[Regular readers are probably familiar with the comments from juice - who also happens to run his own XBLIG review site, xboxindiegames.co.uk. We've now asked him to formally contribute his wit and wisdom to xnPlay. Whilst his regular "best of the week" choices will be appearing alongside 9572ad's and my own in the Sunday round ups (together with links to the reviews on xboxindiegames.co.uk), he'll also be running an irregular slot "The Juice Report" to discuss his take on XBLIG and XBLIG games. To kick it all off, we're going to start the ball rolling with his views on last week's releases by way of a formal introduction]
Thank you Mr Rob! For those who’s not seen xboxindiegames.co.uk, apart from my ramblingsreviews, it also features a XBLIG search engine which allows you to filter/search by cost, developer name, genre, deleted games, etc. Which can be handy! (gratuitous – Ed)
In any case, it’s time to move on from the self promotion. So without further ado…
Highlights:
- Convextrix (xbox.com|xbig.co.uk): this one may be a bit controversial: the lo-fi audio-visual effects are somewhat disorientating and likely to put off a lot of people, but I found myself enjoying it because of this. It’s something I’ve dubbed the sprout effect: they don’t taste particularly nice, but sometimes they’re just what your taste-buds desire…
- Mega Monster Madness (xbox.com|xbig.co.uk) was another mash-up, this time combining Rogue-style random dungeons with twitchy arena-shooter controls. Not as impressive as Soulcaster, but well worth checking out, especially if you can get a friend to join in!
- Soulcaster (xbox.com|xbig.co.uk) was a pleasant surprise: a mash up of an 8-bit RPG and Tower Defence, thereby ticking virtually all of the right boxes for anyone who’s ever ordered pizza for a night in with their Nintendo controller…
Midlights:
- Pixelkiller (xbox.com|xbig.co.uk): minimalist platformers may be all the indie rage, but while Pixelkiller is virtually perfect from a technical design perspective, it’s a bit soul-less: there’s no plot, no personality, no funky puzzles and hence no real motivation to play!
Lowlights:
- Ask Angela (xbox.com|xbig.co.uk): cheap video footage and a “magic 8 ball” random number generator do not make for an interesting XBLIG application, no matter how fake an accent you adopt…
- Globoid (xbox.com|xbig.co.uk): twitch-gaming should never involve the use of analog controls. Nuff said.
- Last Line of Defence (xbox.com|xbig.co.uk): retro-vector graphics are generally made of win, but there’s no real challenge to the gameplay, thanks to the way in which the aliens blindly sail into your firing line.
- Zatacka 360 (xbox.com|xbig.co.uk): it may look glorious, but it works better as an interactive/cooperative artwork than a competitive multiplayer game – and the “two-players on one controller” setup is more than a little bizarre…
- Soulcaster (xbox.com|xbig.co.uk) was a pleasant surprise: a mash up of an 8-bit RPG and Tower Defence, thereby ticking virtually all of the right boxes for anyone who’s ever ordered pizza for a night in with their Nintendo controller…
- Mega Monster Madness (xbox.com|xbig.co.uk) was another mash-up, this time combining Rogue-style random dungeons with twitchy arena-shooter controls. Not as impressive as Soulcaster, but well worth checking out, especially if you can get a friend to join in!
Other posts you might find interesting:
- XBLIG in the media I’m not sure whether it counts as having reached critical...
Thanks for that:)
And yes, I’ll freely admit that the search-engine plug was a tad gratiutous, but it is a useful tool – I wrote it precisely because xbox.com doesn’t offer anywhere near the same level of filtering/grouping. Plus, it also let me mark individual games with a standardised set of tags – the “genre” tag on the dashboard isn’t used in a consistent fashion – a shmup could be under “Classics”, “Action and Adventure” or “Shooter”.
So, if you want to know just how many games Silver Dollar has released over the dozen or so developer labels they’ve used or get a list of all the arena shooters on XBLIG (74), go forth and click away…
Arf, sorry. I couldn’t resist adding it. It’s meant tongue in cheek so, y’know, don’t be offended. If I had a problem with it, I’d have removed it ;D
It’s ok – to be honest, I hadn’t decided yet whether or not to leave it in – it did feel a bit too blatant:)
In any case, on with the reviews!
Hang on, can you be too blatant?
All good with me! I know I wouldn’t miss a trick in the same position.
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