PixelJunk Scrappers Deluxe review

Garbage Can or Garbage Can’t?

In PixelJunk Scrappers Deluxe, topsy-turvy dystopia, trash is a treasured resource. This abnormality happened after a rocket filled with waste was launched skyward. Instead of dropping its payload at an intergalactic dump, the craft malfunctioned, plummeting downward and subsequently killing off the world’s populace. Now, a quartet of playable robots and an autonomous trash track salvage what they can from PixelJunk Scrappers’ five, multi-stage worlds.

While the game’s title signals there will be some post-apocalyptic aggression, fighting is only part of the action. In execution, trash collection can feel a bit like a sports game as you either slam refuse in the back end of the truck or attempt to toss it in. You’ll press a button to pick up pieces of trash, automatically gathering them into a stack. While creating a tall mound can be efficient, bigger junk piles will slow your walking speed and can easily topple.

Everything But the Trash Talk

Pitching the trash pile tasks a bit of skill. PixelJunk Scrappers requires you to push in the direction you want to throw while a button hold determines the strength of the toss. Like basketball, football, or hockey games, it’s a straightforward task given the truck’s slow movement speed and wide goalmouth. Well, at least when you don’t face any other distractions. But Scrapers like to populate each stage with foes that range from packs of rats, droid skateboarders, and big mechanical louts with weapons.

Despite the presence of pick-ups that provide your robotic trash collector with firearms or melee weapons, combat is a rather thankless task. Sure, you can use any money earned on each stage to unlock new arms, but walloping opponents is limited to short combos. Conspicuously, it takes quite a few hits to turn an opponent into scrap. Even a basic shotgun must hit a subordinate robot three or four times before its power is cut. Weapons like chainsaws and baseball balls feel anemic, even if they emit an intimidating, power-driven growl or ‘thwonk’.

Scrapping is Better with Buddies

Play PixelJunk Scrappers solo, and you’ll have the assistance of an AI drone. Although the machine won’t attack foes, it will slowly gather trash, signaling it’s ready to help with an ally-oop. But the real fun is found with other humans. For every online player added via crossplay functionality, Scrappers grows exponentially more enjoyable as you work cooperatively to clean up the streets. Pleasingly, the difficulty scales well with additional players, encouraging teammates to rival downed teammates. There are even multiplayer-based stages that aren’t available to soloists.

Originally released on Apple Arcade three years ago, PixelJunk Scrappers Deluxe occasionally divulges its mobile roots. To progress through the world’s different areas, you’ll need to pass goals that range from scoring thresholds, beating up a specific number of foes, or completing stage-specific tasks. Typically, you might meet one or even two of these objectives. But as you make your way through the campaign, replaying previously completed levels becomes a necessity. Ideally, the progress gating would be a bit more compassionate.

Naturally, There’s Some Asset Recycling

Visually, the game offers a low-poly aesthetic, which helps keep a fluid framerate on low to mid-range systems like the Steam Deck. Like some of the previous games in the PixelJunk lineup, it’s a quirky graphical style that resembles papercraft, filled with bold colors and boxy shapes. Sure, not everyone will appreciate the look of the game, but the delivery prohibits the action from becoming a chaotic visual scrap heap. Sonically, Scrappers complements the action with upbeat melodies punctuated with a bit of industrial-sounding clammer.

Individualists might want to wait for a sale on Scrapers. Sure, cleaning up the streets of Junktown is diverting at first but grows a bit tedious before the midpoint of the game’s twenty-five stages. But when the task of sanitation is spread across a group of acquaintances, one man’s trash becomes more of a communal treasure.

PixelJunk Scrappers Deluxe was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.