PixelJunk Monsters is the surprisingly addictive strategy game from Q-Games released earlier this year for the PlayStation 3. The deceptively simple-looking downloadable title tasks you with keeping a small village safe from a diverse horde of critters who come at you in waves. You'll deal with the incoming threats by laying down assorted defensive structures that will hopefully take out the creatures before they get to the village. You'll earn money and jewels you can use to research new structures to build that will help defend against the increasingly challenging hordes. If you've played Desktop Tower Defense or games in that vein, PixelJunk Monsters should be a comfortable fit. In the wake of the game's success, Sony and Q-Games are prepping an expansion pack for the game, PixelJunk Monsters Encore, which adds a new island with more challenges and gameplay refinements. We had the chance to get our hands on the upcoming expansion and are pleased to report that it's looking pretty sharp.

The core of PixelJunk Monsters Encore is Toki Island, a new land mass next to the one seen in the original game, Tiki Island, which you see on the game's world map. There also appears to be a tinier land mass in between Toki and Tiki Island, but we'll touch on that in a bit. Toki Island is laid out in the same general structure as Tiki was, so you'll see a main path through the island with a few offshoots and branches along the way that represent the different levels and bonus areas. All told, you'll find 15 new levels that feature visual enhancements such as weather effects (we saw rain and snow) and, from what we've seen, more adventurous layouts. Two standout levels are a Space Invaders-style layout with the village on the bottom of the map and a Pac-Man-inspired map that sets your village in the middle.