Stuff I played recently:
Fez - 200/200 - This would be my game of the year. It's the first game in more than a decade that had me taking notes. The technical issues are unfortunate (time for a PC release to resolve them) but this is really a singular achievement. Definitely the work of an auteur as well. I'm still working out my thoughts, really.
Costume Quest - 250/250 - I played this when it first released, but did a replay of the game and the DLC recently. My mini-review of it from 2010
still holds true but I would say that this time through it felt like the fighting was more of a slog than last time. Still highly recommended, and the script is even better than I remember.
Doritos Crash Course - 200/200 - Went back and got all Gold medals in this game and then played through it online. I remain convinced that this is a great game in and of itself, notwithstanding the fact that it's free. Definitely the best arcadey obstacle course type game I've played. And because so many people have played it, the leaderboards are a joy. Unfortunately the online community are quitting jerks.
Kinect Fun Labs: Mars Rover - 50/50 - It's hilarious how the presentation of this game is so serious and it's about a pretty serious topic but the gameplay is so goofy, like anything with Kinect. Still, it's fun enough, none of the gestures are too painful to do, there's a good score attack appeal to it. And free, so that's good.
Beyond Good and Evil HD - 200/200 - Spectacular game, I'd never done a full playthrough before.
Posted a review in the OT
Schizoid - 160/200 - It's been great fun revisiting this game. This is basically a twin-stick shooter like Geometry Wars, except you don't shoot anything, and the Ikaruga colour thing is added. You control a blue ship (an AI or a co-op partner controls an orange ship). Enemies in a given level are blue or orange. Blue ship can kill blue enemies by touching them, orange can kill orange. They do a lot of fun level design on top of this concept and the visuals are so slick. But then the cherry on top is that there's a mode where you control both ships with one controller, each with one analog stick. There's an achievement aptly named "Corpus Callosum Severed" if you beat that mode. This was one of the first XBLA games coded in XNA, too, as an interesting historical curiosity. I don't think I'll ever beat the game (I don't know anyone who wants to play it, the AI isn't smart enough to do well in the later levels, and I lack the intellectual capacity to do the one-dude-two-ships mode) but it's great to still be picking at it years and years later.
Polar Panic - 170/200 - Working my way through the Puzzle mode of this cute and sweet Sokoban clone. Remains very fun, but the later levels of the puzzle mode just get a bit too long and big for their own good--it's not that they're hard, it's that any mistake makes you restart a 2+ minute stage. I previously said "The game has 50 levels and 50 puzzle levels, each level gives you a grade, there are collectibles, etc. Very meaty. Cute story about a polar bear saving his family from comically evil trappers. Great purchase." about the game.
Tried the first few levels of
Leedmes, which killed the hell out of my arms, holy crap. It's basically a Kinect Lemmings-ish clone, except you use your body to move the Lemmings across the screen, and most of the game takes place with your arms above your head. Excruciating. Do not recommend for this factor alone. Also started
Castle Crashers. Can you believe I haven't played this game yet? I'm not really loving it so far, I think a lot of the appeal of the game is playing it in co-op and just getting some mayhem going. It's kinda stale playing it on my own. I can see some potential. I'm not a fan of the potty humour, which is a pity, because otherwise I love the way they draw the different animals.
I'm looking at buying all of this. Assuming I liked the games in question, is there anything here I should absolutely avoid? I have points out the wazoo so don't consider price, just quality.