If you’re a fan of sports then the irony is that the summer of 2012 will most likely be among your most inactive, with the European Football Championships soon followed by the 2012 Olympic Games in my home town of London, England all over your TV sets.

Earlier this week I read the first details of the inevitable official game of the 2012 Olympics, and I admit I always look forward to them. They take me back to the days of playing International Track and Field as a schoolboy and pioneering new ways to break world records (such as wearing a sock over your hand and using one finger to rapidly alternate between the X and Circle buttons in the sprint events. We called it the ‘getting biro off the back of your hand’ technique.)

I have no idea which events will be covered in the 2012 edition, nor which control schemes the development team is dreaming up. So, this week’s question is:

Which Olympic events would you include in your game of the 2012 Olympic Games and what would be the control mechanic?

Bonus points for the weird and wonderful, of course. The best 15 answers as selected by an independent judge will get a voucher code for PixelJunk Sidescroller. These will be sent via private message at http://community.eu.playstation.com.

Marks, set… comment!

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PixelJunk SideScroller is finally out in the world! This retro-styled side-scrolling shooter plays like a love note to the arcade games I grew up with in my youth, and serves as a quasi-epilogue to the PixelJunk Shooter series. Before you pick it up on the PlayStation Store, get a closer look with this handy new Q&A. Q-Games President and Executive Producer Dylan Cuthbert took to Twitter to answer your most burning questions. Read closely and you might learn a few helpful secrets!

From @wildbillhickock
How many levels?
A: There are thirteen levels (called “Sectors”) total. This includes four absolutely amazing boss battles (Note: Expect an “old friend” from the Shooter-verse to make an appearance, but you’ll be seeing loads of new faces as well). One thing that’s so great about SideScroller is that it has four difficulty modes, and the experience will change depending on what difficulty mode you select. New enemies crop up in Hard difficulty mode, and expect certain encounters to get a whole lot more harrowing because of them. Bullets fly at you faster, the overall look of the game changes, and for those of you brave enough to venture onto Brutal difficulty mode, expect to get “revenge” bullets flung at your ship every time you kill an enemy. Needless to say, SideScroller is a game you can enjoy on many different levels by giving it a replay or two (or three, or four)! Also, the only way to unlock the “true” ending is to complete the game on Brutal. Good luck!

From @VofEscaflowne
Is there still an emphasis on exploring, or is it more “on-rails” than the PixelJunk Shooter series?
A: SideScroller is a complete departure from the Shooter series. Instead of exploring and puzzle solving – staples of the Shooter-verse -, you’ll be using upgradeable weapons to spray bullets in every direction possible! Yes, SideScroller is more of an “on rails” experience, because we’ll push the player onward into really tense situations at a brisk pace. It definitely ups the tension. There are also scenes in the game where the scrolling stops and you have to defeat mini-bosses and any other enemies we throw at you. Mark my words: just because the scrolling stops doesn’t mean the game becomes any less intense!

AuburnRDM
Any unlockables and cool things to work for?
A: There are hidden items scattered through the entire game. For any collectors out there, searching for these items and finding them will certainly be a rewarding experience. They also net you a hefty amount of bonus points, which will be a big help to you competitive players out there who absolutely NEED the #1 high score on the Online Leaderboards! Also, don’t forget to keep an eye on your combo count. The skilled players out there will be able to string together combos from the start of every Sector until the end, so play strategically. If you’re good enough, you might even get a Platinum Medal for your efforts!

From @bergasche
Will my eyes begin to bleed because of so much awesome?
A: A resounding YES! Okay, okay, your eyes may not actually bleed, explode, or otherwise become unusable, but SideScroller has a whole lot of awesome contained within its digital casing. It’s on the PSN now, so what are you waiting for? Go and buy it!

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PixelJunk SideScroller is not far from your hands! Yes, it has kind of crept up upon us, but the release date is 2nd of November in Europe. I really can’t emphasize enough how really, really good old school fun SideScroller has turned out to be. I’m sure some of you have played the “bonus” stage in PixelJunk Shooter 2 called “The Road to Dawn”, well that is what gave us the urge to make an entire side scrolling shoot-em-up game! Back in the day I used to love games such as R-Type and Darius, and going even further back there were games such as Scramble and Defender that inspired me as a child. So… we decided to dip our toes in and see what PixelJunk could bring to the side-scroller world.

We used the same engine as for the two Shooter titles, but the game itself is entirely different. To begin with this is a single-stick controlled game rather than the dual-stick control we had in Shooter, which makes it even more addictive and easy to control. And of course, you can only face to the right as you fly your craft! The only similarity really is that a handful of enemies from Shooter have been “re-imagined” for SideScroller, but to add to them we created a whole slew of new enemies and bosses for you to try to destroy also.

The back-story of the game is that SideScroller is the game the pilot of PixelJunk Shooter is playing on his old computer console in his ship on the way home to Earth after the ending of Shooter 2. This explains the cool “retro” look we have designed with the curved CRT (cathode ray tube) screen and the monochrome look of the interface. However, during its orbit of Apoxus Prime perhaps the computer has been infected.. a little?

Some people reckon PixelJunk games are a little tough, and well.. yes, they are a little because I think games should be a challenge. However, what we’ve done this time is scattered loads of checkpoints so even if you do die you’ll restart really close, and we also give you the option to downgrade your difficulty setting if you get a Game Over too. We’ve created 4 difficulty levels so everyone is catered for (I hope!).

Oh and did I mention, the bosses are AWESOME! Maybe I should mention that again…

I’ve got to head off and start finishing off PixelJunk 4am, so I’m going to leave you with this really cool trailer for SideScroller we created. Definitely check it out, because you might be able to spot one of the AWESOME bosses in there!

Remember everyone – Oct 26th!

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So here we are creeping up onto yet another Tokyo Game Show and we have a big announcement to make, and an unusual one at that! We are announcing a name change – I’m sure many of you have seen information about PixelJunk Lifelike over the past year or so, including some live demo performances we did during E3, and a few of you might have noticed how much the core concept of Lifelike expanded and shifted since it was first announced as we explored more and more ideas. Well, after long deliberation we are changing the name to “PixelJunk 4am” to better match the atmosphere we are trying to create… and for more information about that I have asked some questions and translated Baiyon’s answers for you:

Why the name change?

Baiyon: PixelJunk lifelike was originally conceived as an extension of the PixelJunk Eden world. Our idea was to create a kind of living speaker for people to play their music through, using natural imagery and taking strong visual cues from Eden. There wasn’t even the concept of a “player”. We’ve since moved far beyond that simple idea to new and uncharted waters both visually and musically. The style has evolved now into something that is really quite different from anything we’ve ever made before. It was only natural we’d want to chase this new concept and capture it with a new title.

Why 4am?

Baiyon: 4am represents the exact mood and feeling we’ve captured. 4am is that deep night hour. In clubs, the music drifts to a new level entering a deepened state that often seems removed from reality. Whether you’re in a club or not, 4am always feels like the night has gone on forever, where there’s still a little time left before dawn. This late night feel better represents our current visual and musical style.

So what can we expect now?

Baiyon: PixelJunk 4am is something unique that has never been tried before, so we’re treading in new territory. We’re using the PlayStation Move in truly experimental ways to give people control of making their own style of music. Being able to stream your music live on PSN also gives people the chance to broadcast a new kind of online performance. We can’t wait to see people playing 4am deep into the early morning hours.

So there you have it, from the horse’s mouth so to speak, and to get an even better sense of this “4am” atmosphere Baiyon is talking about check out the brand new trailer we made below and see Baiyon himself creating an awesome track.

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You saw us delve into the totally twisted minds of real life survivors in PixelJunk Shooter 2: The Survivor Files (on a YouTube docking station near you!). In the next installment of PixelJunk Shooter 2 video goodness, Q-Games presents a unique, documentary-style twist to the tutorial formula in our new PixelJunk Shooter 2 Online Battle Tutorial: Frolicking with Fleck!

Who here as been hesitant to hop into the PixelJunk Shooter 2 multiplayer fray? Are you too afraid to get your tail kicked by the hardcore vets? Well, join “Dustin Fleck,” our esteemed narrator and battling expert, as he takes you back to Online Battle Basics. With great panache and verve, he’ll show you how to hone the twitch reflexes you’ll need to succeed in battle. And since the (free!) Shooter 2 multiplayer demo has been released, I’m sure there’s plenty of fresh blood for you to take advantage of. You’ll be an online battling stud in minutes!

Having fun playing Shooter 2′s Online Battle? Share your favorite Online Battle moments by sending an e-mail to podcast@q-games.com. If they’re up to snuff, we’ll read them on our podcast, PixelJunk Radio. Click here for details on how to subscribe.

With that, I leave you one deep and profound observation: better THAT than an eggplant up the nose, kid! Just watch the video. You’ll understand what I mean when you see it for yourself.

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