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XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade) News, Announcements, Reviews, and Impressions Thread
- Thread starter Vert boil
- Start date
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
Both Serious Sam 3 games are down to 800pts too. Not sure if that is new.
PAULINK
I microwave steaks.
Yeah, I just picked it up as well. Don't know what they were thinking with that $20 price tag. I would have bit if it were just the mere $15.
Virtua Fighter 5FS is a must buy. Also try the demo of Fighting Vipers as it's pretty good as well.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Today's demos...
Aqua: Top-down twin-stick shooter featuring boats an an Amelia Earhart-esque romance travel art deco aesthetic. Mechanics seemed functional if a little boring, and I'm not sure why the demo decides to show off an escort mission, as thought that was the sort of design that would attract customers. This was a maybe for me.
Doritos Red Bull Mountain Dew Allstate Insurance Crashed Ice Kinect: It's an XTREME downhill ice skating game. You skate faster by frantically shaking your arms. You duck to avoid obstacles, jump, and block as you crash through walls of ice. I found it very very tiring to swing my arms, and if, like me, your room is just marginally large enough for Kinect, expect difficulties reading crouching and jumping. I did like seeing my avatar in hockey gear, but that's really all I got from this.
Deathspank 2: It's exactly like Deathspank 1, a pretty shallow button mashy humourous action rpg sendup. I didn't really get much from Deathspank 1, since I didn't find the humour or any of the gear all that interesting, and that's basically how I felt here.
Diabolical Pitch (Kinect): Definitely has Suda51's auteurial vision on it... it's weird. You're a baseball pitcher at an amusement park and you need to kill robots with animal costumes on that walk towards you by throwing baseballs at them. The game seemed pretty active--throw balls, lock-on for head-shots, use super moves, catch spiky balls thrown at you, jump, duck, try to get items in the background--but maybe a little random. I felt like half the time the baseballs weren't going where I aimed them but they did go somewhere so I guess I would just keep on flailing. It's very visually polished. I don't think I would buy it.
Gotham City Impostors: It's a team based online FPS with a very high freedom of mobility (trampolines, jetpacks, zipline guns, etc. It's class-based, unlock-based, level-ups, prestige, etc. I was initially prepared to give this a very negative review. I launched the game, it promptly made me download a gig of updates and then asked me to sign up for a WB account (I declined, JFC I hate this stuff). It made me scroll through and agree to a big long nonsense legalese contract. Very annoying. But once I got to playing it was kind of neat. Maybe a little frantic and I got the strong impression that level and success were directly correlated so maybe a little noob unfriendly. I did like that you get points for assisted and damage, not just final kills. Levels seemed pretty ho-hum and I wish they did more to take advantage of your mobility options. It seemed to have standard modes, although I just played Team Deathmatch for my 45 mins-1 hour of free time. I understand this is free to play on PC, so I think I'd rather play it there. I noticed one player in particular who was REALLY good at getting rocket launcher kills while jetpacking in the air, and that seems like it would have been super satisfying.
South Park Tower Defence Play Let's Go Whatever: I have no real interest in South Park and very little in tower defence, but I must say this was a pleasant surprise. The demo seemed a little easy on the normal difficulty. It's a tower defence game with a limited variety of towers and enemies, single-level tower upgrades, and an active role for players--you can play as the South Park kids and attack enemies as they come by, each kid has a super move that charges up after so many kills, kids you're not actively controlling stand still and act as a tower basically. I really liked all the unlockable content, tons of little video clips from the show's history being unlocked constantly. There seemed like a decent variety of voice acting. If it had been 200-400msp, I'd probably have bought it because the demo was much better than I was expecting.
Street Fighter 2 Hyper Fighting: The original SF2. Demo allows you to play a Ryu vs Guile match. Tutorial is nice and clear in part because the game is quite simple, really. Something seemed off about the audio, perhaps because I mostly played the original on SNES. I think you'd be better off getting one of the other Capcom games instead.
Aqua: Top-down twin-stick shooter featuring boats an an Amelia Earhart-esque romance travel art deco aesthetic. Mechanics seemed functional if a little boring, and I'm not sure why the demo decides to show off an escort mission, as thought that was the sort of design that would attract customers. This was a maybe for me.
Doritos Red Bull Mountain Dew Allstate Insurance Crashed Ice Kinect: It's an XTREME downhill ice skating game. You skate faster by frantically shaking your arms. You duck to avoid obstacles, jump, and block as you crash through walls of ice. I found it very very tiring to swing my arms, and if, like me, your room is just marginally large enough for Kinect, expect difficulties reading crouching and jumping. I did like seeing my avatar in hockey gear, but that's really all I got from this.
Deathspank 2: It's exactly like Deathspank 1, a pretty shallow button mashy humourous action rpg sendup. I didn't really get much from Deathspank 1, since I didn't find the humour or any of the gear all that interesting, and that's basically how I felt here.
Diabolical Pitch (Kinect): Definitely has Suda51's auteurial vision on it... it's weird. You're a baseball pitcher at an amusement park and you need to kill robots with animal costumes on that walk towards you by throwing baseballs at them. The game seemed pretty active--throw balls, lock-on for head-shots, use super moves, catch spiky balls thrown at you, jump, duck, try to get items in the background--but maybe a little random. I felt like half the time the baseballs weren't going where I aimed them but they did go somewhere so I guess I would just keep on flailing. It's very visually polished. I don't think I would buy it.
Gotham City Impostors: It's a team based online FPS with a very high freedom of mobility (trampolines, jetpacks, zipline guns, etc. It's class-based, unlock-based, level-ups, prestige, etc. I was initially prepared to give this a very negative review. I launched the game, it promptly made me download a gig of updates and then asked me to sign up for a WB account (I declined, JFC I hate this stuff). It made me scroll through and agree to a big long nonsense legalese contract. Very annoying. But once I got to playing it was kind of neat. Maybe a little frantic and I got the strong impression that level and success were directly correlated so maybe a little noob unfriendly. I did like that you get points for assisted and damage, not just final kills. Levels seemed pretty ho-hum and I wish they did more to take advantage of your mobility options. It seemed to have standard modes, although I just played Team Deathmatch for my 45 mins-1 hour of free time. I understand this is free to play on PC, so I think I'd rather play it there. I noticed one player in particular who was REALLY good at getting rocket launcher kills while jetpacking in the air, and that seems like it would have been super satisfying.
South Park Tower Defence Play Let's Go Whatever: I have no real interest in South Park and very little in tower defence, but I must say this was a pleasant surprise. The demo seemed a little easy on the normal difficulty. It's a tower defence game with a limited variety of towers and enemies, single-level tower upgrades, and an active role for players--you can play as the South Park kids and attack enemies as they come by, each kid has a super move that charges up after so many kills, kids you're not actively controlling stand still and act as a tower basically. I really liked all the unlockable content, tons of little video clips from the show's history being unlocked constantly. There seemed like a decent variety of voice acting. If it had been 200-400msp, I'd probably have bought it because the demo was much better than I was expecting.
Street Fighter 2 Hyper Fighting: The original SF2. Demo allows you to play a Ryu vs Guile match. Tutorial is nice and clear in part because the game is quite simple, really. Something seemed off about the audio, perhaps because I mostly played the original on SNES. I think you'd be better off getting one of the other Capcom games instead.
toythatkills
Member
Has S&S+ still not updated? I rely on this thread for news from that, I delete it whenever I've bought something from it :lol
That's exactly what happens, unfortunately. I can't even play this game for longer than two minutes either now because it totally fucks my shoulder!
That's exactly what happens, unfortunately. I can't even play this game for longer than two minutes either now because it totally fucks my shoulder!
akilshohen
Member
It actually came out a month ago as of tomorrow... the online is dead (my review), it was a ghost town when I got around to it the 2nd week it was out. I'd stay away. How much have you played so far?
Vert boil
Member
Nopes, still the Bionic Commando's from last week.
When it has been delayed in the past they've changed it when they reverted the past weeks DOTW. They've already done that today so either they've forgotten or they don't have any new deals this week. I'll check again tomorrow.
Is YSFE2012 any good? Is this DLC anything?
Diablohead
Member
If you release a FPS/3rd person shooter on live arcade don't expect to get too far, it's a too over-saturated thing now and has been for a good few years.
Stronghammer22
Member
The Thunder Dragon is one of the"noobiest" weapons in GCI. You will find that people using it tend to finish near the top, just because they don't really need to aim. The area of effect + damage on the Thunder Dragon is too high, as well as the disorientating explosions in your face, making it hard to return fire. People who have been playing the game for a while will be able to deal with them, but for new players it's going to be hard to know how to counter. I personally use spring boots on most of my classes, so I can quickly jump away, then shoot them in the face. People who use jetpacks are sniper fodder.
Technically, being higher level isn't that much of an advantage. You might have a few more loadouts available to you, but that's about it. You usually only need two at most. Of course, being higher level generally means you've played more than others, so that is going to explain some of their success.
I enjoy GCI a lot, though it does have network issues (at least on PC). You will often be disconnected from the server which apparently is caused by the host quitting. Lag can be a massive problem too, as if you get a laggy host and they remain in the lobby for the next match, the game will pick them again. It's stupid.
mullet2000
Member
Virtua Fighter 5: FS is fantastic
Vert boil
Member
Released today,
Dollar Dash - 800msp, 437MB.
(WRC Powerslide will be coming out on Friday 8th.)
Also,
Capcom Arcade Cabinet
--Ghosts ’n Goblins, Gunsmoke and Sector Z - 800msp
Guardians of Middle-earth
--Barrow-wight Lord - 160msp
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Decade Duels Plus
--Card Pack 015 - 160msp
--Card Pack 016 - 160msp
--Structure Deck 003 - 240msp
--Super Pack 003 - 320msp
Checked S&S+ but it still hasn't been updated.
Dollar Dash - 800msp, 437MB.
(WRC Powerslide will be coming out on Friday 8th.)
Also,
Capcom Arcade Cabinet
--Ghosts ’n Goblins, Gunsmoke and Sector Z - 800msp
Guardians of Middle-earth
--Barrow-wight Lord - 160msp
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Decade Duels Plus
--Card Pack 015 - 160msp
--Card Pack 016 - 160msp
--Structure Deck 003 - 240msp
--Super Pack 003 - 320msp
Checked S&S+ but it still hasn't been updated.
Miles Quaritch
Member
Seems they forgot to update the sales and specials this week.
toythatkills
Member
Is DD MP only? Probably not worth getting if so.
SkoomaSuckinSwit
Member
I was a little confused when I saw this on the marketplace a little while ago.
So if I want to play Ghouls & Ghosts, I have to download this pack (800pts) AND the Capcom Arcade Cabinet? (400pts)
Man, I was really hoping I could just download G&G individually for $5.
Guess I won't be playing G&G if it's going to cost me $15.
Vert boil
Member
The games from that pack will be release individually in a fortnight for 320msp each so you'd only need to spend 720msp if that was the only game you'd want.
edit,
Also to clear up any potential problems.
Makaimura (Ghosts'n Goblins) was release in 1985 and is the one in this pack.
Daimakaimura (Ghouls'n Ghosts) was release in 1988.
Vert boil
Member
Looks like the original Serious Sams are joining in with the fun.
Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter - 800msp (was 1200)
Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter - 800msp (was 1200)
Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter - 800msp (was 1200)
Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter - 800msp (was 1200)
SkoomaSuckinSwit
Member
LorDjidane
Member
I didn't. I regretted not having a spare 600MSP during Christmas sales to get it. Now at 400 it's a steal.
Beat'em ups suck so it is easy to pass this one up.
LorDjidane
Member
Except it's not a beat'em all but a vs fighting.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
My dollar dash character looks a little like me in real life. (No I didn't buy the game just yet, going to wait and see if anyone is playing it two weeks from now)
toythatkills
Member
I heard FS has pretty much nothing for single-players, and I'm never going to be good enough at fighting games to play online.
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
Is it decent? Would it be worth it if local multi was an option?
My dollar dash character looks a little like me in real life. (No I didn't buy the game just yet, going to wait and see if anyone is playing it two weeks from now)
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Today's (other) demos...
Dragon's Lair: This sucks in so many ways. I don't think it's a good Kinect game--the movement cues are very tiring and often times you have cues that don't play well... for example, if the game says "jump left" and then "jump left" again, you basically need to jump left, return to neutral, and jump left again, but often times the timing window between the cues isn't really wide enough to get back to neutral. I also had a fairly tough time getting it to recognize stuff at all. The menu cursor is very good though. You can play the game without Kinect, but that's a little bit of an afterthought. You need to boot the game, use Kinect to go through a menu, select "controller", and then use your controller to start up the gameplay. With a controller, you have only movement and sword cues, not rope cues. The game doesn't tell you what button to press on the sword cue. No problem, you say, you can push start and select "How to Play"--no, you can't, you need to quit out of the game to watch the help video. They could have fixed this by just replacing the sword icon with an A button icon. The timing window is way too tight on a controller. About 2 minutes into the demo you're on an elevator which descends, and it took me 11 tries to hit a single button cue that I knew was coming. The demo version lasts 3 minutes. Also this game makes almost no sense, I forgot how every scene is just piled on one after the other with no pauses, downtime, relaxing scenes, or often transitions. Dirk is just being accosted on all sides, randomly ducking through holes into rooms not apparently connected to the room he was just in. Is this because the demo airs scenes out of order or because that's how the game is? Seems like a bit of both.
Sensible World of Soccer: This is an adorable little animated soccer game. I didn't get much out of it besides that, since it's pretty simple and is more of a reflex-oriented thing... probably more in common with foozball in that it's mostly about sort of twitch sensitivity than really strategic play based on the demo, not sure if there are more formations or lineups you can do stuff with in the full version. I remember playing this at a friend's house and it had a mode where you could make the AI play against itself, which was awesome, but it was like having your own little televised soccer match. I also remember there being a lot of teams and players, but again in the demo that's not really evident.
Trine 2: It's a puzzle platformer based around physics and having three different characters just like the last game. Just like the last game, both the platforming and the combat are a bit clunky and the bloom is a little heavy and the physics elements are a little iffy. I do think they've improved it, though, because all of those elements frustrated me a little less than before. The fairytale presentation is nice. I had sort of written this off because I didn't much like Trine but now I think I'd give it another go for $3.75-5.
Dollar Dash:
I didn't feel like I was robbed of my time. I played the tutorial and then three online games--two games on the same map and one on a separate map. I left 10 minutes of my 30 minutes unused. The third game I played, I had 2 players and 2 bots at the start (joining players take over for a bot and vice versa) and found that the moderate level bots were trying but not winning. I didn't try local multi.
The game is a little bit manic, but I like that different levels encourage different tactics. For example the road intersection level, you can only bank your cash for around 10 seconds of every minute, so stocking up is no problem, the trick is avoiding having players kick the crap out of you on the way to the drop-off point. But in the bank level, you can bank whenever, but you need to get past security guards to get there. So that's neat.
Many of the weapon spawns appear as random question marks, and I found that played into a fairly big luck factor. The difference between hitting an enemy with a single snowball (peel off $100 worth of cash) versus knocking him the hell out is huge. I find it a little annoying that you have to use all of a current item before getting your next item, so if you have for example the cactus weapon and the superior rocket weapon drops, you'll have to stand on the drop and just wail away your cactus ammo before picking up the rocket.
There seemed to be a ton of unlockables and many of them seemed to materially impact your chance to win. For example, most of the cash drops I made I had pretty near a full sack, and many times I had a full sack. There's an upgrade in the shop to have a larger sack. I don't see any way that couldn't lead to a significant advantage. Everyone I was playing with were low level, so it was hard to say what the impact would have been.
It's got a cute visual presentation and a ton of unlockable visual stuff if you're into character customization.
It's definitely not the best game I've ever played, but if there was a steady online community I think I'd be willing to buy it. I will say one thing--having this as an option has definitely made me less inclined to buy Monaco day one, because I really like the presentation here and while the games don't have a 100% overlap, I think they probably scratch similar itches. Of course, Monaco could easily empty this game out entirely or vice versa, so ultimately I think you'd choose based on which one has active players.
Dragon's Lair: This sucks in so many ways. I don't think it's a good Kinect game--the movement cues are very tiring and often times you have cues that don't play well... for example, if the game says "jump left" and then "jump left" again, you basically need to jump left, return to neutral, and jump left again, but often times the timing window between the cues isn't really wide enough to get back to neutral. I also had a fairly tough time getting it to recognize stuff at all. The menu cursor is very good though. You can play the game without Kinect, but that's a little bit of an afterthought. You need to boot the game, use Kinect to go through a menu, select "controller", and then use your controller to start up the gameplay. With a controller, you have only movement and sword cues, not rope cues. The game doesn't tell you what button to press on the sword cue. No problem, you say, you can push start and select "How to Play"--no, you can't, you need to quit out of the game to watch the help video. They could have fixed this by just replacing the sword icon with an A button icon. The timing window is way too tight on a controller. About 2 minutes into the demo you're on an elevator which descends, and it took me 11 tries to hit a single button cue that I knew was coming. The demo version lasts 3 minutes. Also this game makes almost no sense, I forgot how every scene is just piled on one after the other with no pauses, downtime, relaxing scenes, or often transitions. Dirk is just being accosted on all sides, randomly ducking through holes into rooms not apparently connected to the room he was just in. Is this because the demo airs scenes out of order or because that's how the game is? Seems like a bit of both.
Sensible World of Soccer: This is an adorable little animated soccer game. I didn't get much out of it besides that, since it's pretty simple and is more of a reflex-oriented thing... probably more in common with foozball in that it's mostly about sort of twitch sensitivity than really strategic play based on the demo, not sure if there are more formations or lineups you can do stuff with in the full version. I remember playing this at a friend's house and it had a mode where you could make the AI play against itself, which was awesome, but it was like having your own little televised soccer match. I also remember there being a lot of teams and players, but again in the demo that's not really evident.
Trine 2: It's a puzzle platformer based around physics and having three different characters just like the last game. Just like the last game, both the platforming and the combat are a bit clunky and the bloom is a little heavy and the physics elements are a little iffy. I do think they've improved it, though, because all of those elements frustrated me a little less than before. The fairytale presentation is nice. I had sort of written this off because I didn't much like Trine but now I think I'd give it another go for $3.75-5.
Dollar Dash:
I didn't feel like I was robbed of my time. I played the tutorial and then three online games--two games on the same map and one on a separate map. I left 10 minutes of my 30 minutes unused. The third game I played, I had 2 players and 2 bots at the start (joining players take over for a bot and vice versa) and found that the moderate level bots were trying but not winning. I didn't try local multi.
The game is a little bit manic, but I like that different levels encourage different tactics. For example the road intersection level, you can only bank your cash for around 10 seconds of every minute, so stocking up is no problem, the trick is avoiding having players kick the crap out of you on the way to the drop-off point. But in the bank level, you can bank whenever, but you need to get past security guards to get there. So that's neat.
Many of the weapon spawns appear as random question marks, and I found that played into a fairly big luck factor. The difference between hitting an enemy with a single snowball (peel off $100 worth of cash) versus knocking him the hell out is huge. I find it a little annoying that you have to use all of a current item before getting your next item, so if you have for example the cactus weapon and the superior rocket weapon drops, you'll have to stand on the drop and just wail away your cactus ammo before picking up the rocket.
There seemed to be a ton of unlockables and many of them seemed to materially impact your chance to win. For example, most of the cash drops I made I had pretty near a full sack, and many times I had a full sack. There's an upgrade in the shop to have a larger sack. I don't see any way that couldn't lead to a significant advantage. Everyone I was playing with were low level, so it was hard to say what the impact would have been.
It's got a cute visual presentation and a ton of unlockable visual stuff if you're into character customization.
It's definitely not the best game I've ever played, but if there was a steady online community I think I'd be willing to buy it. I will say one thing--having this as an option has definitely made me less inclined to buy Monaco day one, because I really like the presentation here and while the games don't have a 100% overlap, I think they probably scratch similar itches. Of course, Monaco could easily empty this game out entirely or vice versa, so ultimately I think you'd choose based on which one has active players.
LorDjidane
Member
Hah funny, I started the game like three hours ago. Quickly gave up though. The rhythm is too slow for me and the music annoys the hell out of me. I'm sure the game would be great with one or two friends but I had some difficulties going through the first two chapters, bored as I was. I'll try and continue the game later tomorrow but I don't think I'll be pleased.
Dollar Dash can suck it. I thought screenshots looked pretty good but the game is boring as fuck, and pretty frustrating.
Jojo's, on the other hand, is amazing. I can't believe I slept on it for so long, I think it's one of my favorite 2D fighters ever now. It's impressive how many damn sprites they drew; there's 22 characters (granted, some are palette swaps) who all have that spirit form and there's a character that can make other characters younger, so there's essentially three sprites per character. Assuming there was a hell of a lot of unpaid overtime involved there.
Jojo's, on the other hand, is amazing. I can't believe I slept on it for so long, I think it's one of my favorite 2D fighters ever now. It's impressive how many damn sprites they drew; there's 22 characters (granted, some are palette swaps) who all have that spirit form and there's a character that can make other characters younger, so there's essentially three sprites per character. Assuming there was a hell of a lot of unpaid overtime involved there.
SkullplateMurray
Member
Vert boil
Member
Thanks grabbing it now
I have been waiting for this game for a long time.
Lead Designer @ Twisted Pixel:
Lococyle?!
it is. Twisted Pixel tweeted early in the week that GT was coming to check out Loco Cycle.
Awesome. Can't wait.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Today's demos...
Castlevania: H of D: I played this when it first came out, but it didn't work all that well on an SDTV. I think it's an interesting experiment that's hurt a little by the business side of things--it's a 1200msp game mostly intended to be played multiplayer with additional level DLC further chopping things up. It has varied characters (a fact not evident in the demo) each of which have different mechanic subsystems (a fact not varied in the demo). It has tons and tons of equipment and loot--basically none of which is accessible in the demo. As a loot game, I think it could work, but if no one is playing, no one is playing. Also, no one has figured out how to do the small screen/big screen thing--each level is a giant multi-screen castle, and you use the camera controls to toggle between regular view, zoomed out, and full level zoom. The game is only really playable for any period of time at regular view, but you can't really find your way around the maze-like levels at that view. So that's kind of a bummer.
Counterstrike GO: I did play a good deal of CS, but only when it was a mod, not after it became its own product. So it's been a while. The basic formula remains intact, although movement and aiming feels slower and disarming the bombs feels faster. Some of the new equipment, like the molotov-like fire grenade and the smoke bomb (this might be old) seemed pretty cool. I only got the chance to play the classic bomb/defuse mode, not the new modes. I played the full 45 minutes--except that for some reason doing the weapons training range counts towards that time period. The default controls are a little weird, LT to crouch just doesn't feel right even if it's not an iron-sight game (obviously). The whole time I played I had from 3-4 human players and the rest bots. Good that bots can drop-in drop-out, but crummy that apparently few people are playing. Obviously wouldn't buy on XBLA
The Baconing (Deathspank 3): It's more DeathSpank. It's a little more futuristic in visual style versus the demos of the previous games. The writing is around the same. The mechanics are fairly similar, although there's a timed defending system that wasn't in the prior demos. I found the sound a little overwhelming since the level you play in the demo is a city being bombed. Again, it doesn't click with me.
Castlevania: H of D: I played this when it first came out, but it didn't work all that well on an SDTV. I think it's an interesting experiment that's hurt a little by the business side of things--it's a 1200msp game mostly intended to be played multiplayer with additional level DLC further chopping things up. It has varied characters (a fact not evident in the demo) each of which have different mechanic subsystems (a fact not varied in the demo). It has tons and tons of equipment and loot--basically none of which is accessible in the demo. As a loot game, I think it could work, but if no one is playing, no one is playing. Also, no one has figured out how to do the small screen/big screen thing--each level is a giant multi-screen castle, and you use the camera controls to toggle between regular view, zoomed out, and full level zoom. The game is only really playable for any period of time at regular view, but you can't really find your way around the maze-like levels at that view. So that's kind of a bummer.
Counterstrike GO: I did play a good deal of CS, but only when it was a mod, not after it became its own product. So it's been a while. The basic formula remains intact, although movement and aiming feels slower and disarming the bombs feels faster. Some of the new equipment, like the molotov-like fire grenade and the smoke bomb (this might be old) seemed pretty cool. I only got the chance to play the classic bomb/defuse mode, not the new modes. I played the full 45 minutes--except that for some reason doing the weapons training range counts towards that time period. The default controls are a little weird, LT to crouch just doesn't feel right even if it's not an iron-sight game (obviously). The whole time I played I had from 3-4 human players and the rest bots. Good that bots can drop-in drop-out, but crummy that apparently few people are playing. Obviously wouldn't buy on XBLA
The Baconing (Deathspank 3): It's more DeathSpank. It's a little more futuristic in visual style versus the demos of the previous games. The writing is around the same. The mechanics are fairly similar, although there's a timed defending system that wasn't in the prior demos. I found the sound a little overwhelming since the level you play in the demo is a city being bombed. Again, it doesn't click with me.
Farsight posted new screens of Cactus Canyon running on 360. I'm really excited about this table, but it's been soooo long since they updated the 360 version. I can't believe how long it's taking them to get their publisher situation sorted out. When they finally do we should see a flood of tables (I hope).
PopfulMail
Member
Ahhhhh..... I was starting to give up hope on updates for the 360 version... this makes me very happy!!!!
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Tonight's demos...
Burgertime World Tour: It's a good looking update of Burger Time where you can play as your avatar. Man, I love looking at 3d models of burgers. There are fewer burgers per level than the arcade original and more complicated level design. The demo lasts about 1:30 (3 30 second levels), which is really unfortunate, because it's fine enough. I loved hearing the remix of the theme. I played Super Burger Time on a friend's MAME cabinet a few years ago and remember liking that a little better in a kind of early-90s Amiga/PC kind of visual way. Anyway, avatar or no, burgers or no, I'm not buying something I've only tried for 90 seconds.
Home Run Stars: It's an avatar based baseball-pinball-ish game. The computer pitches, you bat, and you have to hit targets as well as distance to rack up points. The layout of the baseball diamond is that it has a bunch of garbage everywhere, in the demo level it's a carnival theme, and you hit stuff to get bonuses. There's a big bucket of popcorn, some cannons, a big ferris wheel, whack-a-mole in the stands, one of those rotating duck target platform things. The game felt a little too sensitive to me--very slight turns of my body changed my aim pretty radically... but it was generally sensitive to swing timing and a baseball swing feels more natural than a golf swing when you're not holding anything. It was very colourful and pretty. It had a smartglass mode, which I didn't bother trying. I would maybe buy this for $2 or so.
Kinect Sports
Gems
Prize Driver: You awkwardly stand side-on holding nothing in a way that makes it very uncomfortabe. A conveyor belt full of junk wheels past you and you have to try to hit it into a giant star target over a bunch of water. If you hit the target you get $$$, each item going by is worth a different amount of money. Some items are worth negative money don't hit them. A full satisfying swing will dramatically overshoot the target and most smaller or more subtle swings seem to hook or slice badly. The game lasts maybe 45-60 seconds. The game doesn't seem to read follow-through at all. The UI sucks junk; when you finish a round, there's no exit option. There is voice controls of the menu. Xbox, exit. Xbox, main menu. Xbox, dashboard. Hmm *holds up hand in 45 degree angle to bring up Kinect dash* Xbox, exit... wait... Kinect Dash doesn't support voice control? *rolleyes*. It has the same Metro interface as most of Microsoft's WP7 freeware, and a bunch of little "missions" which basically don't boil down to you doing anything different then you were going to do anyway.
Burgertime World Tour: It's a good looking update of Burger Time where you can play as your avatar. Man, I love looking at 3d models of burgers. There are fewer burgers per level than the arcade original and more complicated level design. The demo lasts about 1:30 (3 30 second levels), which is really unfortunate, because it's fine enough. I loved hearing the remix of the theme. I played Super Burger Time on a friend's MAME cabinet a few years ago and remember liking that a little better in a kind of early-90s Amiga/PC kind of visual way. Anyway, avatar or no, burgers or no, I'm not buying something I've only tried for 90 seconds.
Home Run Stars: It's an avatar based baseball-pinball-ish game. The computer pitches, you bat, and you have to hit targets as well as distance to rack up points. The layout of the baseball diamond is that it has a bunch of garbage everywhere, in the demo level it's a carnival theme, and you hit stuff to get bonuses. There's a big bucket of popcorn, some cannons, a big ferris wheel, whack-a-mole in the stands, one of those rotating duck target platform things. The game felt a little too sensitive to me--very slight turns of my body changed my aim pretty radically... but it was generally sensitive to swing timing and a baseball swing feels more natural than a golf swing when you're not holding anything. It was very colourful and pretty. It had a smartglass mode, which I didn't bother trying. I would maybe buy this for $2 or so.
Kinect Sports
I really want to like BurgerTime, but it's pretty hard to get into. After just a few levels, they grow to enormous size and the difficulty ramps up pretty quickly. It's on my list of games to get into, but I've already tried a few times and just got confused by the huge levels and stressful gameplay.
Had a friend over and we sat down to finish off Adventures of Shuggy. It's been a long time since I played but that game really is just fun, and the coop is on a perfect level of difficulty. Hard enough that you don't just see the solution immediately, but not so hard that it takes more than a couple of attempts to beat the stage which just means that your buddy doesn't get frustrated and bored. We also tried for the Go! Go! Break Steady offline coop achievement and that one's the polar opposite - it requires both players to be masters of the game and as such I'll probably never get to finish the damn thing. No one wants to spend an entire night practicing that shit with me.
Had a friend over and we sat down to finish off Adventures of Shuggy. It's been a long time since I played but that game really is just fun, and the coop is on a perfect level of difficulty. Hard enough that you don't just see the solution immediately, but not so hard that it takes more than a couple of attempts to beat the stage which just means that your buddy doesn't get frustrated and bored. We also tried for the Go! Go! Break Steady offline coop achievement and that one's the polar opposite - it requires both players to be masters of the game and as such I'll probably never get to finish the damn thing. No one wants to spend an entire night practicing that shit with me.
Dollar Dash goes from fun to frustrating as in not knowing wtf is going on to fun again all in the span of 30 minutes demo time and I won all but 2 games online I played. The maps where it's collect on the left and weave through guards to right were the biggest wtf culprits. Even spending free points from Bing I think it's a pass at 800 points.
The new Capcom Arcade 1985 pack on the other hand looks easily worth that same 800 points. Wanted to hold out and get them all at the combo discount since I could easily play the roms but it's on XBL with leaderboards haha. Haven't played Gunsmoke in years and Section Z is completely new to me and of course Ghost N Goblins speaks for itself..
The new Capcom Arcade 1985 pack on the other hand looks easily worth that same 800 points. Wanted to hold out and get them all at the combo discount since I could easily play the roms but it's on XBL with leaderboards haha. Haven't played Gunsmoke in years and Section Z is completely new to me and of course Ghost N Goblins speaks for itself..
You're not guaranteed to find people, because there are definitely times where the servers are empty, but more often than not I don't have much trouble finding games. I really wish Konami would have supported this one harder.
Did anybody know that another Double Dragon game is coming to XBLA? Apparently the achievement list is up for it. I was browsing the site and saw it on the front page which probably means that it's coming out soon. You can view it by clicking this link
It's not a sequel to Neon since it isn't developed by WayForward. And it looks much worse than the aforementioned game.
It's not a sequel to Neon since it isn't developed by WayForward. And it looks much worse than the aforementioned game.
Vert boil
Member
Yep, it showed up again last year.
There are a few more screenshots on xbox.com.
Old video from a few years ago - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPoD0VcVfK8
I wouldn't count too much on the achievements showing up being a sign that it's coming soon. The achievements for Heart of Iron: Road to War (another Cyber Front Korea xbla game) showed up in the middle of last year and the game still hasn't come out.
And on a side note. I finally bothered to get the scanner to dump out the boxarts to html last week. If anyone's bored they are here.
ChosenPredator
Banned
i feel like there is so much double dragon games already
i think making it more retro looking would help those games out more
i think making it more retro looking would help those games out more
wat
you can never have enough double dragon. especially if it is as good as neon.