the aesthetical experience that this program is. Describing it makes little sense. I'd have to say that you're a little sprite that collects pollen to grow a garden and harvest spectra. But that wouldn't describe one tenth of what Pixeljunk Eden is. One needs to mention the perfect fusion between aesthetics and music, and the gorgeous use of colors. Definitely something different and very beautiful, I can only recommend that you give it a try.

I started out playing Pixeljunk Eden on the PS3, its original platform(I think). I loved it! It is a colorful game, and the techno soundtrack puts you at a decent pace which relaxes and calms you(or maybe techno gives you a headache?). It doesn't really have a story-you're a small creature growing colorful silhouettes of plants by collecting flora-looking objects called... wait, let's not spoil it. But in short this game, even though boiling it down to its structure makes it seem tedious and repetitive, keeps you engaged and interested, even when calmed while playing it. It's unique too! I especially liked how the levels changed colors and became decently harder as you played through them. And despite it being timed, you can replenish the timer so you have plenty of time to do other things while playing. The negatives of the game pretty much fix themselves.

I have only one problem with this game, and it's just on this port-there aren't many video settings, which means if the game runs slow for you you're pretty much doomed. And it runs slow for me. It's an absolute killer. But as long as you have a powerful enough machine, this won't be a problem at all, and you can enjoy it as much as you want. Another con is that it used to be a co-op game where you could play online with strangers or your friend could pick up the other controller and join, but if you never cared for multiplayer, that's not a problem either. I'm also noting here for people who started out playing the PS3 version that the PC controls are a bit awkward to adjust to, but it's definitely not impossible.

In short? The game has vibrant, well-animated artwork, its physics are sensical and easily adjusted to, the goal is simple and you can start it up whenever without worrying about where you were in the gameplay. I recommend this!

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.

the game is interesting....

but if such a game dont have a map or at least a minimap makes you lost on later level for hours/day while time is allways running and just makes you frustrated.

Like gardening on shrooms
10/10

Jumping and falling

Like leaves of sakura tree

Yet less gracefully.

***
~haiku review #17

9.5/10