I had the feeling of someone rolling up their sleeves and cracking their knuckles when I sat down to play Pixeljunk Sidescroller. There's no grand idea behind the game or big gimmick to write about; it's simply a well-designed and beautiful 2D side-scrolling shooter. It's not an easy game, but the checkpoints are well placed, and there is never a sense that the game is cheating you. I always enjoy when you can feel the creators' hands in their game, and with Pixeljunk Sidescroller I had the sense of a confident, assured group of people who wanted to send a love letter to the games of their youth.

The graphics are bright, neon colors, and the screen is distorted to appear as if you're looking at an old CRT display. You'll see scanlines and a little bit of motion blur—enough to make me long for the days I spent in arcades, playing fun games for a quarter on screens that suffered enough burn-in to let you know that the machine had been there a while.

The controls and mechanics are simple: you have a ship, a finite number of lives, and three weapons to choose from: a laser, a machine gun, and bombs that move both up and down. You can grab power-ups that allow you to level up whichever weapon you have selected, and there are enemies and even environmental features that are weaker against certain types of attacks. There is also water and lava to contend with, and they both work exactly how you'd expect from previous Pixeljunk games.

The bosses are large, and they require you to think quickly and move with precision if you hope to beat them the first time you face them. The challenge is intense enough to curl your toes but not so hard that you'll throw a controller. There are 13 levels to fight through, and I'm still in the process of seeing everything there is to see. With the ability to record videos of your play to upload to YouTube, play with a friend in co-op, and see how you stack up against other players on the leader boards, there is plenty here to justify the $10 download.

The price is right, the length is perfect, the graphics are beautiful, and the levels feature clever design. It's hard to find anything to complain about. If you're a fan of classic arcade games, this feels like something that came out of a time capsule, with enough modern stylings to feel fresh. Go buy it.