Adventures of Pip (Xbox One) - Review

Adventures of Pip is available now on the Xbox One and is priced at £9.99.

Retro inspired platformers are everywhere these days and in my opinion they need to be something really special to stand out anymore. It isn't good enough anymore to just make a game with retro graphics and expect it to sell well, there needs to be something more.

Adventures of Pip has just that, with a game mechanic that I haven't seen appear in a game of this ilk before. That's not too say it hasn't been done, but I haven't played anything like Adventures of Pip on my Xbox One as of yet. The story is straight from an old Mario game, an evil bad guy has kidnapped the princess. Queen DeRezzia wants to destroy everything in the Pixel Kingdom and Pip is the unlikeliest hero ever because he is just a single pixel. But this apparent weakness is his greatest strength, as Queen DeRezzia's magic doesn't affect him like it affects everyone else; because he is just a single pixel he is immune to her spell.

Let's cut to the chase a little here, Pip learns how to transform between his single pixel state and that of a boy with a sword - infinitely more useful against Queen DeRezzia's minions. You can switch between these states almost at will - you do need to kill an enemy with the Bitstream inside them to return to the 8-bit boy who can wall jump, and another enemy to begin super-charged 16-bit Pip complete with sword - but you can switch to single-pixel Pip with the touch of a button. It's a mechanic that works very, very well, with each of Pip's three different states behaving very differently from the others.

Adventures of Pip is definitely one of the more interesting nostalgia inducing games released of late. The graphics are great and the transformations between single pixel, 8-bit and 16-bit Pip are really cool. It's not the longest game in the world, but it doesn't have to be - there's nothing worse than a game that has been inflated so much that it becomes dull. Adventures of Pip is still fun at the end, something not many games are anymore. It has been out a little while now, so a sale shouldn't be too far away, but I definitely recommend you try this game.

7/10 TRY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.