AMN's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Hot PXL is Atari's answer to Nintendo's famed franchise, WarioWare. Using a variety of mini-games at a quick fast-pace, Atari wants to bring the fun of microgames to PSP owners so they can see what these titles are all about. Using a very pick-up and play mechanic, Hot PXL is pretty much open for any gamer to experience. However, can the title replicate the same look and style that made the WarioWare games so unique and fun?

What's Hot
One of the best features in WarioWare was the number of mini-games that the game features and Hot PXL replicates this number perfectly. Hot PXL features initially 130 mini-games but will also have 70 more mini-games to download from its website. With 200 mini-games the game offers some variety in the mini-game section and will even allow you to create your own playlist, so you can play your favorite mini-games at your will. Some of the mini-games will appear to older gamers as very similar to titles they may have played in the past. A number of mini-games are classic Atari games such as Asteroids, Breakout, and Battlezone. These are nice touch to older gamers who grew up with Atari.

The game itself is comprised of 10 episodes which comprise of 8-10 different challenges. You'll start off with 3 lives and you'll need to complete the episode by completing the mini-game missions. The missions are WarioWare by design, where you'll need to collect items, hit buttons, and basically do quick tasks. This is nice because it won't take much time to complete the missions in the game and if you fail, you'll be able to hop right back into things fairly quickly.


What's Not
Hot PXL is far from looking hot. The game's graphics are very basic and wouldn't push the Atari 2600 to its limits. Sure, with mini-games lasting only 5-10 seconds, you don't need outstanding graphics but you don't want the game looking like it's from the early 1980's either. Another problem is that the game has some pretty long load times. Before each episode the game will load around 10 seconds, which is long considering the game isn't pushing the graphical power of the PSP in any fashion. Once you get into the episode itself, you'll find that the mini-games are not too much fun or will they gain your attention. The gameplay will quickly bore players because the mini-games don't come off as interesting and it feels like you are doing the same thing over and over again. Even the slowest gamer can beat the entire game in 2 hrs. The game is made for quick bursts of enjoyment but the single player experience is still too shallow.

The episodes also make no sense to the given theme. None of the mini-games fit the theme of the episode and instead looks like they just took whatever mini-games they created and randomly added them into episodes with no reason.

Final Word
Hot PXL tries to create the quirkiness of WarioWare but fails at doing so. The game is plagued with basic visuals, boring gameplay, long load times, and a short singleplayer experience. Mini-games can be fun but if those are your cup of tea you are better off sticking with the WarioWare series or trying out Ubisoft's Raving Rabbids.