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!

This was one of those weeks where nothing seemed to quite turn out the way I’d imagined it. At least as far as the indie offerings on Live are concerned. A couple of these game piqued my interest, but then let me down in a big way. Others seemed questionable, but I figured they deserved a fair chance (*spoiler* one of them was f-ing awful). Still, amidst the sea of uncertainty and… crap… uncertain crap… there were more than a couple of downright good games to be found. Granted I think the one made by Gameloft shouldn’t technically count as an indie game, but it’s been released with the rest of them so in it goes.

However, a special early mention is due to RAID. You can read all about it in the Dome, along with the details for its companions, but know that this game is freaking great. You should download it, then buy it. Not just to support the developers, but because it’s really, really awesome.

As always, not every release will get more than a few sentences. The games with multiple paragraphs have basically 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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Storm

(Developer: Social Loner Studios – 80 points)

*Must Play*

Storm is a beautiful game. No, really. The black silhouettes and varying shades used for distance bear a striking resemblance to the style used in the recently released (and amazing) Limbo. It’s not exactly the same, as the actual style of the environments and objects is a bit different, but they do share that “shadow puppet” effect.

As much of a sucker as I am for stylish graphics, what really makes Storm stand out is the fact that it takes the classic formula of a game like Space Invaders and actually does something new with it. The goal is still to survive for as long as you can against increasingly tough waves, but for once you don’t actually blow anything up. Your little turret-thing doesn’t actually destroy the threat (falling rocks? Hail?), but rather pushes it around. So the trick is to knock those buggers away from you without depleting your ammo reserves.

Yeah, about that. You have ammo. But don’t consider that a bad thing, as your gun does recharge over time. It’s actually a pretty clever system that prevents you from simply holding the trigger down and breezing through the game. So you’ll be spending the bulk of your time balancing your ammo consumption between regular rapid-fire shots and the slower but far more effective big shots. The trick is to learn when not to shoot (i.e. if it’s not going to hit you, save the ammo).

Yet even then you’ll have to be careful, as every bullet can and will bounce off of any falling… thing it comes into contact with. Sometimes this means deflecting two dark blotches with one well placed big shot, and other times it means blowing yourself up when a bad ricochet flings a boulder straight on top of you. Either way it’s a good time, even more so if you have multiple people (up to four player co-op) adjusting trajectories all over the place.

Jungle Friendzy

(Developer: Deal Twice – 80 points)

Jungle Friendzy is a fight fest in the spirit of other multiplayer favorites like Super Smash Bros. or Team Fortress.

Before getting into the (up to eight player) carnage, players can choose between three different classes: the nimble squirrel, the well-balanced bear or the slow and powerful tiger. They all have a primary and secondary weapons that run the gamut from seed-spitting to killer plant stink bombs. Each character does feel distinct, with the bear being the most rounded and easy to use.

Seeing as the trial version doesn’t allow for multiplayer (which is the whole point), it’s somewhat difficult to fully judge Jungle Friendzy. Shooting at various targets in a stage and trying out each character gives you a relatively good idea of what to expect with the full game, but unless you spring for the full version you won’t ever be sure just how well the controls work in the heat of combat. Or if there’s any noticeable lag for online matches.

And don’t get me started on the sexually suggestive nature of the tiger and his carnivorous plant…

FUNNY MINI GOLF

(Developer: NDA – 240 points)

*Utter Failure*

*Facepalm*

Were it not for the necessity of including a body of text in order to make the overall entry look nice (floating screens with no words looks kinda bad), that’s all that this writeup would consist of. The problem with talking about a game like FUNNY MINI GOLF is knowing just where to begin. How about this: It’s fucking terrible.

Not only is it ugly as sin, featuring horrible textures and some of the worst character models and animations I’ve ever seen in a game (this is not an exaggeration), it’s so counter-intuitive it borders on unplayable. The ball physics are mediocre at absolute best, but even worse is the fact that the strength meter for your shot doesn’t ever seem to give you an accurate depiction of how strong your shot will actually be. An “into the red” shot on one level might completely overshoot most of the obstacles, then barely make it over a ramp in the next. Every time your three-dimensional preschool doodle of a character readies their next shot, they’re facing the direction the ball was rolling as opposed to, you know, the hole. This means you’ll spend more time watching your not-even-close-to-a-person shuffle around the ball like a coked-up crab person more often than you’ll actually watch the damn thing roll/bounce around the course.

But this is all just the tip of an incredibly awful iceberg. In the interest of space, I’ll hold off on describing any more of the multitude of faults you’ll find in this… thing. Just know that it’s so bad, it’s not even worth checking out for laughs. No really, it’s so awful it’s not even funny.

HakoSekai

(Developer: floor – 240 points)

HakoSekai is… I’m not entirely sure just what it is, actually.

Players are tossed onto a 5×5 grid of large squares and asked to trap “the noise” in order to create their own world from nothingness. What this boils down to is setting a trap (with the Right Bumper), then luring one of these creatures onto it and pressing a face button. The different face buttons each represent an element, with the triggered trap changing your boxed foes into something fitting like a tree or a cactus, depending.

It’s interesting to see what you can slap together in this blank world, but a few problems (aside from the unabashed weirdness) hold it back. Problems such as a time limit that feels way too constricting for a world-building game, obnoxiously persistent enemies with bizarre patterns and a camera that’s both too close and not adjustable enough to be anywhere near helpful.

HakoSekai is an interesting little experiment, but it’s just not functional enough to be worth buying.

Break the Invaders

(Developer: cantstraferight – 80 points)

There’s a lot to love about Break the Invaders. It’s retro in a good way, not in that played-out “retro for retro’s sake” way. It’s a clever mash-up of genres, specifically it’s like Space Invaders meets Arkanoid. It’s got bright colors, nice visual effects and nifty music. I just keep getting hung up on the actual playing the game part.

There’s only really one problem with the game, but it’s probably the biggest one you could have: the ball and paddle physics are… questionable. For example, the ball will bounce straight up if the paddle is flat when it hits, each and every time. You see the paddle tilts left and right as you move it around, so connecting with the ball while it’s tilted will bounce the ball in that direction. The problem is that it’s the exact same angle, regardless of the ball’s trajectory, every single time. This makes for some incredibly irritating moments as you try to nail that one remaining baddie or lose a “life” because you wanted to angle your ball and missed when you tried to tilt the paddle at the last second.

It’s a fairly easy problem to remedy, too. Fixing the ball physics is obvious, but another nice tweak would be the ability to tilt the paddle without having to move. It would make setting up shots much less painful and oh so satisfying.

Tank Battles

(Developer: Gameloft community games – 400 points)

*Must Play*

Seeing the Gameloft logo attached to the title screen somewhat killed my enthusiasm for Tank Battles. It’s not that I view them as a terrible developer, but it seemed kind of like a “Live Arcade Release Gone Bad.” Thankfully, that’s not the case as Tank Battles is actually a very fun (albeit somewhat overpriced) multiplayer arena battler.

Up to four players (with AI bots thrown in if none are available) can fight for dominance in a small-ish arena littered with obstacles and regenerating power-ups. It’s kind of like Bomberman meets the old Atari game Combat. It’s a heck of a lot of fun, but there are a few issues. Well two, specifically.

First, it’s five bucks. Sure that’s not a whole lot for an arcade game, but this isn’t an arcade game. What makes it even more noticeable is the fact that there are a ton of entertaining games in the exact same genre available for a fraction of the cost. But even so, it’s up to the individual users to decide if a game’s price-point is too much for what the game offers.

Second, there are some ridiculously long load times you’ll have to endure. You get to sit and watch a long loading screen when the game starts up, then you get to do it again once you start a game. Thankfully you don’t have to endure the loading every time you restart a level, but you do have to deal with the each time you begin a new stage. Which sucks.

RAID

(Developer: Silver Dollar Games 2 – 80 points)

*Must Play*

Let’s get right down to it: RAID is freaking fantastic. Don’t let the bland-looking title screen fool you; this is an addicting game that’s fun as hell.

You play the part of a pair of DEA agents (I think) who are raiding houses. Each level begins with your agents poised outside the front door with a battering ram and a shotgun. You’ll have to bust in and move from room to room, clearing the house of gun-toting badguys as you go. It’s a simple concept that’s made awesome by a few different methods.

When you first start a stage, you can only see the overall shape of the house; the interior is completely blacked-out. Once you break down that first door, the floor plan for that room will reveal itself along with any number of hostiles (or innocents) that will need to be dealt with. A face button pops up next to each person in the room one at a time, with the idea being that you press the correct button to off the badguys and avoid pressing anything to keep the innocents alive. You can also place a target for a police sniper, who will take out any hostiles in their line of fire. The catch is they only shoot once you open the room, and if there are no hostiles in there (or they’re away from the windows) you’ve more-or-less wasted your sniper. Little by little, you’ll clear each room and hallway until all of the enemies have been taken out and all of the unarmed folks are left with wet pants.

It’s this reaction-based room clearing, coupled with the strategic use of a sniper that make RAID so much fun to play. It’s almost like an action puzzle game, only there really aren’t any puzzles to be found. Still, it’s an incredibly fun game that’s well worth the cost.

The Tribes of Ursea

(Developer: Orlin R Georgiev – 80 points)

For what it is, The Tribes of Ursea is a decent enough distraction. Two rival armies (one black, one brown. Seriously.) fight for control or something, but really that’s just an excuse to kill a bunch of stuff.

You’re given a choice between two units types, one that flies and another that sticks to the ground. Once the fighting starts, you run/fly around and kill everyone that doesn’t belong to your faction. It’s relatively okay for killing time, but aside from looking pretty… muddy… the maps are way too big and your character moves way too slow. As with most indie games on Live, there are just better ones out there.

Snake Eyes

(Developer: reedake2 – 80 points)

Remember Zuma? It’s a pretty fun puzzle game. Well, Snake Eyes is almost exactly like it. This isn’t a bad thing.

A bunch of marbles slowly move along a preset path, usually a swirly one, towards the center. If they reach the center, you lose. So to prevent this you have to select and shoot like-colored marbles together into groups of three or more. When you complete a chain the marbles disappear, netting you points, clearing some space and temporarily halting the progress of the rest of the multi-colored death spheres.

It’s a fun puzzle game that should keep you busy for a while, and it’s dirt cheap. Enjoy.

Go

(Developer: ZDT Programming – 80 points)

Go is exactly what it claims to be: a video game representation of an ancient board game involving strategy and some heavy thinking. It’s sort of like a combination of Chess and Othello for anyone who’s never played it before.

To their credit, the folks at ZDT Programming have done a (seemingly) good job creating this classic game in a virtual space. There are a lot of fairly helpful tutorial pages to look over if you’ve never played before, as well as various board sizes and rules to play around with. The fact that the camera centers on your cursor all the time is a little annoying, but since the game isn’t really timed it’s more of a mild irritation than a game-breaking issue.

The only real problem here is that it’s the video game equivalent of a very old board game. This is probably great news for enthusiasts, but for the rest of us who weren’t interested in it to begin with… Well, you know. Still, if you like your board games to utilize sexy-sounding strategic techniques you might find something to love here.

Summer Breeze

(Developer: Michael C A Patoine – 80 points)

*Utter Failure*

Summer Breeze falls into the category of those “survive as long as you can” games. Leaves fall from the trees and threaten to hit the ground; bringing about the end of summer (oh noes!). Your job as a summer breeze (yeah…) is to keep juggling those leaves and keep them off the ground for as long as you can.

The problem here, aside from the game not being very interesting to begin with, is the controls. Your little air pocket with eyes is always moving, be it left, right, up or down. This leads to a lot of flying in circles as you attempt to keep the stupid things in the air. What’s even worse is that the breeze goes faster when you move down and slower when you go up, which doesn’t really make a lot of sense and seems even more pointless in action. It’s difficult to describe in specifics, but basically the little guy is all over the place and feels nigh impossible to control with any degree of precision. It’s just a mess.

Sniper Defense

(Developer: xMONOx – 80 points)

Ahhh, the great American pastime of sniping zombies…

Sniper Defense (spelled correctly for once) is all about protecting your barricade from mutant zombie things. You and up to three more players can move your color-coded cursors around the screen and evaporate skulls over the course of many increasingly difficult waves. Between each wave you’re allowed to spend some of your money (earned by killing the walking dead, natch) on various weapons, etc…

It’s a decent enough way to pass the time, but there’s also nothing particularly spectacular about Sniper Defense, either. Although it’s kind of funny that you start off sniping zombies with a pistol.

Superspace 2

(Developer: DeepSpace – 80 points)

Superspace 2 is annoying to play. There, now that that’s out of the way we can get to talking about the rest of it.

The goal in each level is to carry a number of crates from Point A to Point B, with all manner of hostile laser turrets, environmental hazards and physics-based obstacles in your way. Your little space-courier handles much like Lander-style games, with gravity, drift and thrust playing a huge part in your locomotion. Unfortunately the flying controls just aren’t as responsive as they should be, leaving you feeling like you’re swimming through quick-dry cement one minute, then like you’re sliding across a Slip-N-Slide covered in cooking oil the next. You’ll crash and blow up a lot, then have to start all the way from the beginning again with all of the enemies and obstacles back in their original positions. It’s annoying. To play.

Excruciating Guitar Voyage

(Developer: floatstarpx – 240 points)

Have you ever wondered what Brütal Legend would be like if Tim Schafer had used Fahrenheit 451 as his story inspiration? No? Well too bad. Now we have Excruciating Guitar Voyage to answer that unasked question.

An evil king has banned all things Metal from the land because of a prophecy about some metal-head liberating the kingdom from his tyrannical rule. Naturally, the people didn’t like this much and formed a kind of underground resistance that continues to look for their savior. Chances are, that savior is you.

The game is basically an action/puzzle platformer. You run around your weird-looking world solving environmental puzzles and laughing in the face of curfews everywhere. The “excruciating” part of Excruciating Guitar Voyage comes into play when you use your character as a kind of elemental sponge; carrying electrical currents, fire and the like from their point of origin to their intended target with your entire body.

It’s a decent enough game with some (one would hope) intentionally terrible visuals, a very tongue-in-cheek plot and some decent mechanics. The jumping is off by quite a bit, meaning you have to hit A before you actually want to jump, but it’s still manageable. It might be worth checking out on the assumption that things get more interesting/satirical as you get further into the story, but three dollars is kind of a lot to gamble on. Still, if you like platformers and enjoy Heavy Metal jokes, it might be worth a look-see.

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*Must Plays*

• Storm (80 points)
• Tank Battles (80 points)
• RAID (80 points)

*Utter Failures*

• FUNNY MINI GOLF (80 points)
• Summer Breeze (80 points)