Those are three pretty fucking great games, that's for sure. Making me pick between Dust and Spelunky is just cruel!

I've played a lot more Dust than Spelunky, but I'm much more fascinated with Spelunky. Pix the Cat is cool too (awesome music) but I can only play it in small chunks.

I probably haven't played enough of any of them to have a totally fair opinion, but Dust seems way more up my alley than the others.

Spelunky is one of the best games ever made so that.

Dust is a bad pastiche of a Vanillaware game and Pix the Cat is a mediocre pastiche of Pacman DX so that just leaves Spelunky.

I just played through Dungeons & Dragons : Chronicles of Mystara and enjoyed that as much as you can enjoy a brawler these days. It was a nice breather from the stress of Alien : Isolation for an hour.

The other games aren't really for me.

My pick has to go to Dust, just because I personally find it so much more enjoyable to actually play. Interestingly enough, this is my second time getting the game for free. The first was on XBLA when the game's creator was cool enough to post a bunch of download codes on NeoGAF. It ended up being my favorite indie game that year, with a close second being Mark of the Ninja.

You all should know that the guy behind Dust has also posted his appreciation of the Giant Bomb crew, and was cool enough to spend some time on our forums. Even if it doesn't look like your type of game, you should check it out. Brad did give it a five out of five review. Aside from that, PS Plus games make money based on downloads, and Dust is a game that deserves success.

Rainbow Moon.

Spelunky's my favorite. Even though I suck so badly at it. It's my first time with it and I'm loving each run.

Spelunky might possibly be my favorite game of all time, so the other games have that going against it.

I had Spelunky before Plus and played that earlier this year. Great game but the farthest I got was the first ice cave area. I been itching to get back to it but my backlog and I don't really like playing serious games on the train via Vita. I tried one level of Pix the Cat. Music is great but I don't know how to feel about it until I play more. I loved Pacman DX though so I'm sure I'd love this because it looks just like it. But I've been devoting my time to Dust and I'm really, really liking it. So Dust is my pick. I think I'm going to go for the platinum but that damned 1,000 hit combo trophy is killing me.

Platinum trophy obtained. ^_^

I've done like 200 hours of Spelunky since the Vita release, so that by default.

Dust was a hell of a game. I really loved it upon release, but did every single thing so I'm kind of good. Although I listen to the soundtrack now and then.

And Pix was a nice surprise. I liked what I played but the replayability wasn't great. Granted, I only got to the second Grid and the Brothers section of the Laboratory became just too much for my brain. Anyone know how many grids there are?

I like the look and music of Pix, but I clearly haven't enjoyed the gameplay as much as others.

Spelunky, on the other hand, is pure genius in almost every aspect. I've never had a game I made progress in so slowly that I just didn't want to put down. We've been playing a lot of lan games with the PS4 and Vita in the last few days and it's kind of buggy there, but apart from multiplayer the level of craftsmanship and attention to detail in the core game is incredible.

I have a lot of respect for the work that went into Dust, but I'm not crazy about either the art style or the gameplay.

Man, both Spelunky and Dust are both really good! I probably have to give the edge to Dust though. I am really having a good time playing through the story. It has a lot of charm to it. The combat is fluid as hell too.

Dust, by a mile. I first played it on the 360 and now I'm replaying it on PS4. Pix the Cat is interesting, and kind of fun, but I doubt I put much time into it. Spelunky is a weird one for me. I like it, and all the secret stuff and whatnot in it is interesting, but I just can't get all that into playing it(haven't played PS4 at all, just played it on the PS3/Vita). Maybe it's because I'm kinda bad at it. Talking about Spelunky reminds me that I need to play more Rogue Legacy.

spelunky on ps4 makes me giggle

*wonders if he already has it as he bought it for vita...*

why can't they just damn put it on 3ds/Wii U already? (along with Super Meat Boy *cries* )

I'm pretty sure it's cross-buy, so if you bought it on Vita, then you also can download it on PS3 and PS4.

I forgot when and how I got it on the XBLA version, but on PS4 I got it on my first attempt.

Find and equip the "ugly pendent," which will make all your attacks do 0.1 times damage. Then remove anything that boosts your attack power, and find a place with current level enemies, but only the most basic of enemies. I picked one of the first screens in the Sorrowing Meadow area, one with just the basic zombie-like enemies. Here's the area I used:

Now, start a combo, and don't get hit. A few more tips:

Juggling / launching enemies works much better if you roll your thumb across the square and triangle button in one fluid motion. It works every time like this, and it feels great when you're used to it.

After you've attacked with the square button three times in the air--that last one should be an upward slash--hitting triangle will slam your enemy down, at which point you can start to juggle them again.

If you're too far above enemies, use down and triangle to quickly reach the ground again. If you didn't hit an enemy on your way down, use the dust storm when you land.

If enemies are too far away, use the dust storm. Then pick them back up and start to juggle them again.

If you think your combo is about to end, use the dust storm.

Speaking of the Dust Storm, use it a lot, but be careful not to overdo it and mess up your combo.

If you're aggressive enough, enemies won't be able to touch you. Having said that, you should still watch carefully for their attacks, especially when on the ground. If they do wind up for an attack, use the dash to quickly avoid them, and then go for a juggle combo or a dust storm. Don't chance things with the counter system, just avoid their attack and then go back to your combo.

Lastly, you MUST end your combo for it to count. Just dash away from the enemies for long enough, and the combo will end. Don't just keep going until you're hit, or the whole effort will be a waste.

It can also be gotten pretty easily really early in the game. I had previously played the game on 360, so I already knew the combat pretty well. Playing on tough difficulty, as soon as you get the option to go to the place where the blacksmith is(Archer's Pass?), go there. Eventually you come to a spot where you go to the next screen by jumping up(you'll come up through one of those logs you can press down and X to jump down through, I think).

It'll be a room where there are tons of those flying enemies, and some other enemies to the right. To get 1000 hits I just go there and spam the air version of dust storm through the enemies while using it to enhance Fidget's first attack. The little fire balls go all over the place and rack up the hits pretty fast, especially when combined with the hits from the dust storm itself. When the energy meter gets low, then do a few normal hits while in the air to build it back up. If you notice the flying enemies thinning out, then you might need to go right some to find some more(or some ground enemies).

As far as I know, that is one of the earliest and easiest ways to get that trophy out of the way. I got about 1350 hits on my second try(first try I got 996, then forgot to move over to trigger other enemies). I think you can even get it in The Glade during the prologue(when fighting those two giants), but I've never did it there.

Thanks for the tips guys but I already got the platinum, which you can probably see on the What's New feed Baofu. I just looked up the achievement guide and saw a video there. You can get it at the start of the game when you run into those first 2 giants. Just jump and do the Dust Storm/Fidget projectile move (Just noticed you said this Baofu). My highest without spamming that move was 700 something. Either way, the trophies are super easy. All you'll need is a guide for the friends. Fantastic game.

Heh, yeah. I didn't notice your name on here until after I posted, and I thought I remembered seeing that you had gotten the 1000 hits already.

Honestly I'm a huge fan of Pix the Cat. There are valid complaints, mostly that the boards don't change and so you sort of find a route and stick to it, but between the presentation and the constant nagging feeling I can be just a bit more efficient it really has grabbed me to the point where I always play it first thing in the morning out of bed. I still have yet to break over 1,100,000 points. I have no clue how to get to 2,000,000. I imagine you have to pretty well boost as many times as you can and clear every level perfectly and as fast as possible.

Spelunky, I've played too much of that game across 360 and now ps4, I even finally got the speedlunky trophy. Pix is ok I guess and I downloaded Dust but I bought it on 360 a long while ago and couldn't get into it, maybe it gets better at some point but it never grabbed me so I moved on.

I like the dial-a-combo nature of Dust, but I think I actually like Pix the Cat the most as a pick-up-and-play for five minutes game. It's a nice way to update Snake, which I played a whole lot on my TI-85 back in the day.

I cannot get into Spelunky; it's not because of the difficulty level, but because I just don't particularly enjoy the platforming for whatever reason.

Pix the Cat is great.

@voysa_reezun: I have an immense amount of respect for Spelunky and have played it and beaten it but the controls are at this awkward inbetween point of simple and complex and it just never really jives; too easy to accidentally use a bomb instead of a rope or what have you.

I have to give it to Dust. Fluid and fun combat, interesting story, charming characters with decent VO and the extremely underrated abllity to move and resize the UI.

Spelunky is interesting, but I never feel motivated to play for long.