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Member
(01-03-2011, 06:01 PM)
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Xbox LIVE Indie Games - The January 2011 Thread
#1
 Ho, Ho, Ho. December brought us the 1st (hopefully annual) Indie Games Winter Uprising, so picking the games of the month was very hard, some of the Bronze games would have had a chance of a Gold Award in other months, & I would definitely recommend checking out the trials of these, ‘twas a good month.(Also huge thanks to ToyThatKills, without the templates you sent this would have been a nightmare to do, hopefully I'm not too shabby a temporary replacement) 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.) [IMG]http://i45.************/eknpv.jpg[/IMG] The Gold award, for the absolute best game that came out last month. Score Rush Yep, I went with Score Rush, one of two games released by Xona Games this month(Decimationx3 being the other). Shockingly it is also a shooter, taking inspiration from (among other places) GeoWars mixed with a bit of bullet hell:  As you can see it looks very manic, but luckily the hitbox isn’t the whole ship it’s just the “dot” in the middle of the ship(which as the game informs you is a 4 X 4 pixel box), which allowed me to survive slightly longer. Structually it seems fairly traditional, certain enemies drop collectibles that upgrade the ships firepower, you fight bosses, you have bombs etc, but it never feels boring, just classic.  Unfortunately it is another Indie game that is crying out for leaderboards, but it does have a share feature which allows you to send your scores to people on your Xbox friendslist. It’s not the most elegant solution but it is a good try. The local mutiplayer is great fun(up to 4 players) & Xona obviously care for both the Indie service & shooters in general( A memo option on the main menu implores players to blog & let other people know about the game, which does feel geniune & not just an attempt to generate free advertising). As I said earlier any number of games could have taken the Gold award but, as bad as I am at it, this is the release this month that I think about most. [IMG]http://i50.************/5x6gz6.jpg[/IMG] 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! radiangames Crossfire 2 I know it’s a sequel, but Crossfire 2 adds a lot to an already good game. The major addition is the ability to upgrade your ship in various ways, do you want more powerful shots, or a faster rate of fire? With eleven different options there is a fair amount of variety in upgrade paths, & it adds to the replayability a lot.  The other big addition is the Score Attack mode which lets you upgrade quite heavily at the beginning & then go crazy over 30+ levels(thats as far as I got), this mode also has global leaderboards which always adds to the fun of score attack games. ================= Astroman A metroidvania at heart, Astroman is a fairly simple game. You play the titular Astroman, a spaceman whose spaceship has suffered critical damage & has exploded parts all over the galaxy & your job, yep you guessed it, is to explore various planets armed with only your trusty blaster looking for the parts.  The graphics of the game are charming, & while they do have a “flash” look about them there seems to be enough variety between the planets to keep them feeling fresh. Talking of other planets, with another nice touch you use the parts you find to help you progress(i.e you find the blasters for your ship & then you can clear the asteroid field on the map to reach other planets), although this may get annoying as there doesn’t seem to be any way of tracking where you are meant to go. ================= Chu's Dynasty Chu’s Dynasty is a game that has a lot more polish applied to it than most XBLIG, everything from the graphics to the (admittedly minimal)voice acting feel more like something you would expect to find in a XBLA release. It is basically a Smash Bros. style game with added complexity contained within the moveset.  Unfortunately the training mode is just a written tutorial, which doesn’t help to get to grips with the game, however as there are only four characters it shouldn’t take too long to learn the movesets. As it doesn’t have online multiplayer I can only recommend it to people who play a decent amount of local multiplayer, but well worth it if you do. ================= Revolver360 Revolver360 is a side-scrolling shoot-’em-up with a nice twist, you can rotate the playfield to avoid bullets i.e if you have a vertical stream of bullets you can avoid them by rotating them 90 degrees and turning them into a horizontal stream.  As you can see the game looks really good & the good thing is the backgrounds change fairly quickly so the sense of progression is good & you don’t get bored too quickly. The only real issue is the game gets too intense with all the revolving & changes in background so it can get a bit hard to see if bullets are going to hit or not. ================= Cthulhu Saves the World Now this is a JRPG made by Zeboyd Games, the people behind Breath of Death VII. It has a 16-bit artstyle(which reminds me of the Megadrive Phantasy Star’s) but it has a few additions(from the 16-bit days, perhaps they were already in BoD:VII) that make the gameplay feel a bit fresher.It handles random battles in an interesting way, after you fight a certain amount of enemies in a particular area, you no longer have to fight anymore, so exploring is far less tedious than some of the classics.  As I’m not the biggest JRPG fan, the main draw for me was the sense of humour this game has, & the obvious care taken during the making of it. I remember befor release, the developers saying that if it sells well they may be able to become full time developers, heres hoping. [IMG]http://i49.************/27yn4nr.jpg[/IMG] 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. Petunk Now Petunk isn’t the best game in the world, you control the direction & power of a ball you are firing towards a target avoiding evolving blocks, bouncy balls etc. What is interesting about the game is the artstyle , basically it looks as if the whole game is made of felt. Add that to the folky soundtrack & you have a very relaxing game which is worth having a look at. SIRTET A Tetris game, which admittedly looks like an Amiga game, it says it has a fair few variations on the classic Tetris but you don’t get to see any of them in the trial which is a pity. Decimation X3 Still a really good game, but lack of leaderboards hurt the game, worth playing though if you haven’t got any of the others. Curse of the Crescent Isle Cool 2D platformer with an 8-bit style. It plays a little like SMB2 as you can pick up and carry enemies as you go, but as you can actually ride on them it adds a puzzle element to the game. As it’s a game that harks back to the olden days it has a nice “chiptune” soundtrack as well. Break Limit 2D shooter that has no enemies, but don’t worry it has plenty to shoot. It is similar to Hypership Out of Control but it scrolls sideways too. Soulcaster II Seems very similar to the 1st game, judging by the trials so if you have that one you may wish to check the trial to see what the differences are. If you haven’t played the 1st one, this is well worth a go, it plays like a mix of a tower defence game & a dungeon crawler(although there are levels set outside too) Ahoy Pirates Imagine a game with the ship combat from Sid Meier's Pirates with multiplayer. Thats Ahoy Pirates! 生け花しましょ！（初級編） I wasn’t sure if I should put this here, as the “game” is all in Japanese so I’m not really sure what the objective is(or even if there is one) but it is a flower-arranging game that I spent far too long messing around with. I found it strangely addictive but I can’t really explain why. [IMG]http://i49.************/rjjf2e.jpg[/IMG] If Zombie games are so universally shit, why do people keep making them? ZP2KX:Zombies & Pterodactyls! Easy choice for Zombie game of the month this month.  Now, I’ve only played the trial of this so I’m not sure what the netcode is like, but the mechanics behind the game are good, with a lot of different weaponry & even the bots are fun to play against, its a pity there is no local multiplayer but it would be tricky to do. [IMG]http://i46.************/160yng3.jpg[/IMG] 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(there were others but I thought in such a good month I shouldn’t dwell on the dross). A Game yOu can’t BEAT! 2Another Impossible Game clone, not done very well. Shooting Models Now, this game could have been done well, imagine Pokemon Snap with FMV, but as this is Silver Dollar Games its a poorly made game with little thought behind it. Maids With Balloons Woeful game, luckily the trial only lets you play one of the games(there are 3) which is one of the worst versions of Space Invaders Ive ever seen. Snow DayBackground images of snowy streets, the only options you have are to change the image & the “intensity” of the “snow” overlaid on top of it. Awful. iFate Tarot Explorer Fucking tarot. So, what did you think of these games? What do you think of what you’re playing this month? Enjoy your Indie Games. Previous threads, where all the older stuff lives: The best Xbox LIVE Indie Games of November 2010 | The TEMPURA of the DEAD The best Xbox LIVE Indie Games of October 2010 | radiangames Fluid The best Xbox LIVE Indie Games of September 2010 | Hypership Out of Control The best Xbox LIVE Indie Games of August 2010 | Gravitron 360 The best Xbox LIVE Indie Games of July 2010 | PLATFORMANCE: Castle Pain The best Xbox LIVE Indie Games of June 2010 | Old School Racer The (old) XNA Indie Games Official Thread Releases this month by date: December 1st Alpha Blasters Snow Day December 2nd. Break Limit December 3rd Squee Pig Piggle BBQ Planet Popper Retro One-Part 3 生け花しましょ！（初級編） Rumble Checkers Online Ubergridder December 4th Zombie Accountant December 5th Curse of the Crescent Isle PentomiGo December 7th SIRTET Fish Hunter Tile Trip Asteroids Do Concern Me Decimation X3 December 8th Boogeyman December 9th A Madman’s Guide To Happiness Avatar Boogie 2 Drizzle Score Rush December 10th Chus Dynasty December 11th Football Games Room CannonBotGo Avatar Onslaught-BLIZZARD Switch! Freak Out December 12th Avatar Bump December 14th AVATOUR Shooting Models Soulcaster II Toy Stunt Bike Kozu December 16th 8 Ball Pool Champion Osr unhinged radiangames Crossfire 2 December 17th Santa And The Zombie Encounter C.L.E.S. Party Ahoy Pirates Lunacy ZP2KX:Zombies & Pterodactyls! December 18th Finish 2:Colors December 19th Aphelion 2 December 20th A Game yOu can’t BEAT! 2 Polar Escape Zombiez 8 My Cookiez Retrovaders December 21st The Earth Machine Vertigo December 22nd Return All Robots Space Gladiator GGC X resistanceBlocks CyberSnake iFate Tarot Explorer December 23rd Combat Tanks Part II B.U.T.T.O.N Astroman Warbirds At War Xenocide The Xmas Chainsaw Massacre December 24th Insanity BoneD: Dead Men Don’t Jump Petunk Casino Nights Bad Golf BLOCKPLUS December 25th Alien Hunter December 26th Revolver360 December 27th Maids With Balloons December 28th Mancala Spanish 101 AutoMorpion December 29th Snake Quick Draw 2 December 30th Cthulhu Saves the World True Exorcism Vorpal
Last edited by Cerebral Assassin; 01-03-2011 at 09:09 PM.
Reason: Typo's galore
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knows his self-worth.
(01-03-2011, 06:29 PM)
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#2
Soulcaster II is a pretty big step up from the first game, though the major differences don't appear until a few levels in. Not sure how much the trial lets you play. It got upgrades to the visuals, an improved leveling system, interactive elements to many levels, much larger and more complex boards, a stronger story and a much greater variety in the mission designs. It was my favorite XBLIG of last year.
And the gameplay is still very unique, a Gauntlet meets tower defense action/strategy/RPG. I wish it had gotten a higher profile. |
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(01-03-2011, 07:34 PM)
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#3
Originally Posted by Cerebral Assassin:
Cheers for doing this! Man, those Score Rush screenshots look insane. I can't wait to play that. |
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Member
(01-03-2011, 08:42 PM)
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#5
Revolver 360 > Score Rush!
It's become one of my favorite shootemups. Although the complaints about hard to see bullets is justified it just makes the Revolving aspect of the game much more essential. The game is fun and beautiful! I'm addicted to infinite mode. I wish it was an XBLA release instead of XBIG. Does anyone know how to unlock the 25 screen mode? |
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The Mayuh of f'n Bawston
(01-03-2011, 08:53 PM)
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#7
I feel like Indie games have been exploding recently. Soul Caster, Epic Dungeon and Cthulhu are all awesome games (well I've not played Cthulhu yet but how could it not be?)
Also fuck Maids With Balloons. Someone needs to post a screenshot of that abomination. (I would but I'm blocked from most sites that would have it.) |
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Member
(01-03-2011, 08:55 PM)
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#8
Originally Posted by Diablohead:
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Has the worst ideas ever
(01-03-2011, 08:59 PM)
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#9
Awesome set of games last month, Must have been hard to split between categories.
As for ZP2KX it's all about online and it's net code is excellent as is it's community, the way he's set it up means there's always people playing or visably joinable. |
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Member
(01-03-2011, 09:05 PM)
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#10
Originally Posted by Cerebral Assassin:
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Member
(01-03-2011, 09:29 PM)
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#11
Originally Posted by Gowans007:
Quote:
 This is what I had to play, pity me. |
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Member
(01-04-2011, 02:40 AM)
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#12
I adore how you and toy put fake links for the bad games :lol :lol
I myself made a mini-game compilation, since Bonded Realities is pretty much done and is in the feedback stage. It's called Hyper Button. Hopefully it will be better than Maids With Balloons, I made it after spending time at arcades and most enjoying the machines with mini-game compilations (like Point Blank and Bishi Bashi), so it will be inspired by those. [IMG]http://i53.************/70dgxt.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i56.************/2d851yx.jpg[/IMG] I subjected myself to Maids With Balloons trial for the lulz. Did he even play his own game before releasing it? The maid walks like she has 300lb concrete shoes. |
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is beloved, despite what anyone might say
(01-04-2011, 04:18 AM)
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#14
Need to try Score Rush for myself, but I'll echo that Cthulu is fantastic. Some great little additions to a solid turn-based formula (the whole limit to a number of random encounters in an area, not to mention the difficult decisions you get to make for new skills at level up), plus an awesome sense of humor and great music.
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Member
(01-04-2011, 08:17 AM)
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#16
Originally Posted by Neuromancer:
I reviewed this game. Sad, I know. I gave it our worst possible grade. It deserved lower.
Last edited by OnPoint; 01-04-2011 at 08:32 AM.
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(01-04-2011, 09:23 AM)
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#18
Originally Posted by Ventron:
Really looking forward to your games, Bonded Realities somewhat more, though! |
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Member
(01-04-2011, 10:15 AM)
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#19
Zp2kx or whatever the fuck its called is excellent, great deathmatch gameplay with satisfying weapons an effects. Netcode is excellent as well, easy to join games and play and its only a buck, sheeet. Enjoyed Astroman demo and Score Rush. Probably gonna buy Revolver 360 just really impressed with the demo and the originality of the title despite it being another sidescrolling shooter. The idea of having cooldown on your shot is strategic and neat and I like shooting as many enemy bullets as I can. The rotation mechanic is really smart and fun as well. I liked the Soulcaster 2 demo as well, but not sure if that ones for me.
Sidenote: shoutout for Protect Me Knight, just a fantastically fun local multi game, thanks for bringin this one to my attention Indie thread dudes:D forgot to give props in an older thread
Last edited by Elixist; 01-04-2011 at 10:18 AM.
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Member
(01-04-2011, 02:03 PM)
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#20
Will do a brief round up of the IU games at some point when they are all out and I've had chance to play them properly.
I've demoed them all so far, but not bought as many as I'd thought (feared!). 2 remaining to release? Cthulu sales are being updated via Twitter so hopefully there will be news of how good the 2 days of Dec were and how that bodes for the future. |
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Member
(01-04-2011, 02:13 PM)
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#21
Does cthulhu maintain the level of overall quality present on the demo?? I really enjoyed the trial but I wouldn't want to purchase it and then have the music/charm/dialog/writing/visual/etc quality take a nosedive 1 hour in.
Originally Posted by toythatkills:
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is beloved, despite what anyone might say
(01-04-2011, 02:41 PM)
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#22
Originally Posted by Letters:
Also another game I played - Rainbow Ball Adventure. It's a really strange game - a total Katamari clone (even going so far as to having a level where you roll up Princes), with crude "Rakugaki Showtime" drawn objects to collect. I believe the game was made "by a whole family", so I'd imagine the objects and the pictures you get when you win were sketched up by children. Weird-ass game. |
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in the heezy fo sheezy
(01-04-2011, 04:57 PM)
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#23
Score Rush
ZP2KX:Zombies & Pterodactyls! Crossfire 2 Revolver360 Cthulhu Saves the World Decimation X3 Soulcaster II All of these are worth buying based on the full games and demos that I've played. Why don't I see anything about Vorpal though? I don't have it yet only because I don't have any points atm, but I keep playing the demo over and over. Any fan of pattern based bullet hell shmups should try this. The rush you get from this game when you're dodging everything is like no other indie shooter. |
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Member
(01-04-2011, 05:18 PM)
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#24
Originally Posted by Beezy:
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Member
(01-05-2011, 03:06 AM)
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#26
Originally Posted by toythatkills:
I'm thinking of recording the opening sequence of Bonded Realities on Youtube, to show off the jokes involved.
Originally Posted by Neuromancer:
(But on second thought, the fact that there's a trial mode feature may do more harm for this game than good. Thanks for that Microsoft! :lol ) |
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Member
(01-05-2011, 03:22 AM)
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#27
Radiangames Ballistic coming this month, probably:
Quote:
Also a couple tracks from Alpha Squad's soundtrack are up on Stemage's bandcamp page. The game itself comes out next week after missing out on the Winter Uprising. |
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Junior Member
(01-05-2011, 05:32 PM)
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#28
Great breakdown on a great month. I am not a big Shmup fan so my personal favs were Cthulhu and ZP2KX.
Cthulhu was actually much better than BoD in my opinion (both are good obviously). And if you can get a group of friends playing ZP2KX it's insanely fun and incredibly cheap for the amount of polish and features included. |
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(01-05-2011, 05:51 PM)
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#29
Originally Posted by Ventron:
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Member
(01-05-2011, 06:03 PM)
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#30
Originally Posted by Beezy:
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knows his self-worth.
(01-05-2011, 09:13 PM)
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#32
Cthulhu Saves the World sales numbers:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Long:
Speaking of which, Radiangames Inferno is really fantastic. I beat it over the weekend, and it's a very solid shooter of good length. It has a nice, steady arc to it, and how you choose configure the ship has very tangible consequences. Great mix of manic and methodical gameplay. It's my favorite game from Radiangames so far. |
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(01-05-2011, 09:21 PM)
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#33
As far as I can tell, these are the BoD figures for the first week.
Quote:
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Has the worst ideas ever
(01-05-2011, 10:13 PM)
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#36
I need to get some more points.
Just been putting more time into zpxzxsxg..gh.. Or whatever and now lvl 20. Loadsa online rooms around, great game. Been hitting crossfire2 as I loved the last one so much, I love the max powered up guns so much. |
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knows his self-worth.
(01-05-2011, 10:33 PM)
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#37
Originally Posted by Diablohead:
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in the heezy fo sheezy
(01-05-2011, 10:45 PM)
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#38
I just bought and beat Vorpal for the first time. I love this game so much.
I also finally bought Breath of Death VII. I wanna beat it before I get Cthulhu. I have 240 points left atm. I dunno if I should save it for Cthulhu or spend it on Revolver360 right now. |
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Has the worst ideas ever
(01-05-2011, 10:46 PM)
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#39
I noticed there was no "one you might have missed"
Does that mean a catch up if the best indies of 2010 is in the works? |
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Member
(01-05-2011, 11:54 PM)
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#41
Originally Posted by toythatkills:
Anyway, wish granted, here's a recording of me playing the game's prologue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPJ88U8xr-I |
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(01-06-2011, 07:58 AM)
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#42
That looks ace, definitely a Mother vibe, which might come from the font more than anything else! I was also oddly pleased that you walked under the slide rather than having to walk around it, I'm not really sure why that is :D
Looking forward to this |
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Member
(01-06-2011, 10:40 AM)
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#43
The developer of Groov revealed what he's been working on, and it's very different yet very similar to Groov:
http://www.funkmasonry.com/home/2011...w-project.html
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Member
(01-06-2011, 12:20 PM)
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#44
Cthulhu Saves the World is awesome,up to Chapter 3 now and I can`t believe this is a 3 dollar game...also enjoyed Aphelion 2,not as good as Cthulhu,but not bad for the price as well...they even patched it yesterday and it has a new game + and all...never thought I would be a full week of playing Indie games mostly on the 360...good stuff.
Last edited by Ricker; 01-06-2011 at 12:29 PM.
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Member
(01-06-2011, 12:52 PM)
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#45
Originally Posted by Dave Long:
Congrats to the indie devs for such an awesome month! |
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Member
(01-06-2011, 03:28 PM)
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#47
New trailer for Aban Hawkins & the 1000 SPIKES: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeZfC...ature=youtu.be
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Prince's's 'Skittle's
(01-06-2011, 03:32 PM)
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#48
Originally Posted by Kid Marin:
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(01-06-2011, 05:23 PM)
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#49
Originally Posted by Princess Skittles:
80points though, stunning value! |
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The Mayuh of f'n Bawston
(01-06-2011, 05:42 PM)
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#50
Originally Posted by Dave Long:
Also what do you guys think about the respawning enemies? My friend says most roguelikes don't do that so I wonder why the creator put them in. |
