Xbox Live Indie-Dome is a bi-weekly feature where we sift through the Xbox Live Indie Games Marketplace to find the best and worst… so you don't have to!
Another half-month, another list of games you should check out and/or avoid like the plague. As I’m writing this we’re almost a week in to the current crop of releases, and it’s looking like a pretty good selection. The positives are definitely outweighing the negatives and even the turds aren’t anywhere near as bad as most previous inductees. Of course there’s still a week’s worth of games to go, so I’m not calling it yet. Let’s just say I’m cautiously optimistic.
So how about these Indie Games, huh? Yeah!
As always, not every release will be mentioned. The games that are featured have managed to stand-out due to their entertainment value, shockingly amazing awesomeness (these will feature the *Must Play* tag) or because they’re so incredibly terrible potential consumers deserve a warning (these feature the *Utter Failure* tag).
Remember, the Indie-Dome (like all reviews) is an opinion piece. The comments (or lack thereof) made throughout convey the reviewer’s thoughts on the overall quality (or lack thereof) of the submissions in a given two week period. These comments are not directed towards the developers, but rather their games. Seriously, we know most of you folks put a lot of hard work into these things, so please don’t take it personally.
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Avatar Blaster
(Developer: buddrick – 80 points)
*Utter Failure*
Avatar Blaster is one of those special types of Avatar games. You know the kind I’m talking about: where the Avatars have absolutely nothing to do with the game itself? Yeah, that’s the type of game it is.
Your Avatar stands atop a simple little triangle of a spaceship while you fly around blasting floating shapes. The formula is a close copy of Asteroids, only there are (brief) weapon power-ups and your ship (triangle) slides around way too much.
The concept of mimicing one of history’s most well-known arcade games is a good one, but the incorporation of Avatars is pointless, the powerups only last a few seconds, and the controls just ain’t right. In all honesty, if it weren’t for the fact that I felt as though I were driving on black ice Avatar Blaster would have avoided the poop-stamp. But I did, so it didn’t.
Zap Zap: Pew Pew
(Developer: Ergostudios – 80 points)
I love a good top-down shooter with a sense of humor. Although “good” is pretty much the best way to sum up Zap Zap: Pew Pew. It’s decent fun, but it doesn’t really to anything special aside from the goofiness and the “special” bosses.
For the most part it’s exactly like every other top-down shooter. You dodge incoming fire (of which there isn’t much) and blow up any ship that isn’t yours. However, once you reach a level’s boss the rules change a bit. Different bosses have different abilities, which seem to amount to random annoying effects on your ship. While I think the concept is certainly interesting, I’m not too keen on fighting a boss that makes my ship spin uncontrollably throughout the fight. It makes it a bit hard to aim, to say the least.
Regardless, Zap Zap: Pew Pew is a quaint little diversion that’s worth a look. And assuming you still want for top-down shooters, it may just be worth a purchase.
Alawishus Pixel
(Developer: Frog The Door – 80 points)
I imagine most folks are familiar with box-pushing puzzle games. I mean, they seem to come standard with every cell phone in existence now, so I’m pretty sure everyone’s probably played one of these things at some point. Well Alawishus Pixel puts an interesting spin on the old “push the box” puzzle game.
For starters, it has that irresistible 8-bit charm, with some retro-styled graphics and music. Mechanically, it’s more of a platformer/box puzzle hybrid where you’ll help the hoodie-wearing protagonist leap over platforms and enemies as you attempt to push a box onto a switch. Of course it’s a bit more complicated than that, with enemies that can only be killed by dropping boxes on them, vertical obstacles to shove boxes around and so on. It can be pretty fun, as long as you don’t expect much more than boxes, boxes and more boxes.
Stunning Stunts
(Developer: ProjectorGames – 80 points)
*Must Play*
What is it with all these dirt bike games taking me completely by surprise? Stunning Stunts is basically ExciteBike with no obstacles and lots of jumps. And some interesting multiplayer.
The whole idea is to race against a number of other Live users (I’m not entirely sure if they’re playing with you or if you’re racing against their “ghosts,” though) in a mad dash for both First Place and nabbing a ton of points by doing a number of flips over all the track’s jumps. It’s all pretty basic and simplistic, but it’s one of those games that can eat your time once you start playing.
Avatar Jump!
(Developer: UFO Games – 80 points)
*Utter Failure*
All the thrilling action of the Long Jump with none of those cumbersome details like playability. All you do is alternate button presses as you run toward the end of your track, then hold another button to leap. Just make sure you hold that button before you reach the end of the track or your entire turn will be for nothing.
The real problem with Avatar Jump! (aside from the fact that it’s yet another pointless Avatar game) is the jumping. Learning when to jump is fine if you’re willing to partake in a little trial-and-error, but actually setting the angle of your jump is a massive pain. You only have a second or two to set your angle (done by stopping a needle as it moves over a meter of sorts), and more often than not you’ll just end up with an extremely high and short leap. If the stupid needle just passed over the meter a second time things would be a bit more playable, but it would still be pretty… uninteresting.
Hurdle Turtle
(Developer: Holmade Games – 80 points)
*Must Play*
The goofy 8-bit answer to Avatar Jump! with a cute sense of humor and a surprisingly entertaining retro soundtrack. Hurdle Turtle is another one of those “constantly running to the right” games, except that you only have to worry about moving up and down to avoid walls and jumping to avoid hurdles.
Maybe I’m just a sucker for 8-bit, but it’s an entertaining game with a quirky personality. That’s more than enough to keep me interested.
Kong360: Gorilla Warfare
(Developer: SpaceDude – 240 points)
*Must Play*
This game is exactly what I’ve been looking for in a multiplayer monkey frag-fest. Granted it’s not actually the kind of game most people would actively seek out but if you’re hard up for some simian slaughter, gorilla genocide or monkey mangling you can’t do any better than Kong360:Gorilla Warfare.
The top-down arena shooter has a few nagging issues like a camera that rotates with your character (it’s more than a little disorienting) and a weird control choice allowing players to aim high and low (leading to several shots missing their targets), but it’s still a good time overall. There are plenty of weapons to play with, armor to collect and funky environments to traverse as well as some good-old multiplayer mayhem. And really, what more could you want in a game about rocket launcher-wielding apes?
Old School Racer
(Developer: Riddlersoft – 80 points)
*Must Play*
It’s like Trials HD without the HD (or at least the 3D) and it costs $1. How much more of an explanation could you possibly need?
This Is Hard
(Developer: Stegersaurus Games – 80 points)
*Must Play*
A lot can be said about a game that doesn’t give you a predetermined number of lives, and in the case of This Is Hard your lives are actually represented by deaths. You see, the game knows you’ll die. A lot. So rather than bother with arbitrary things like extra lives and continues, each death adds a notch to the wall of your little safe room at the start of each level.
And that pretty much sums up This Is Hard. It’s designed to kill you, over and over again, until you finally reach the level’s exit due to luck, persistence and muscle memory. Or if you die enough you’re given an option to skip the level outright. Then it’s on to the next punishing level filled with gaps, traps (spikes, homing missles, falling smashy-things with faces, etc…) and/or zombies. Fast zombies, not those slow shambling pussy zombies everyone’s used to.
It’s frustrating, punishing and infuriating. And it’s spectacular.
Combat tanks
(Developer: Diego Salazar – 240 points)
*Utter Failure*
One important question came to mind as I began to play Combat tanks (and yes, for some reason the “t” isn’t capitalized): How in the hell can tanks strafe??? Never mind the fact that it’s a slowly-paced yawner of a first-person arena shooter. Forget that the visuals are terrible, health pickups are just nondescript boxes, the animations are non-existent and it’s overpriced. You’re driving a tank that can move sideways. What. The. F-… Oh just forget the whole thing.
Avatar Bowman
(Developer: Super Boise – 80 points)
A decent throwback to those classic precursors to Worms, Avatar Bowman is all about nailing your opponent three times with an arrow before they can do the same to you. As I grew up on games like this (anyone remember Gorilla?), it seems like something I should be forcing on everyone. Unfortunately there are a couple of key issues holding it back.
Actually there’s only one real issue. One you figure out where to aim, there’s nothing to prevent you from just spamming the same angle and strength over and over again until you win. Basically, there’s no wind. So while Avatar placement is randomized (which is a good thing as you won’t just keep shooting at the exact same angle for each and every game), it doesn’t change during the match or even after you tag your rival.
So the core concept is there and it works, but not having any other elements present to keep things fair and interesting (seriously, how can there be no wind resistance in a game like this?) prevents Avatar Bowman from being really special.
Licky Licky Lizards
(Developer: Kiveryn – 80 points)
A digital version of Hungry Hungry Hippos with a lot less noise and more reasons to play with your eyes open. That’s really all there is to Licky Licky Lizards. You mash the A button to flick out your lizard’s tongue in an attempt to snag as many flies (three different types with different points values) as you can. The player with the most points at the end of the match (determined by a set number of flies) wins. What keeps things interesting is the inclusion of bees that will actually subtract points, requiring players to actually pay attention to the screen.
It’s not exactly a transcendent experience, but get four people gathered around the Xbox and it’s sure to be an entertaining nostalgia trip.
The Omniscient Orb
(Developer: studio 1012 – 80 points)
*Utter Failure*
Yet another idiotic Magic 8-Ball “game.” It’s getting to the point where I just might start wishing hurtful things on the people who create these affronts to humanity.
Vampire Rage
(Developer: trickale – 80 points)
*Must Play*
Upon starting a new game of Vampire Rage, I was greeted with some incredibly cheesy and melodramatic lines about darkness and lost loves and so on. Not exactly the sort of thing you want to see before you even start playing the game proper. Fortunately, Vampire Rage is actually a fairly high-quality shooter wrapped in said cloak of moody angst.
You fly, avoid and shoot. Just like any other top-down shooter in existence. Tapping the fire button sprays a liberal amount of whatever your blood-sucker is using for bullets (probably best not to think about that too much) at the sacrifice of power, whereas holding the button creates a more powerful and focused beam. This, in itself, is a decent enough attempt at “The Gimmick” I’ve mentioned before, but there’s actually more to Vampire Rage than that. You also have a sword, and this sword can not only damage or kill baddies but can also deflect your enemies’ bullets (specifically the pink ones). Deflect enough of them at once and you’ll create a bomb that can do some serious damage and render you invincible at the same time.
Download it. Play it. Love it.
8-bit Girlfriend
(Developer: Jaded Horizon – 80 points)
*Utter Failure*
Complete. Total. Failure. 8-bit Girlfriend is an overly simplistic, trial-and-error based attempt at creating a dating sim. You’ll blow through your various choices (most of which are painfully obvious), eventually guess wrong, then just go back and do it all again until you get it right. The only real difference between winning and losing is that the Game Over screen plays music.
So yes, those are the reasons why I don’t really like this game very much. But the reason I hate it is because it’s not 8-bit. It’s not 16-bit, 4-bit or any other amount of bits. It just has characters made out of boxes. And not big pixels, just flat, colored boxes. Honestly, no other indie game has ever stirred up this level of Nerd-Rage within me.
Yes, I'm sure it did…
Crazy Wizard in Creepy Castle
(Developer: LPS Inc – 80 points)
*Utter Failure*
So there’s a wizard, and for some reason he’s in this castle jumping around and flinging his magic balls (or whatever) at stuff for some reason. I dunno, I wasn’t really paying attention. The game attempts to explain everything via a brief (yet entirely too long) series of landscape drawings with accompanying text, but who really cares about the story in a platformer anyway?
Pumpkins to the left of me…
So yeah, you jump around using very imprecise and floaty controls while trying to make it to the level’s exit. Along the way you’ll have to jump over fire, jump over moving fire, run under spear traps and shoot magic at some weird Frankenstein’s Monster-esque enemies that look like they came straight out of School House Rock.
Pumpkins to the right…
Crazy Wizard in Creepy Castle, a bland platformer is you!
*Must Plays*
- Stunning Stunts (80 points)
- Hurdle Turtle (80 points)
- Kong360: Gorilla Warfare (240 points)
- Old School Racer (80 points)
- This Is Hard (80 points)
- Vampire Rage (80 points)
*Utter Failures*
- Avatar Blaster (80 points)
- Avatar Jump! (80 points)
- Combat tanks (240 points)
- The Omniscient Orb (80 points)
- 8-bit Girlfriend (80 points)
- Crazy Wizard in Creepy Castle (80 points)
