Loads of new stuff comes to Q-Games’ garden this week, with the release of the PixelJunk Eden Encore expansion pack.

New games, new stages, and new music are just the tip of iceberg in the PixelJunk Eden Encore expansion, available on April 16th for US$5.99 at a PlayStation Store near your PlayStation 3. Smart bombs, gravity manipulation, and a special super secret surprise for those who complete the game and collect all of the new spectra also await fans willing to pay a little extra for some more time in the garden.

I’m just amazed that they’ve managed to actually keep a big secret to themselves all of this time. Luke seems to think that guns might be involved in the secret “completely different way” to play. I am going to guess it’s a new blindfolded mode. It sounds crazy but it just might work.

PixelJunk Eden Encore Launching on PSN this Thursday [PlayStation Blog]

While waiting to speak with Q-Games Dylan Cuthbert and PixelJunk Eden artist Baiyon, we burned through a new level from the PixelJunk Eden Encore expansion, enjoying the new “mirror mode” gameplay.

The new addition to the third PixelJunk brand game feels like a natural fit, both comfortable and innovative, not unlike the trio of downloadable games we’ve seen Q-Games deliver on the PlayStation Network. The newest Encore, which adds five new gardens and two new gameplay modes—the other being a “zero G” modifier—was in response to Eden’s “general popularity.”

We asked Cuthbert about the success of Eden and what we should expect from the next entries, tentatively titled PixelJunk 4 and PixelJunk Dungeons.

Cuthbert said that the PixelJunk series was originally “meant to be quite esoteric.”

“We weren’t expecting much in the way of sales,” Cuthbert noted. “But sales have definitely surpassed our expectations.” Perhaps so much so that Eden visual artist and musician Baiyon is now “more in-demand.” Expect to hear more about Baiyon’s other game endeavours in the near future, but don’t expect them to be PixelJunk related.

After PixelJunk Eden Encore ships, we may finally hear more about the fourth game in the series that strives for a balance of old-school gameplay with modern day, “true HD” visuals running at 60 frames per second.

That fourth game won’t be the previously hinted PixelJunk Dungeons that Cuthbert name-dropped at GDC last year.

It will, however, tap the PlayStation 3 hardware more so than any other previous game, with PixelJunk 4 taking advantage of the Cell’s multi-SPU architecture. Expect to see Q-Games start teasing the game closer to release, a strategy different from the pre-release campaign of Eden.

“This time, we want to have more of a gap,” Cuthbert said of the game’s reveal. He wants PixelJunk fans to hold off from setting their expectations about what 4 will be.

As for Dungeons, we might know even less about the game than we thought we did. That’s because the Q-Games founder says the game might not be called PixelJunk Dungeons at all. And it’s not necessarily a dungeon crawler, re-imagined in the PixelJunk style.

“We want to make sure we can make a game that’s different from what people expect,” he said.

PixelJunk Eden Encore will be with us in April, and when it hits, it will be adding all kinds of new things to your Eden experience. Like new levels, new backgrounds & new music.

Firstly, and most importantly, there will be five new stages introduced. Five brand new stages, with five new backgrounds and even five new songs by the game’s music man Baiyon. Not bad for a price of US$5.99.

Next, a new feature introduced for Encore (hit three seeds in a row and all the bad guys EXPLODE) will be retroactively patched into the original game, which should make it a bit easier on you.

Finally, one level will introduce a “zero-G item”, which when collected will let you float around to your heart’s content, with no need to worry about silly little things like gravity.

Oh, and as for the “Big Secret(tm)” teased earlier in the month? They’re still keeping mum on it, but did reveal that, if you get through the game and collect all 25 new spectra included, it “will enable you to play the entire game again in a completely different way”.

With guns, perhaps?

PixelJunk Eden Encore Details [PlayStation]

Fans of Q Games PixelJunk series should set aside some time in April, as the Encore expansion for last year’s rather awesome PixelJunk Eden will hit PlayStation 3s next month.

Q’s Dylan Cuthbert writes on the official PlayStation blog that PixelJunk Eden Encore adds “zero gravity, mirror worlds, all new music from Baiyon” and “something extra special at the end which is a Big Secret(tm) and is a present to all the fans.” Cuthbert also teases “PixelJunk #4″ which he says the developer is slaving away on.

As both Cuthbert and music man Baiyon are scheduled to be at next week’s Game Developers Conference, we hope that we get a sneak peek at what that might be.

All Busy on the PixelJunk Front [PlayStation.blog]

North Americans, expect your copy of PixelJunk Eden to become breezier this week, as the patch that adds more time, more control options and more forgiveness will hit the PlayStation Network this Thursday.

Q-Games’ big boss Dylan Cuthbert reveals on the official U.S. PlayStation blog that the patch that hit Japan late last year will grace American PlayStation 3s alongside the next PlayStation Store update. It comes bundled with a new camera, a less cruel continue system and much, much more. Okay, maybe one thing more.

Cuthbert also drops word that an “Encore” version of PixelJunk Eden is in the works. That’s an expansion pack to me and you. Very exciting!

Kotaku AU Note: Where does that leave us, eh Sony?

PixelJunk Eden: Tending to Our Lovely Gardens [PlayStation.blog]

It’s that time of the year again. That’s right, time for making Best Of lists. But what about the best overlooked game titles?

Game site Offworld has a list of its 20 best indie and overlooked titles. Games like World of Goo and Newtonica make the cut, joining game press favs like PixelJunk Eden and Patapon. Check it out — there are embedded YouTube clips if you’re not into this reading thing.

The Offworld 20: 2008’s Best Indie and Overlooked [Offworld]

In my downtime (ha!), I’ll be relaxing with some Soulcalibur IV and pulling my hair out with some PixelJunk Eden. I’m surprised to find myself only halfway through my Spectra collection and completion. There’s little doubt that Q Games gives you plenty of value for your dollar.

What about you? What are you playing this weekend?

Eurogamer
What’s confusing is the game’s wild and carefree disdain for consistency, and the way it throws its head back and laughs in the face of the laws of physics. Many jumps are hard to judge, because the game seems to decide whether your character will make them based on how it’s feeling at precisely that moment in time. A plant that looks impossibly far away might be easily reachable, and vice versa. So you’re left confused about what your character’s capable of, which routes through the level are feasible and why these two aspects appear to change on a moment-to-moment basis.

Boomtown
Remote play on PSP makes a welcome appearance, and works very well, in no small part due to the simplicity of the controls and visuals. Then there is the ‘revolutionary’ trophy addition which will certainly sell a few more copies of the game for those hoping to ‘level up’ their PSN accounts. Thankfully, adding more value than just having to complete each level, the trophies vary between a completist’s dream, opening all of the seeds in each level to a rather crazy trapeze based three player achievement.

1UP
Eden’s heart lies as much in its audiovisual detail as it does in any structural or gameplay elements. Strikingly colorful and abstract, the mesmerizing backdrops complement the sparse game perfectly. Even when the levels start flipping gravity and tweaking the relationship between the enemies and environments, it’s easy to appreciate the visuals acting as the motivating force behind the action. The music isn’t quite as interesting and doesn’t evolve much throughout the journey, but the beats are still an essential part of the experience (the louder, the better).

UGO
PixelJunk Racer was cool and PixelJunk Monsters sucked away a good few months, but PixelJunk Eden is straight-up digital crack. The ever-increasing difficulty challenges without ever becoming overly frustrating, probably because the sights and sounds are so damn calming and the controls, so charmingly simple and intuitive. If it sounds too abstract, do yourself a favour try the demo on PSN. PixelJunk Eden is a wholly unique gaming experience, one which is difficult to accurately describe. Like the best things in life, it must be sampled to be truly understood.

I spent the better part of Tuesday playing PixelJunk Eden, leading to me having to stay up until 6AM to finish Eternity’s Child for my review. ‘Nuff said.

Dylan Cuthbert, president and executive producer, of Q-Games, says this new ability will revolutionise how people talk about games.

The YouTube upload feature is going to revolutionise how people share tips. Up until now it has been limited to people with video capture equipment, but from now on, anyone can record their game and upload it directly to YouTube from within the game! It is as simple as pushing one button to start and one button to stop and upload, and there is no affect on the gameplay thanks to the power of the PS3 and its abundance of SPU processors.

The YouTube people are pretty excited too, pointing out that this is likely just the first Playstation 3 game to do this.

We’ve already seen the significant positive impact for games like Spore and Mainichi Issho and how gamers share & show off their creations. We look forward to the day when having YouTube upload support in games will be a standard feature.

As Q-Games President Dylan Cuthbert said on the Playstation Blog, “The YouTube upload feature is going to revolutionise how people share tips”. We wholeheartedly agree!

I hope more, bigger games will start to include this amazing feature.

PixelJunk Eden Now Fortified With YouTube APIs [APIBlog]

PixelJunk Eden is a short-form PSN title so there are fewer trophies when compared to, say, a Blu-ray title (which can have the esteemed platinum trophy), but we still managed to pack in quite a few. To begin with, you can get a bronze trophy for opening every “seed” in a stage. This is quite a challenge on some of the stages as the gardens are large and expansive. Then there are trophies for a load of other things, such as destroying 500 of the “prowlers,” or collecting 15 “crystals” in one jump. My personal favourite is a trophy that you can only achieve in 3P mode, where you have to “volley” a player between you back and forth five times without him/her landing on a plant, a bit like tennis.

Sounds great. Very much looking forward to this one.

PixelJunk Eden: Trophies Galore! [PlayStation.Blog]