toythatkills
Member
There was some good stuff released this month, but it was no May. Oh, May, how I loved you. <strokes May> I think a lot of the awesome stuff we might have seen this month is being held back for the Summer Uprising so Im blaming Kris and Dave entirely for this!
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 dont 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 youre outside those countries you can still play these games by setting up a Gamertag for free for one of those countries. Its worth doing.)
The Gold award, for the absolute best game that came out last month.
Rainbow Runner is an endless runner which, since the iPhone, has become an incredibly crowded genre.
What a game needs to do, then, is do something different because otherwise youll be as tiresome as the rest of them. Rainbow Runner does something differently.
What it does differently is Ikaruga-esque. The enemies are all colour-coded and running through them when youre the same colour (changed via the face buttons) destroys them without you having to shoot. Run through them with the wrong colour and youll lose health. Usually its a choice between shooting and bashing through because shooting is done via the right stick, and unless you use controllers in a really weird way the same thumb is used for that and the face buttons.
You cant absorb fire like in Ikaruga, and so when a boss appears the game suddenly turns into a bullet-hell endless runner hybrid, and it works incredibly well.
Youll be wanting loads of modes, so the games got them. Youll be wanting different difficulty levels and the games got a bunch of them, too. Anything else you want?
Stop being greedy. Its only 80 points, and wants to be part of your collection, thanks.
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!
Bunker Buster is one of two games Magiko released this month, the other being PLATFORMANCE: Temple Death. Bunker Buster couldnt really be any different.
The game is kinda like a game I played on my dads Sinclair QL when I was a kid. In it, a helicopter moved from left to right and moved down a few pixels every time it crossed the screen. You had to bomb skyscrapers one floor at a time because if you didnt, youd get too low and crash into them.
It was ace, and so is this. Your craft automatically flies side to side and you can use fuel to control your elevation. You simply have to bomb all the targets in a level to go up a rank and on to the next level. If you lose a level youll go down a rank and if you get demoted too far youll lose the game. Its quite compelling trying to beat it without losing a rank, Ive not seen this lives system before but it works really well.
What else works well is the variation in levels. Your planes physics change, its rate of fire, and the level layouts and enemies. The concept is simple but every level feels new and totally different. Its great.
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Tacticolor is RISK in real-time. Ive actually never played risk but its how Im led to understand RISK plays.
I honestly dont know what more I can say. You simply have to take over a board by building up your troops and then attacking an enemy territory, with dice rolls deciding the victor depending on how many units you have ready. You have to really keep an eye on stuff, with it being real-time. While youre waiting for troops to get ready your enemy could launch an attack and its a really interesting take on what is a quite traditional mechanic.
Then theres the presentation to mention, because it looks brilliant. Crisp, clean, modern, just very nice indeed. Theres multiplayer, single player, various difficulties, and in-game awards to earn. Its right good.
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Kung Fu FIGHT! is another endless runner, but much more traditional than Rainbow Runner is.
So, why isnt it tiresome? Mainly because of the number of things you have to keep track of, and how closely you need to pay attention if you want to be successful. As an example, theres a sumo wrestler enemy who leaps into the air to belly-flop you. Sometimes youll need to slide underneath him to get past, and sometimes his jump will be timed differently and so youll need to leap over the top instead. Theres a subtle difference to look for and react to, and its this constant need for attention that makes this fun. Usually you can play these games in a daze without thinking, but not so here.
It looks great, and has a sense of humour too. These things never hurt.
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Avatar Battle Bees is a competitive online game with avatars, and bees. There are some single player modes too, but online or in multiplayer is where youll want to be the most.
For some reason, your avatar is flying around on a bee. A bee which happens to be armed with missiles and guns. I dont know much about bees and so have to assume that thats how they really work. Its an, erm, one of those games where you fly around and shoot at other stuff, kind of like Ace Combat. Its that genre. Flight-em-up? I dont even know. But you know what I mean.
Its fun, it controls really well and there are loads of modes. Presentation is XBLA standard, too, there are no dodgy fonts here. Really good stuff.
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PLATFORMANCE: Temple Death is of course, entirely bloody awesome. I probably would have made it game of the month but since Castle Pain already took that award and something else appeared in a rainbow of awesome, I gave that a chance.
Its more of the same, Platformance-wise. Youve got one screen with tons of obstacles in your quest to get to the girl and to the top of the online-leaderboards, which are totally addictive. Deaths happen basically everywhere, and the game is awesome.
Its not quite as good as Castle Pain, as a few obstacles feel a bit more random and so impossible to plan for than they did in Castle Pain, but its still brilliant and still addictive as hell and still only 80 points, so why are you waiting?
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.
Sudo-Quick isnt the best representation of Sudoku ever, because that requires a piece of paper and a pencil. It is a really cool videogame implementation, though, with a focus on speed and easy controls. Youre told what box to fill in and then you fill it, so you dont have to hang around working out every possibility for every box because you can always work out the one box its given you. This does make it kind of easy, but with timers and such theres still pressure. Its like Sudoku as an action game, or something.
Arc Lancer is a twin-stick kinda game, in space. Its not just score attacking though, you have missions to take on, upgrades to buy and its all rather fun. Even the actual twin-stick part which is usually rubbish.
Insanity X is I dont know what it is. You just kill all the enemies on a screen and move on (or just leave them and move on). You go from room to room to room until you die. I dont know if theres a win condition or anything, but its strangely playable anyway, even not knowing what the point is.
Pixelbit Helicopter Challenge is similar to Rotor, in that its a helicopter game with mini challenges and stuff to complete. Its not quite as stylish as Rotor though, and the controls are much simpler so when you complete a challenge, theres not quite as much satisfaction as there is when you master something in Rotor. Its still fun, just an easier kind of fun.
Monster Escape is a puzzle game in which you have to build paths for monsters and collect eggs, reach exits, and avoid enemies and the such. Nice presentation, and a very interesting idea. It could have been implemented better, but its still worth having a go to see a puzzle game youve not seen before.
Them Blockz is another puzzle game, and its Sokoban-like in a way. You move around and as you move, blocks stick to you. You then have to manoeuvre them to an exit. This is obviously simple at first but you can easily block yourself in once youve got loads of blocks stuck on at once and a tiny passage to fit inside. Which is what she said. So some good puzzling, here.
TIC: Part 1 could have been the game of the month if it was longer, as it is it just doesnt offer value for money, really. Its gorgeous, the story is great, the gameplay is fun and the music is lovely, but with a story that lasts just over half an hour, theres simply not enough here. Its still worth playing, though, because it really is a sight to behold.
Somewhere, deep beneath the earth, a team of zombies is being belittled because their entire creative output is based on games about the living. Humans again? For fucks sake.
Lair of the Evildoer is probably a game in a genre that has a name, but I dont know what that might be because its quite a lot of things. Part RPG, part twin-stick, part date-sim, part shooter. Okay, not the date-sim part.
You just travel through a building, collecting weapons and destroying zombies IN THE FACE. Then just carry on going. The controls are a bit much at times, but its still an enjoyable experience, its always nice when a zombie game doesnt just have zombies in to appeal to zombie nutters but is a genuinely cool game outside it.
Some games are bad. Really bad. So bad that they dont even deserve a functioning link to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. But if youre in the mood for some punishment, or just want to be reminded how much better the games above are, check these out, last months most terrible games.
Pick is just the worst thing ever. It claims to be like Guitar Hero for every song in your library, or something, when in actuality you might as well just listen to the radio and press buttons on your guitar controller without even turning your Xbox on, because the song recognition is completely absent. You just press random buttons while a song plays. Terrible.
Avatar Word Wave is that all-too-common mash-up, of crosswords and roller-disco. Or something. Unfortunately, neither aspect works particularly well and having to play them together is impossible because you cant concentrate on them both. Its like trying to play Halo at the same time as playing Mozart on the piano.
Bamdizzle Bamdizzle Bamdizzle Bamdizzle Bamdizzle Bamdizzle. Youll see what I mean.
Call me Skyfish is a poor looking platform that plays exactly how it looks.
A Game About My Cat is bad for two reasons. Firstly for gluing me to a slope so I cant jump with momentum alone like Tiny Wings, and secondly for telling me how awesome it is to have a cat. I know. I want a cat more than anything but I cant have one. YOU JUST UPSET ME, GAME. I HAVE SAD FACE.
Case o' Games is impressive if only for how you can make so many games available in one package and yet still have no redeeming qualities.
When Maidens Attack is, well, there arent many games that the what is this I dont even meme sums up much better than this.
Beach Paddle is a variation of a game with paddles that nobodys allowed to say the name of when they make a version of Pong. Crap, I mean a version of generic paddle game. Stupid anime girls with little in the way of clothing are completely unnecessary and only there for one reason. BRB.
Angry Wizards is a similar thing to Lair of the Evildoer, but slowed down to such a ridiculous level that each stage takes bloody ages as you walk through empty hallways like a geriatric with no feet.
Ballbuster. Get it? BALLBUSTER!! The game is about busting actual balls like children play with but it sounds like- oh, never mind.
And to end on an awesome note
Every month, well revisit a couple of games that you may have missed from months gone by. These games are lost in the depths of the Games Marketplace, pull them out of there! Played a really awesome Indie Game in the past? Hit me up on twitter @toythatkills and recommend stuff! Is hit me up still something the kids say? What about the kids, is that still a thing too?
MotorHEAT is a racing game of sorts, as you can tell from the screenshot. Its not so much about the driving as it is the avoiding, though! You auto accelerate and your job is just to move left and right to avoid traffic.
Of course, theres more to it than that. Avoiding traffic by the smallest of margins will increase your boost meter (RT) and then you can go even faster, scoring more points.
Its a score attack game, this. You just score as much as you can before time runs out, getting extra time for passing checkpoints and points for distance, overtaking cars, using boost, and all sorts.
What I love most is the risk/reward, which is just awesome. You get more boost and more points for passing cars within mere centimetres and with boost activated, but then theres a huge risk of crashing and being penalised ten seconds. Do you dare get closer? Do you dare? Its brilliant.
Also brilliant is the online leaderboard (Gold only and peer-to-peer) which updates your position as you race, telling you how many points you need to move up to another position in the overall leaderboard.
Its just great, this. Totally great.
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Skwug is a 2D platformer with a nice gimmick. You can warp to new places.
Warping always moves you the same distance you can always judge where youre going to warp to, and you can only warp three times before having to recharge by landing on the floor.
This makes for some really unique platforming, as you warp over spikes and through lasers, and allows for some interesting puzzles as well with the limit on warps meaning doing things in the right order is sometimes essential. Switches play a part, switches means puzzles.
You wont have played a 2D platformer like this before and youll be playing this one for ages. There are loads of levels and then some medals to go for for being quick and finding items.
Most fun.
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So, what did you think of these games? What do you think of what youre playing this month?
Enjoy your Indie Games.
