PYXL Review

PYXL is an action-arcade game that tests a player’s reflexes and ability to multi-task. Players have to rotate the PYXL at the center screen so its colored sides match up to incoming circles. Each of the PYXL’s three sides is uniquely colored with red, green, or blue, and incoming circles will be either one of those three colors or black. Black circles have to be tapped so they disappear before hitting the PYXL since no matter what side it contacts, the PYXL will loose one of its three lives.

The only other control in PYXL besides rotation is tapping a colored circle. When tapped, a colored (non-black) circle zooms forward. So if two green circles appear at the same distance simultaneously, tapping one so it zooms forward will free up the PYXL to rotate for the other one.

PYXL is a one-trick-pony that lacks a substantial amount of depth, which is typical for a casual game. The game doesn’t have multiple modes or levels. The gameplay is just endless so it becomes a test of reflexes and endurance. The game lacks power-ups, special items, and a store. For a simple, casual game like PYXL, I actually think a store would be over-kill. Also, flashy power-ups wouldn’t go with the visual aesthetics, but something to augment gameplay would make it more interesting and stop it from getting boring and repetitive. The only thing to appear besides circles is red squares that randomly pop-up and multiple a player’s score if they’re tapped, but they don’t really change gameplay.

One of the gripes I have with PYXL is that the difficulty ramps up extremely quickly. I found it to be difficult at times to rotate the PYXL fast enough and sometimes would accidently touch a circle without meaning to and send it flying into the PYXL before I had properly positioned it.

PYXL is a casual action-arcade game that is good for killing a few minutes, but really lacks depth. The gameplay is very challenging and really requires that player be able to multitask. It only costs $0.99, which is on par with other games that have the same amount of content, so it’s not a bad value, and if the concept sounds fun then it’ll probably be worth buying it to try out.