Axel & Pixel
Platform: Xbox 360
Developed by: Silver Wish Games
Published by: 2K Play
Release date: October 14, 2009
Official website: axelandpixelgame.com

Review Summary:
Axel & Pixel is a very colorful puzzle game, both in design and character. It suffers, however, from being exceptionally short and not terribly difficult. Axel & Pixel feels like it is geared towards the younger game players.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Read the full review below.

Axel & Pixel review:

I wasn’t sure what to make of Axel & Pixel when I first sat down to play it. From what I knew, it was a puzzle game, but not much beyond that. What I found was a game, if short, that had a different variety of puzzles to it. You notice immediately that whoever was in charge of the art design seemed to be influenced by Terry Gilliam’s old Monty Python style of animation. The backgrounds were actual photos, but the characters were pixel (har har) art; it made for an interesting look.

Axel & Pixel is the story of a painter named Axel and his dog Pixel. Early on in the game, we find out that the entire game is a dream we play through, a dream broken up into the four seasons of the year. The various seasons seem to define the artwork and layout of the level design. The puzzles themselves have a varied feel to them. Some are straightforward things like a car race over cliffs or rearranging level objects so you can pass. Others are more involved like one where you have to rearrange pipes to drain the water from a room, and another where you have to rewire a puzzle, much like the “hacks” in BioShock. One level even reminded me of gameplay from a rather old game named Vanguard; another was even a jigsaw puzzle. There was much to like in the level variety.

The length of Axel & Pixel (or lack of it) is a problem, though. This is a REALLY short game! While I didn’t play this way, I could have easily gotten through the entire story in a single sitting totaling not more than two hours. At that point, you are either done, or you can replay. The replay value is in the characters. As Axel is a painter, and Pixel is a dog, one of the game's goals is that you have to search each level looking for objects (bones for the dog, and both paint tubes and various scenes for Axel to paint). If you get all of the paintings, they will complete a larger painting when you “wake up” at the end. If you don’t find everything, your game score will be lower. Once you’ve finished the game, you can go back and replay any level in any order to try and get all the missed objects. However, if you do get all of the objects (and 200/200 Gamerscore Points), that’s it – there’s little replay after that, save for just WANTING to play again. Gameplay also has a dynamic where if you do get stuck. The way out is to seemingly click on everything on the screen; you’ll eventually get the answer – not a lot of strategy there.

There are a couple of mini games based on specific levels in the game. In the mini games, you have to say drive a truck fast enough to hit a specific score as opposed to the main game goals. The mini games have Achievements tied to them, so if you want all 200 points, you have to hit them too.

Did I like the game? Yes, I did – the artwork was beautiful, and some of the personality of the various characters in the game made me chuckle. But I felt it was exceptionally short and seriously too easy to be recommended for adults.

Axel & Pixel gameplay trailer: