Xbox Live Indie-Dome is a weekly feature where we sift through the Xbox Live Indie Games Marketplace to find the best and worst… so you don't have to!

Hey kids! Other Rob is back in the hot seat with a host of new indie games for you to enjoy and/or lament. In keeping with our new format, each and every game will get a mention, but only the really good (or the really awful) will get a full “mini-review.” To be honest, we aren’t off to such a great start; the very first game for this week’s Dome was actually broken. But that’s not to say things won’t get better as the week goes on, right?

… Right?

As always, not every release will get more than a few sentences. The games with actual paragraphs have managed to stand-out due to their entertainment value and/or 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 week. 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 High Five

(Developer: Super Boise 2 – 80 points)

*Utter Failure*

“The game has unexpectedly stopped working. Please try it again. If problems persist, please contact the creator of the game.”

Three times I’ve tried to play what I’m positive is a monumental waste of time and hard drive space. Three times I’ve attempted to reload this game. I even deleted it and downloaded it a second time, just in case. That’s three strikes. I’m not going to waste my time trying anymore, and I suggest you all do the same because even if this stupid thing eventually works it couldn’t possibly be worth it.

(Note: At the end of the week, I downloaded Avatar High Five one last time in an attempt to see if it actually works. As of 7/25, it’s still a broken POS.)

(Ed. Note: As of the time of publishing, the game appears to work now. However, the Poop Stamp is, in this editor’s eyes, totally justified. You’d honestly be better off throwing your dollar out the window than spending it on the colossal waste of time. – R.T.)

Super Avatar World

(Developer: arrogancy – 80 points)

A decent platformer held back by floaty jumping and loose controls.

AvaGlide

(Developer: HaikuInteractive – 80 points)

A surprisingly well put-together and polished package that will have your Avatar gliding over three different environments as you gather stars, fly through rings, deliver… stuff or just fly around taking in the view. It’s most certainly not my cup of tea but it’s bound to interest “flying” fans.

Four Corners

(Developer: Seth Ringling – 80 points)

A pseudo-tower defense/strategy game that has you playing one of the four seasons in a battle for supremacy. The little stylized blobby characters look kind of nifty, but it’s just not very interesting.

Phat Fly!

(Developer: BerzerkerJr – 80 points)

Eat… fireflies? Glowing balls? Fly food? Avoid the… bats? Go for the high score. Personally I think the bats are a bit too big and a bit too numerous right from the start, but it’s a game and it’s not broken. Plus you can apparently upgrade your fly with custom styles and absurd weapons.

SudokuGeek

(Developer: William Thompson – 240 points)

It’s digital Sudoku with fancy rotating 3D squares and a computer that practically plays the game for you. Kind of a let down.

Bubble Buster

(Developer: Mouse88 – 80 points)

Line up like-colored bubbles and make them go “FOOM.” Disproportionate feedback abounds in this befuddled and confusing puzzler.

Classic Minesweeper

(Developer: Angel Z – 80 points)

It’s Minesweeper. On your 360. No bells and/or whistles — just a very widely distributed game you can play on your TV. Assuming that interests you. It certainly interested my wife enough for her to snatch the controller out of my hands.

WordWise

(Developer: Synful Games – 80 points)

Pick letters out of a pile of other letters to make words. The overall object is to clear the entire board of letter tiles by the end. S’okay.

Wordsearch Rush

(Developer: We Are Colin – 80 points)

A word search game with a time limit and no word list. Also features different word themes (i.e. “Zoo,” “Astronomy,” etc…). Assuming you’re the kind of person who likes circling words in a grid it might be worth a look, but it gets repetitive and the different themes tend to rely on using the same words over and over again.

Avatar Bowling

(Developer: UFO Games – 80 points)

Broken bowling game is broken. Aside from this fact, it’s a relatively decent game with oddly narrow lanes. But knocking over six pins, then having the game tell you you hit eight, just ain’t right.

D.O.T.S.

(Developer: Tucker Yates – 80 points)

Don’t touch the sides! Or the toast. Guide your dot to the other dot while avoiding walls, moving walls, walls that move when you move and toast. Yes, toast. Try to complete the levels with as few “Fails” as possible. FYI: Silly for the sake of silly doesn’t overshadow game design. Just some un-toasted food for thought.

Fly, Butterfly, Fly!

(Developer: Games4Kids – 80 points)

Catch butterflies in a net while avoiding bees. As you snag more butterflies, more super-colorful scenery gets added to the background. As an adult it’s like playing someone’s drug-induced coma. As a young child (like four and under) it’s an easy-to-play game with lots of bright colors and plenty of positive reinforcement (I would think).

Operation Old Spice

(Developer: Evolving Software – 80 points)

*Utter Failure*

Shoot various creatures (eagles) that attempt to steal your deodorant. In a gym (among other places, apparently). It’s every bit as yawn-inducing as it sounds.

Opposites

(Developer: dannobot – 240 points)

A very odd, but strangely compelling Tetris clone. Two players (or one player and an AI) fight for dominance over the board. One plays black, the other plays white. Pieces placed on one side become gaps for the other to fill. It’s actually pretty cool, but a bit overpriced.

Hive Attack

(Developer: kg4321 – 400 points)

Yet another space shooter again, only with no real redeeming qualities warranting a look. You won’t be missing anything if you pass this one by, and you certainly won’t regret saving the $5.

How Smart Are You? IQ Test

(Developer: GZ Storm Games – 80 points)

Still one more entry into the “not really a game” category, How Smart Are You? is just a digital IQ test, plain and simple. You’re timed and you have different questions that test different thought processes, but it doesn’t seem to matter much as saying “screw it” to several of the questions still landed me somewhere between 110 and 129. Then again I suppose I could just test well?

Runic 3D

(Developer: ExecutiveIguanaStudi – 80 points)

*Utter Failure*

It’s not often that I play a puzzle game I consider “not fun at all,” but Runic 3D just doesn’t excite. It’s slow, the controls feel sluggish and it’s played at this very awkward 3/4 view that makes placing your shot a bit more of a pain (even with the guide) than it should be. And yet, even though it feels slow as dirt, it also seems like you never have enough time to make all the swirly-things go away.

Blox

(Developer: imagodespira – 80 points)

Yet another puzzle game this week, only this one’s actually pretty good. Blox is all about removing colored blocks by sliding your own (matching) colored blocks into them. Each color is mapped to a face button (X for blue, A for green and so on), and it’s easy to fall into a rhythm of tapping out near-constant streams of blocks to decimate your… enemies? Whatever. It’s well put together, save a couple of annoying sound effects in the menu screen, easy to learn and oddly fun despite its weirdness. Definitely worth a look, and possibly even a purchase.

Chemical Chaos

(Developer: FauxRoboStudios – 80 points)

I’m not entirely sure how to go about describing this very… odd puzzle game. You basically have to turn all the little molecules on the screen the same color, and you do this by changing the color of your own pieces to match them. For example, you’re green and you’re touching two blue pieces. Press “X” to turn blue (almost used the Heavy Rain meme), then you can change the color of the grouped blues in order to “absorb” more molecules into your collective. It’s a very deliberate puzzle game, but it’s not particularly compelling.

CoreDase

(Developer: Davedaape – 80 points)

Bounce your ball to “activate” the squares. “Activate” them all to clear the level. Just make sure you don’t land on squares you’ve already hit. Or any that aren’t bright green for that matter. It’s not terrible, but it’s very “meh.”

Overkill

(Developer: twofourktstudios – 80 points)

*Utter Failure*

Overkill has earned the Poop-Stamp for one reason and one reason only: it’s trying to be a twin-stick shooter without a second stick. So rather than using the ever-present right analog stick to aim, you have to click the left and right bumpers to change the direction of your shots. It’s every bit as awkward and cumbersome as it sounds. Being wrapped in a blanket of mediocrity only serves to magnify its problems.

(Ed. Note: I felt I had to include this bonus screenshot, just because it’s so damn terrifying. Enjoy! – R.T.)

PLATFORMANCE: Castle Pain

(Developer: Magiko Gaming – 80 points)

*Must Play*

Rescue the princess while dying horribly and often along the way. PLATFORMANCE is another one of those “hardcore” platformers, where the goal isn’t so much to survive but rather to make it to the end, losing as few lives as possible. Although if the ghost catches you it’s Game Over no matter what.

You’ll leap over all manner of deadly traps and avoid lots of dangerous creatures as you make a mad dash for the next checkpoint. There seems to be only one level to speak of (Castle Pain), but it’s pretty large and features three difficulty settings that will toss more insidious obstacles in your way with each crank of the dial. And it’s all wrapped up in an adorable 8-bit style package that’s just plain neat.

The war of the end of the days

(Developer: Diego Salazar – 80 points)

*Utter Failure*

You can’t honestly claim to be surprised about the Poop-Stamp, can you? Don’t let the screen shots fool you, this game is even worse than it looks. The list of problems and bad design choices contained within this… thing is much too long for a short Indie-Dome write-up, but there is one redeeming quality in The war of the end of the days: it’s so ridiculously terrible it’s actually pretty funny.

SketchBox 360

(Developer: Soulfire Software – 240 points)

*Must Play*

On the surface, Sketchbox 360 appears to be a sort of digital Etch-a-Sketch with a groan-inducing name. And in a way, this is exactly what it is. But it’s functional, lets you save your drawings (the full version does, anyway) and even offers three sketch-based mini games.

One such game, “Bumpers,” is actually quite entertaining. You have to bounce your little smiley face through a series of increasingly complex levels, quickly drawing surfaces for it to bounce off of in order to avoid certain doom. This one little single-player mini game by itself would be worth 80 points, easy, but you also get games made for two (Trace Race) and four (Sketchet Ball) players in the same package.

The package itself is even impressive; sporting sleek menus, a “built-in” MP3 player (i.e. jukebox) and a very believable 360/Etch-a-Sketch hybrid to draw on. There a shocking amount of content to be found in SketchBox 360, and it would be in your best interest not to pass it over simply because it looks like “one of those not-a-game games.”

Seaside Racing

(Developer: Gustav Olsson – 80 points)

Think Mario Kart without the power-ups and Nintendo cameos and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what you’ll get with Seaside Racing. There aren’t a whole lot of choices for your car (a handful of colors) and there are only three tracks, but the cars handle pretty well and the tracks are both goofy and fun. It’s certainly not a bad choice for fans of Kart Racers.

Avatar Pinball

(Developer: ladron – 80 points)

*Must Play*

It’s pinball, with Avatars!

Avatar Pinball manages to capture that certain special feeling you can only get when punishing the little people that live on your 360. Watching your Avatar ragdoll all over a pinball machine (complete with stadium-style closeups of the poor little bastard) is worth the price by itself, but you’ll also get several other game modes to mix things up a bit. My curiosity over the “sock puppet” mode has me itching to drop 80 points right now, actually.

Sure it’s just stupid fun, but everyone is allowed to be a little stupid once in a while.

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*Must Plays*

• PLATFORMANCE: Castle Pain (80 points)
• SketchBox 360 (240 points)
• Avatar Pinball (80 points)

*Utter Failures*

• Avatar High Five (80 points)
• Operation Old Spice (80 points)
• Runic 3D (80 points)
• Overkill (80 points)