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XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade) News, Announcements, Reviews, and Impressions Thread
- Thread starter Vert boil
- Start date
LorDjidane
Member
If you like fighting games, there's atm VF5: FS which is at 400MSP. A steal.
It's alright, not as bad as people make it out to be. Has SNK Boss Syndrome though.
You'd get a lot more out of Sonic CD though, isn't that also 400 points?
LorDjidane
Member
It is but it's a permanent price. Might as well enjoy the sales IMHO.
Vert boil
Member
There are a few recent price drops that aren't on there but here's a list of the cheaper games - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=44123940&postcount=588.
Adventures of Shuggy? (but you'll need a second person for co-op)
Valkyria
Banned
It was Ok, I'm a sucker for Sega, so I buy almost everyting they release. I bought Nights even though I own the original Japanese Saturn version and I still play it.
Alien Spidy looks neat, it's art direction is almost the same as Insane Twisted Shadow Planet which is a plus IMO.
LocoCycle looks kinda interesting as a concept but visually it looks like a second rate Wii game, such an ugly game especially considering they are working for quite some time on the 360...at least I hope it will be 60fps.
LocoCycle looks kinda interesting as a concept but visually it looks like a second rate Wii game, such an ugly game especially considering they are working for quite some time on the 360...at least I hope it will be 60fps.
Motocross Madness, Midtown Madness and Monstertruck Madness - all great games from MS back in the day.
LorDjidane
Member
I also hope the fun isn't the only good part of the game. I remember being hyped when Comic Jumper was announced. And being so disappointed when it was released, the gameplay and challenge was really poor to me compared to Splosion Man. If it weren't for the humor, I'm not sure I (nor my friends) would have been able to at least finish it.
So yeah, here's hoping for a nice gameplay and challenge in LocoCycle.
Just finished my last achievement in Yar's Revenge and I have to say, I really ended up liking this one. It's got a fantastic world and feel to it, I love the strange dialogue and the game plays really well. So worth the 400MSP and jumping on it before it very likely gets delisted is definitely something I recommend.
The only disappointing part is how easy it is. It really poses no challenge whatsoever, even in "hardcore mode," and that can make it pretty dull in the long run. Most of the achievements are "beat the entire game in way X" and then "do it in way Y," etcetera, so I don't recommend trying to get them all in one night or you'll get bored by how easy it is. It's more the type of game you beat once a week so you can enjoy every run-through.
My biggest dislike is their lack of ideas for ramping up the difficulty. Like Stump mentioned, 98% of the enemies give you audio clues as to what attack is coming, allowing you half a second to prepare and calculate how many blocks you need to perform and with which timing to do it. Annoyingly, the last few bosses don't have that and learning their attack patterns becomes a massive chore, since you have to restart the whole game (or cheat by dashboarding and juggling save files) after every attempt.
The only disappointing part is how easy it is. It really poses no challenge whatsoever, even in "hardcore mode," and that can make it pretty dull in the long run. Most of the achievements are "beat the entire game in way X" and then "do it in way Y," etcetera, so I don't recommend trying to get them all in one night or you'll get bored by how easy it is. It's more the type of game you beat once a week so you can enjoy every run-through.
What the hell, my recommendation isn't good enough?! Ok, I might've actually forgotten to post about the game when it came out but I love it too. There's a great feeling to the combat; just blocking and striking back may sound like it's simple and dull but it's actually pretty compelling and fun. Makes you feel like a badass kung fu warrior!toythatkills said:That sounds great, and completely not like how I thought it was. I'd have bought this on sale if you'd have posted a few days ago
My biggest dislike is their lack of ideas for ramping up the difficulty. Like Stump mentioned, 98% of the enemies give you audio clues as to what attack is coming, allowing you half a second to prepare and calculate how many blocks you need to perform and with which timing to do it. Annoyingly, the last few bosses don't have that and learning their attack patterns becomes a massive chore, since you have to restart the whole game (or cheat by dashboarding and juggling save files) after every attempt.
My favorites from that list:
Adventures of Shuggy - 400msp
Age of Booty - 400msp
Bejeweled Blitz LIVE - 400msp
Commanders: Attack of the Genos - 400msp
Contra - 400msp
DOOM - 400msp
DOOM II - 400msp
DEAD RISING 2: CASE ZERO - 400msp
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved - 400msp
Gunstar Heroes - 400msp
Hydrophobia 400msp
Mercury Hg - 400msp
NIN2-JUMP - 400msp
Panzer General Allied Assault - 400msp
Quarrel - 400msp
Rush'n Attack - 400msp
Space Giraffe - 400msp
Super Contra - 400msp
Swarm - 400msp
Switchball - 400msp
The Walking Dead: Ep 1 - 400msp
Wolfenstein 3D - 400msp
World Gone Sour - 400msp
Zuma - 400msp
Hydrophobia is actually a lot better than people think! And word of warning for Panzer General; there's rampant, sofa table smashing AI cheating towards the end of it. 80% of the game is really fun, though.
Miles Quaritch
Member
Yeah, don't get Hydrophobia. Even post patch, the game is a mess. I'd avoid it at all costs.
Miles Quaritch
Member
Swtichball is great, but it's no Marble Blast Ultra.
aku:jiki, what do you mean by delisted? XBLA games can disappear from the marketplace?
Also, I'd consider Walking Dead a 2000-point game. Sure first episode if 400 points but no one is just going to play that first episode and then not want to see the rest of Lee's story. =)
Also, I'd consider Walking Dead a 2000-point game. Sure first episode if 400 points but no one is just going to play that first episode and then not want to see the rest of Lee's story. =)
Miles Quaritch
Member
Yep, publishers closing down or licences expiring can see games removed. If you've already bought the games, you needn't worry as you can download delisted games whenever you want from your download list.
While both revolve atound rolling balls, both games are entirely different. MBU is far more momentum based, while Switchball is more physics based
So best platformers on the 360:
Super Meat Boy
Rayman Origins
Doritos Crash Course (not joking, this one's good)
Banjo-Kazooie
I'd put Limbo, Braid, and Winterbottom up there but they're primiarly puzzlers rather than platformers. And I'm sure Banjo-Tooie earns a spot but I haven't played it yet. What other great platformers are on the system? Right now I'm in the middle of Rayman Origins and I love this damn game. Those pickings are slim, and I'm sure platforming is one of 360's weaker genres, but I think it would be nice if some posters here had suggestions on other good platforming titles on the 360.
I'm not hard to please. I like the platforming in games like Assassin's Creed 2/Bro/Rev and Tomb Raider Reboot, even if game does the jumps for you almost automatically.
Super Meat Boy
Rayman Origins
Doritos Crash Course (not joking, this one's good)
Banjo-Kazooie
I'd put Limbo, Braid, and Winterbottom up there but they're primiarly puzzlers rather than platformers. And I'm sure Banjo-Tooie earns a spot but I haven't played it yet. What other great platformers are on the system? Right now I'm in the middle of Rayman Origins and I love this damn game. Those pickings are slim, and I'm sure platforming is one of 360's weaker genres, but I think it would be nice if some posters here had suggestions on other good platforming titles on the 360.
I'm not hard to please. I like the platforming in games like Assassin's Creed 2/Bro/Rev and Tomb Raider Reboot, even if game does the jumps for you almost automatically.
toythatkills
Member
N+, Spelunky, Trials Evo, Outland, Cloning Clyde, most of the retro Sonic games (and Sonic Generations not from XBLA), South Park Tenorman, Raskulls, off the top of my head.
If you want platformers though, you want XBLIGs. There are some incredible platformers on there.
LorDjidane
Member
I totally agree with Doritos and the rest of your list (except Banjo since I haven't played it).
Before SMB came out, my best platformer on the 360 was Splosion Man. Basic gameplay but nice possibilities and level design. Game is challenging and kinda long. Plus it provides a good coop campaign from 2 to 4 players.
To me it's a solid value on XBLA.
Before SMB came out, my best platformer on the 360 was Splosion Man. Basic gameplay but nice possibilities and level design. Game is challenging and kinda long. Plus it provides a good coop campaign from 2 to 4 players.
To me it's a solid value on XBLA.
toythatkills
Member
Splosion Man, like nearly all the Twisted Pixel stuff, is a below-average game with above-average presentation.
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
If the average platformer was as good as Splosion Man I'd be playing a whole lot more of them.
toythatkills
Member
Between retail, XBLA and XBLIG, it's not hard to find 30 platformers which are better than Splosion Man
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
I'm listening.
toythatkills
Member
I'm off out, but I'll be back with this list tomorrow.
It's good, post-patch. Maybe not top-tier, but it's better than Splosion Man, and is fun
HadesGigas
Member
South Park is way worse than Splosion Man and is the opposite of fun.
LorDjidane
Member
I can't wait.
I'm reading this thread next to my daughter, while she's playing Marble Blast Ultra. She re-discovered it this week, skimming our XBLA games for something to play, after not playing it for ~5 years. What a fantastic game. Did any others take the same concept anywhere? The videos I found for Switchball makes it look like a much more slowly paced game along narrow tracks, rather than these frenetic arenas in MBU.
Yup. I still think The Maw was their best. And Toythatkills mentioned it, but Cloning Clyde is an XBLA classic, IMO.
The Maw was their best (by far actually) and Cloning Clyde is a classic. A game that follows the greatness that was Marble Blast Ultra is Mercury HG. But I like it more with a marble instead of a pool of mercury.
There is a free exact port on the PC.
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
Music for Marble Blast was awesome.
Whaat, had no idea. I'll go play it right now.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
I finished the two Watchmen XBLA games, which I had earlier reviewed the demos of. They don't really get better, and there's not much in the way of level design or puzzles. A few of the achievements are neat and encourage mastery of the combat system or thorough exploration--finding the collectibles adds a twist--Rorschach can play a surprisingly thorough lock-picking minigame while Nite Owl has a grappling gun he can use to get to ordinarily not accessible spots. I definitely don't recommend the games for the $35 that they cost on XBLA what the hell. For the $10 I paid I'm kind of ambivalent I guess? I didn't hate my time with the games.
Edit: WRC Powerslide isn't too bad, it's an arcadey rally-car game. I've been to a targa car rally so I guess that's my point of reference. It felt okay but I don't think constant hairpin turns is the best ay to make a fun race-course. Also, the demo consists of 1 car in 1/3rd of 1 race at 1 speed level. At the end of it I was thinking "I wonder what kind of variety there is", but how could I know? They've gotta do better with actually teasing the stuff you'll get. Hydro Thunder Hurricane seemed like a better example of an enticing demo. Finally, the song that played in the demo annoyed me. I think my standards for car games are too high since there's so many of them on XBLA. It did seem to have officially licensed cars, so I guess that's a unique selling point.
Edit: WRC Powerslide isn't too bad, it's an arcadey rally-car game. I've been to a targa car rally so I guess that's my point of reference. It felt okay but I don't think constant hairpin turns is the best ay to make a fun race-course. Also, the demo consists of 1 car in 1/3rd of 1 race at 1 speed level. At the end of it I was thinking "I wonder what kind of variety there is", but how could I know? They've gotta do better with actually teasing the stuff you'll get. Hydro Thunder Hurricane seemed like a better example of an enticing demo. Finally, the song that played in the demo annoyed me. I think my standards for car games are too high since there's so many of them on XBLA. It did seem to have officially licensed cars, so I guess that's a unique selling point.
LorDjidane
Member
Well in the demo you can do the three special stages of the first rally. You have to use one class to unlock the second special and another to unlock the third one. Also, you can do each special with each of the three classes.
In total, that makes nine "different" possible races. Quote/unquote on different because it gets super repetitive. And you get that way like 1/10th of the game or something.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Played a bunch of Raskulls in local multi last night. I've always liked the game but haven't had the chance to play much local multi, and there's only so much you can get out of playing against the AI. I had a great time. There's a real intelligence to the level design that creates a sort of "natural" rubber-banding. Some sections of the levels basically punish the player in first by creating block-barriers that he or she needs to clear out, and the players coming from behind can just run right through. But then as you get closer to the ends of the levels, the block patterns start benefitting the players in first... So the whole level always feels pretty competitive. Also, the opportunity to bounce off other players heads can help you get to the finish line a few seconds early, so it's especially tense when you're all in the final stretch and you slow down to try to jump on someone and springboard off them into the finish. Tense as hell.
I'll also re-emphasize that when this game was first announced, I was like "This is going to tank, Battleblock Theatre is going to suck up all the oxygen. They're both cartoony games with oddly specific local multiplayer platform block racing gameplay."--and now we're three years later and Battleblock Theatre still isn't out. Well, that's good anyway, because I'm glad I got to play through Raskulls. Every time I come back to it I like it more.
Edit: Not to port beg a game I already own, but I think the game could have an interesting life if it got a PC port. Sell it in 4-packs to help enable multiplayer. Good stuff.
I'll also re-emphasize that when this game was first announced, I was like "This is going to tank, Battleblock Theatre is going to suck up all the oxygen. They're both cartoony games with oddly specific local multiplayer platform block racing gameplay."--and now we're three years later and Battleblock Theatre still isn't out. Well, that's good anyway, because I'm glad I got to play through Raskulls. Every time I come back to it I like it more.
Edit: Not to port beg a game I already own, but I think the game could have an interesting life if it got a PC port. Sell it in 4-packs to help enable multiplayer. Good stuff.
toythatkills
Member
It's okay at best. I'm sure I've posted about it a bunch of times but for me it has an issue which just should not be present in a platformer - inconsistent jumping. When you press the button you know pretty much what you're going to get, but you can never be 100% sure when you press it twice more that it's going to do exactly what you want. In Mario, for example, the mechanics are perfect, in Splosion Man it just doesn't feel right all the time and it means it's often not that fun wall-jumping or doing anything which requires precision. Add to that some horrible checkpointing, too. It has a habit of having looooooong easy sections followed by hard sections, and rather than put checkpoints at the start of the hard bit, it puts them before the easy bit which means you have to do it over and over again - this problem is especially prevalent later on. It's not like it's the worst platformer ever or anything, but it's nowhere near the best.
So here's 30 platformers on Xbox that I'd rather play than Splosion Man. Actually there's something like twice that, just in case you don't really define stuff as platformers the same way I do. I've tried to just include stuff that I feel has really strong platforming elements, so while not everything is going to be the same kind of thing as Mario, if you like Mario you should like pretty much everything here.
They're not all OMG INCREDIBLE, but they're all absolutely worth playing, and they're all better than Splosion Man. In my opinion, obviously.
RETAIL
Sonic Generations is the best Sonic game ever, probably. Wasn't expecting to like it but I got 1000/1000 on it because it's just so well done.
Rayman Origins is amazing
Toy Story 3 has Toy Box mode, mainly, but the traditional platforming half is good fun too.
Prince of Persia, the 2006 one, is one of my favourite games this generation. The way you can get in a zone with it as you elegantly leap from one thing to the next is so chilled out.
Mirror's Edge, the time trials (and the DLC), are proper pure platforming and yet are unlike anything else, really.
Alice: Madness Returns is so good on easy, but pretty shit on hard because the combat really gets in the way. Worth playing on easy, though, absolutely.
Tomb Raider: Anniversary from when the series was about platforming and puzzles and not shooting mans in the faces.
Majin is kind of Zelda-like, if the entire game was one dungeon.
Mini Ninjas, I'll confess that I can't entirely remember how platformy this was, but I remember enjoying it tons.
Other stuff you could maybe consider with strong platforming elements like Portal, Ass Creed, Batman, Crackdown, etc.
XBLA
Sonic 1, 2, 3, Knuckles are, well, you know these. There's CD too, I guess, but I'm not so big a fan of it.
N+ is a lot like...
Super Meat Boy, they're both hard arena-platformers, but with really tight controls.
mercury Hg is amazing with your own soundtrack going.
Marble Blast Ultra you can't actually get any more, but if you were lucky enough to get it before then you'll know how good it is.
Trials HD, Evolution probably need no explanation.
Switchball is a bit like Marble Blast, but slower and more puzzle based.
Gripshift is a driving game, but it plays a LOT like a platformer, you'll know what I mean if you've played it.
Spelunky is probably second only to Trials in how great it makes you feel when you play it well, because you genuinely feel yourself getting better the more you play.
FEZ is FEZ.
South Park: Tenorman's Revenge is one I'm getting shit for, but it's genuinely good post-patch. There are tons of collectibles, tons of hidden areas, and the mechanics of it were improved massively in the patch so jumping isn't shit as it was before.
Warp is a top-down puzzle game, kind of, but there is loads of platforming elements. It's also brutal as fuck. It really surprised me how much I enjoyed this because I didn't enjoy the demo a great deal.
Outland has some of the nicest feeling jumping on XBLA.
Adventures of Shuggy is single-screen platforming with a ton of neat mechanics so hardly any two levels feel the same, you're always doing something new.
LIMBO is LIMBO.
Raskulls is kind of a racing game in a 2D platformer crossed with Mr Driller, and the formula works astonishingly well. The single player mode is kind of like Shuggy in that every level feels like it offers something new, and the multiplayer is excellent.
Doritos Crash Course is a game with a sequel I'm really looking forward to. It was a surprise how good this was and how much scope for time trials there is.
Cloning Clyde is little-known, but it's really good, you have to make clones of yourself to solve puzzles, etc.
Banjo Kazooie, Tooie are games you know.
Braid is Braid.
The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom is more puzzle than platformer, but it's still worth considering.
Mega Man 9, 10 are, well, pretty self-explanatory I guess.
Hell Yeah is on my to-do list at present, because I liked the trial.
SVC: Alex Kidd and co. has Alex Kidd in Miracle World as well as Shinobi.
Mark of the Ninja is the best stealth game I've ever played, I think. It's definitely way up there with MGS.
Lode Runner is Lode Runner. I prefer the puzzle mode to the more platformy mode, but here it is anyway.
The Maw is Twisted Pixel's one good game.
Lazy Raiders is a game where you control the world rather than the character, rotating it to make him tumble around.
Castlevania: SOTN, obviously.
Shadow Complex, also obviously.
EXIT, 2 are puzzle games with loads of inch-perfect platforming to do.
XBLIG
Apple Jack, AJ2 are the two best platformers on Xbox 360, they are incredible.
Little Acorns Deluxe is full of single-screen levels with stuff to collect and unlock.
Gateways is one huuuuuge lab which you have to explore with portals and gravity and all sorts of other stuff to mess with.
The Deep Cave is a hard platformer with pixelly graphics.
Ninja360 is 100 levels with a medal system and rotating levels, speedrunning is ace.
Volchaos is a nice platformer which both looks and feels really retro, in a good way. Gets tough, also.
Growing Pains has a neat mechanic where you're constantly growing, so you have to keep getting to bigger and bigger parts of the level as it shrinks around you. It's really clever.
Escape Goat is single screen puzzles, mostly, but with jumping and stuff.
T.E.C. 3001 is an over-the-shoulder running game, with a decent amount of risk and reward 'cause the faster you go, the harder it is, but the better your times will be.
Chester is pretty pure 2D platforming with loads of customisable art-styles
Platformance: Castle Pain, Temple Death are single screen games where you just have to make it to the end in as few deaths as possible. Kind of surprised this sort of thing wasn't done before, they're really good.
Blocks That Matter is an excellent puzzle game, kind of Mario meets Minecraft meets Tetris, with TONS of content and challenges.
Astroman is Metroidy.
Curse of the Crescent Isle is a NES-style platformer.
Whakman is a ball who rolls through levels collecting stuff.
Antipole is a platformer with gravity and various challenges and stuff.
Treasure Treasure: FFEE is a huge level you can play with a friend to overcome puzzles as you try to collect everything in one run. Beautiful GBA-esque graphics.
Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp, Saves Christmas are two platformers which are incredibly British, and have loads of cool stuff like rolling off enemies to reach higher platforms, etc, they can get quite hard late on. Silly amounts of content for the prices, much like most of these XBLIG recommendations.
Arkedo Series 001: Jump, 003: Pixel are Arkedo, and so obviously excellent.
Banana Split pretty much takes the Johnny Platform base and puts a banana in it.
Carneyvale Showtime is a thing where you swing around platforms and use momentum to reach the exits or collectibles.
Phonomezer
Banned
Raskulls MP is amazing. MS need to put it on sale so there's a bump in activity.
Hell Yeah gets pretty boring and repetetive about halfway through it. I wanted to love it and was excited about it pre-release, but ended up pretty disappointed. Also, The Maw sucks and Twisted Pixel hasn't made a genuinely good game yet.
Aban Hawkins & the 1000 SPIKES is missing from your XBLIG list! It's one of those punishment platformers where you actually start with 1000 extra lives and struggle for 20 minutes to get past the first obstacle, but I liked it.
Aban Hawkins & the 1000 SPIKES is missing from your XBLIG list! It's one of those punishment platformers where you actually start with 1000 extra lives and struggle for 20 minutes to get past the first obstacle, but I liked it.
LorDjidane
Member
Well I guess we don't have the same definition of platformer. I'm looking at the hits of your list and I'm sorry but I can't put Braid and Splosion Man on the same scale for example. For me, the platformer as we were talking about were games were jumping and stuff were at the heart of the game. Braid is more like a puzzle game for me, with a very small amount of platformer sauce. Never have I been annoyed by a simple jump in that game. Same would go for Limbo and others like Fez and such. MotN is a hybrid but that's okay. The Maw is nothing close to a platformer to me, plus it's so boring that I would prefer to forget about this game. Sonics, SMB, SM, now we're talking. And so I can say I can't find 30 platformers better than SM.
As for your problem with the jump mechanic, I have to disagree as I have never been annoyed by those multiple jumps, if you time your second and/or third jump actions with a proper use of the left stick, you will always get what the same jumps, consistently. I get that maybe that is the physics of the jumping mechanism (after the first one) that can be disturbing for not feeling "right" but that only takes some getting used to. I managed to complete the game in both normal and hardcore and I don't really remember being annoyed at the unpreciseness of the gameplay, contrary to other games.
But that's like our opinions.
As for your problem with the jump mechanic, I have to disagree as I have never been annoyed by those multiple jumps, if you time your second and/or third jump actions with a proper use of the left stick, you will always get what the same jumps, consistently. I get that maybe that is the physics of the jumping mechanism (after the first one) that can be disturbing for not feeling "right" but that only takes some getting used to. I managed to complete the game in both normal and hardcore and I don't really remember being annoyed at the unpreciseness of the gameplay, contrary to other games.
But that's like our opinions.
toythatkills
Member
Yeah, Tobe's Vertical Adventure was pointed out to me too, and I just remembered Artoon (though those two aren't on sale any longer.)
I'm sure there's a bunch I missed, and even if you take Hell Yeah out I've still got at least 30. Heh
The fact that Jonathan Blow uses Aban Hawkins as his avatar on Twitter, a XBLIG game...shows how cult XBLIG really is...so cool that no one knows it is cool but the transcended ethereal presence of Blow that otherwise seems to hate everything Microsoft does (but he must have a soft spot for XBLIG like all good people do)
toythatkills
Member
I just Googled that to see if maybe the sequel had gone to Steam or something, and found a reference to something else instead:
Fuck, I also missed The Tempura of the Dead!