This ended up a rougher month than I initially thought it was going to be. Between the glut of holiday-themed crap and just plain ol' crap, December 2011 is a month I mostly don't want to remember.
We have a whole new year ahead of us, which means we have a whole new year of XBLIG titles to look forward to. Hopefully we get more months like November and the XBLIG bar for quality is raised... though I'm not too sure it will be.
Anyway, raise your glasses and drink to the new year with me.
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.
The first game that came out in December ended up being the leader of the pack. Orbitron: Revolution was created by our very own Warm Machine, whose time, effort and drive have resulted in one of the most polished games the service has ever seen, and may ever see.
Orbitron is a Defender-style shooter, where you can move left OR right on the circular stage. Using one of two Wipeout-inspired spacecrafts, it's your job to destroy all of the enemies laying siege on your space station, lest you meet your intergalactic end.
There are three unique modes of play -- one of which requires serious skill to unlock. An update to the game (check it out here) fixed a bunch of my issues with the first build I played at the beginning of the month. There's a fantastic soundtrack by the people who did Geometry Wars' music. It's just a fantastic game that really SHOULD have been a 400 or 800 cost XBLA title.
Yes Virginia, there is an OT for the game. Be sure to check it out.
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!
Some games evoke such a strange feeling that you can't help but be sucked in. They Breathe is one of those games. It's among the strangest gaming experiences I've ever had, which is saying something since the gameplay itself is so simple.
You're a frog, and you're diving deep. In order to survive, you'll have to swallow air bubbles Sonic the Hedgehog style. You'll also need to push other frogs into air bubbles so that they can survive long enough to swim away. Be sure to stay away from the sea cows, however, who want to consume your air and steal your brethren to the dark depths of the ocean. It's kind of... unnerving. But it plays well.
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I'm not usually a big supporter of "ripoffs", but Alien Jelly is pretty damned polished. Yes, it's basically just ilomilo with a Mars Attacks coat of paint, but it's another title on the XBLIG service that, like Orbitron before it, could have easily passed for an XBLA title.
It's a block-moving puzzle game. There are plenty of gameplay wrinkles (like multiple characters on one board, teleportation, etc) and hazards to avoid that help keep things interesting. There's also a level editor for the creative types and four-player co-op for people with friends.
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A zombie game in the silver section? I'm very nearly ashamed to be putting this here on principle alone, but I, Zombie is actually quite clever. You take control of a lone zombie with the need to feed. Your army will grow with every human you infect, the stage ending only when everybody has been converted.
There are civilians and soldiers. The civvies put up no fight, but soldiers require a bit of tricky maneuvering to infect. Once they've been bitten you can heal damage taken from their gunfire by simply standing by them. A nice touch that alleviates what could have been an otherwise game-breakingly frustrating element.
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.
Let's Get Fiscal is a Streets of Rage style beat-em-up with a potty mouth and a fantastic soundtrack. The cutscenes are super weird, but the game plays pretty darn well.
Ninja Recapture is a sidescrolling action-platformer with an expansive, Metroid-vania gameworld to explore. The background graphics kind of hurt my eyes due to how they scroll and the movement is super floaty, but it's a lot more engaging than I would have thought. Plus, the music is TOTALLY kick ass.
Rainbow Rapture is pretty much Tiny Wings. But it's a lot of fun, which is more than I can say for a lot of what came out this month.
Game Type is a parody of the new Xbox 360 Dashboard with a shooter thrown in. With a bit more work the shooter itself could have been a full-fledged title, As it is, it's a basic, jokey game that plays alright.
Echo Space is like a shooter except you can't shoot. Your ship has a ball of energy connected by a stream of plasma. The ball and stream do damage to enemies, and you can teleport to wherever your ball is located. It's definitely a unique take on a tired genre.
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.
Zombie Snowmen was developed by sanGames. And I hope they suffer some sort of brain damage that specifically erases any desire they have to ever develop another game again. Fuck you.
North Pole Zombie Massacre is a horrendous first person shooter that makes me want to never play a first person shooter ever again in my entire life. Ghere Game studios, fuck you.
AppPack 2.0 is something like iPhone apps for your Xbox 360. That are only usable in the app. And are wholly and completely useless. Hey RicolaVG, guess what? Fuck you.
Flirt is a game where you can talk to other hot, single people via Xbox Live. Really, Neil Jones? Like the other games, fuck you. Hard.
Hey GAFfers! Submit your list for your top XBLIG games in this thread and I'll add it here to the OP.
