November started out kind of weak, but it turned out to be one of the strongest months on the service in a while. VolChaos coming out on the last day really made choosing the Gold Award tougher than I thought it was going to be, especially since a surprise contender seemed to have it all-but-locked up.
Timeout real quick: I just want to say thanks to Toythatkills and that, if his account is truly perma’d, he’ll be missed in this community. I think it’s a shame that his constant hard work and dedication is overshadowed by one comment, and I really hope someone out there rethinks and repeals the ban. Chances are he learned his lesson and I hope someone gives him the opportunity to show that.
Moving on to the thread…
You can buy any of these games via xbox.com by clicking the link associated with each game, or on the Games Marketplace on your Xbox 360. Simply enter the marketplace and scroll up to Indie Games, where you can check the top rated titles, the games that have just come out, or “browse” to find the games mentioned in this thread. Indie Game trials last eight minutes, which is often enough to establish what you think about it. Even if you don’t buy any of these games, at least trial them, tell people what you think, get more people trying them.
Go. Play. Enjoy. Tell us what you think! Tell all your friends! Get them to tell all their friends…
(Xbox LIVE Indie Games are available in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States. If you’re outside those countries you can still play these games by setting up a Gamertag for free for one of those countries. It’s worth doing.)
The Gold award, for the absolute best game that came out last month.
FunInfused Games snuck into November and stole the Gold from a very worthy and unlikely contender. I believe that Volchaos and Hidden In Plain Sight are equally great games, that is, their starkly different concepts are equally well realized. But VolChaos is the more accessible game, and therefore gets the nod.
It’s clear that a lot of time went into making sure VolChaos was a polished experience, from the jump physics to the pixilated retro graphics. Having the lava level raise from the bottom of the screen up is a novel idea that effectively replaces a time limit, plus it opens the door for creative puzzles that involve temporarily lowering it as well. The levels are simple enough for the layman looking to waltz through, but getting the gems in every level showcases how talented designers can complicate a seemingly basic set of platforms.
If you’re not playing VolChaos to collect the gems, you’re simply doing it wrong. Whether they’re hidden to the left when you should be going right, or placed directly under a Thwomp Trap-esque enemy, you’ll likely need to chart a course before grabbing them all and execute it flawlessly, lest it become lava-bath time.
There is a good deal of trial-and-error at play here but the fast respawn times negate much of the irritation that comes with that. Some of the levels are a bit hard to deal with at the beginning since you can move or are sometimes moving before the screen pops in from being black, which is something I hope Kris and the guys at FunInfused address in a patch. Falling into a bed of spikes right from spawn is not enjoyable 40 times in a row – you’re never quite sure when to press over on the stick. Sometimes you miss the opportunity and fall straight down, while others will send you careening all the way to the right into a wall of spikes instead.
It’s largely the only thing I have to complain about in VolChaos though. There are 42 levels, each with a hard mode to tackle, and the soundtrack is great. It’s a Gold award game that truly earns the distinction, and FunInfused should be proud of what they’ve accomplished.
The Silver award, for games that are incredible, but hey, only one game can be the Gold award winner. In any other month, any of these could have earned it!
If the 30th never happened, Hidden In Plain Sight would have ran away with the Gold. What we’re left with is an incredibly good Silver recipient. You may have ignored this one because it’s multiplayer-only and the graphics lack flash or pizzaz (plus, it kind of looks like a twin-stick in the pictures), but I promise you that it’s worth getting a few friends together to give this one a run.
The game is played by two or more players. The first mode is the perfect introduction to the concept. The screen is filled with identical ninjas. You and your friends are somewhere in this crowd. It’s up to you to locate yourself in the crowd without giving your position away. The goal is simple – touch each of the five statues before your opponents do, or kill the other players. It’s a very simple concept that opens the door for four other creative modes.
There’s a Knights Vs Ninjas gametype, where the ninjas need to kill the royalty before being snuffed out themselves. The Knights are a bit slower so they’re penalized for being too aggressive – it’s best to stay by the targets and protect them that way – while the Ninjas do best to blend in with the crowd and avoid suspicion. There’s a mode where players try to collect coins while others try to locate and pick them off with a sniper rifle. Death Race is also a fun mode. The goal is to reach the finish line before everyone else, but each player has a one-round sniper rifle. Stick out like a sore thumb by moving too far ahead of the pack and you run the risk of getting shot. It’s just a ton of fun and like nothing I’ve experienced.
Here’s the deal: If you’re apprehensive but interested, I have five copies to give away. PM me if you’re interested. I will gladly give one to you, but if you ask for one please come back in this thread and discuss it with us. You’re likely going to have a lot of fun with this one in a group.
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DLC Quest is a platformer that plants its tongue firmly in its cheek and lampoons the industry’s obsession with breaking game content down and selling it off in chunks. Nothing in DLC Quest comes free, and in order to see the end, you’ll have to pay again and again. And again.
The game is a relatively basic platformer with little challenge, and it can be completed in about 30 minutes. You basically explore the world to find coins, then buy the next ability to progress. Rinse. Repeat. It handles nice enough, but its humor is the real draw. The dialogue is crisp and on target and the descriptions of what you’re buying will elicit at least a chuckle every time. Its relatively strong reception got many people interested in a sequel, but I feel like it would only serve to damage the novelty of what’s already here.
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Magical Time Bean rarely disappoints – both Soul Caster games were incredible – so the fact that Escape Goat is as good as it is should come as no surprise to anyone. It’s a puzzle-platformer with some incredibly unique elements.
The goal is to guide the goat through the levels, eventually saving all of the lost sheep. This should help you escape from the dungeon in which you’ve been trapped. You’ll need to push switches to change the level layout by walking over them or jumping into them. There’s also a rat that you can send through spaces too narrow for your fat goat body to squeeze through, which can climb on walls and ceilings as well. The puzzles require some intelligence to complete and the graphics are, as always is the case with MTB projects, a stellar blast from the past.
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Flowrider is one of the slickest games in terms of presentation on the XBLIG service thus far. It’s also a pretty cool little racer as well.
The top-down action is controlled not like an RC car, but like a dual-stick shooter. It’s intuitive once you get it down. The AI is only challenging in a few of the later levels, but the multiplayer should give this one some legs if you have friends who are into this sort of experience. I would have loved to have seen a behind the back view because the setting is so striking, but it unfortunately didn’t come with one.
The Bronze Award, not the best games out this month, but every one of these is still either great, or has a really unique aspect to it that more than makes it worth trying.
Growing Pains is the latest effort from Smudged Cat Games (The Adventures of Shuggy) and it’s a neat little title. Your character is constantly growing, so you need to escape the level before becoming too big. The next level is always bigger than the previous one, so you’re free to complete the level as you continue to grow. Time is a factor because of your constant expansion, so it’s best to get through as fast as possible. It’s a really clever platformer.
ElfSquad7 is an interesting concept. You control a Christmas-themed sprite whose job it is to put falling toys into present boxes and collect them. The game supports up to four players at once and the retro graphics are incredible. The music is a bit wanky and there’s a weird issue where the performance takes a hit during the use of a special attack, but it’s certainly worth a look.
3D-Struction plays a lot like Super Glove Ball on the NES. It’s capable of displaying the game in 3D (which I sadly couldn’t experience without a 3D set), which might help with the game’s depth problems in the 2D mode, but it’s still fun playing Arkanoid from the front facing angle. Using both analog sticks in some levels is a nice touch.
Red Tie Miner is a pretty good little mining clone. The addition of hazards to watch out for – like rockslides or emptying pools of water – means you have to actually be mindful of how and where you dig. It’s becoming something of a tired genre, but this one isn’t bad at all.
Zombusters is the most unique twin-stick shooter I’ve played in quite some time. The faux-isometric setting and decent feeling gunplay give this a different feel than the horde we’re accustomed to seeing (which is addressed below). There is a pretty diverse selection of music from what sounds like real bands as well. It’s definitely something worth a trial attempt. A friend and I played all 8 minutes in co-op.
Oozi Earth Adventure Episode 2 is more of the same action you found in the first episode, but with a bit more challenge and a lot less new stuff to experience. It’s absolutely gorgeous but it won’t change your opinion on whether or not you liked it before.
Some games are bad. Really bad. So bad that they don’t even deserve a functioning link to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. But if you’re in the mood for some punishment, or just want to be reminded how much better the games above are, check these out, last month’s most terrible games.
“Games” like A Day At Gmas House In Winter shouldn’t be allowed on the service. Remember those vinyl playsets where you could peel the pieces off the sheet and put them on a background? This is pretty much that. It’s being marketed at young kids, but the interface is confusing and the effects are eye-meltingly awful. If I want to make it snow that badly I’ll just go into the bathroom, hang my head over the sink and scrub my scalp. You’d be better off teaching your kids to do the same than play this.
Pumpkin Smasher is far and away the worst game on the service this month. It’s like an Angry Birds ripoff, if Angry Birds had next to no obstacles to contend with. The graphics are pitiful with super weird glitches that run up the screen and there is absolutely no sound at all.
I’m of the mindset that the developers of Zombie Slaughter is Fun, Claustrophobia and Rise of the Mummies all seem to be cut from the same. Exact. Cloth. That cloth is I MA3D A GA3M W1TH Z0MB13Z 1N 1T!1!11!! (or however it’s spelled). Can we please stop with these? They’re so damned awful.
UK Regions & Counties is not a game. It’s a really poor version of an encyclopedia program from 1994. Windows 3.0 in my public library was better at what this game is doing. Is there really a demand for this sort of software on an Xbox?
He really helped me out with my previous titles, especially awarding Gold to Bonded Realities.
