Well, I have to admit, Sum Fighter is my first foray into the Xbox Live indie scene. Sometimes I browse the catalog, but the sheer number of games makes it difficult to decide on what to purchase. So it was kind of exciting to be able to review one of these titles that always seem to fall through the cracks. Sum Fighter is one of those titles that most gamers would probably skip by. For starters, it has math. Now, I’m sure lots of gamers out there were good at that subject in elementary school; I wasn’t one of those gamers.

I appreciate what MD Loop is trying to do here. They’ve created a puzzle-fighter hybrid (like Capcom’s Super Puzzle Fighter), using numbers in place of colored gems. The object is to connect groups of numbers that add up to the same sum. The catch is that the player can only connect blocks that equal the sum of the individual groups of numbers. For example: 3 groups of 3′s, 5 groups of 5′s, etc. Some of the spaces on the board have bombs that explode, and eventually blocking pieces are sent over to your opponents’ screen. Clear enough pieces, and your special attack gauge fills up, allowing you to impede your opponent with extra pieces and other special blocks.

Presentation is one of this game’s strong points. A nice, clean animated look is presented throughout, complete with good character designs and levels. It resembles something you’d watch on Cartoon Network, like Dexter’s Laboratory or Clone High. I liked it. There’s no voice, but some of the music has a Street Fighter II flavor to it, which did the job for me as well. I would have liked some better sound effects, though, and not all of the music had the same level of quality.

Four characters to choose from here, with two more able to be unlocked after defeating them. Kind of a small roster, but that’s to be expected from a $3 game. It also gives you the chance to continue after losing: note that you have to hit Continue near the start of the countdown, or it sometimes goes right to zero. Normally this might be considered a bit of a glitch, but it happened every time I tried. That sent me back to the start once when I couldn’t decide until the last minute I wanted to keep playing. Kind of a bummer.

No online here, but there is head to head multiplayer. Pretty standard stuff. Playing against a friend is actually pretty good, since the AI tends to use the same strategy for every game. Online with leader boards would have been nice. At this price point, though, those kinds of options are asking for a bit much.

Overall, I thought Sum Fighter was OK, but it has some issues holding it back. It’s a tad short, so having an online mode really would have added to the replay value here. A patient person could clear this in about 15-20 minutes. It also helps if the player is quick with the numbers. At first I was failing on the first level, but once I wrapped my head around the concept I could make it to the end. Get this if you have a few points to burn, and you want to exercise the brain from time to time.

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Things We Liked: Nice art style. Head to head offline play. Original concept.

Things We Disliked: Really short and no online. Kind of pricey for what you get.

Target Audience: Cartoon Network fans. Number geeks.

(Sum Fighter – Developer/Publisher: On The Fly Entertainment . Available for Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Indie Games. A copy of the game was provided by the publishers for review purposes. Unfamiliar with CFD!’s review system? Read our newly revised explanation here.)