Xbox Live Community Watch - 2/20/2009
The XNA community has been busy this week, delivering a ton of puzzle games, and even a few platformers. And of course there are the obligatory Arkanoid and Tetris clones. So let's get right to the games now, shall we.
Yay
- Zoomaroom - 200 MS points. A platformer where you control a monkey with a wheel for a torso. By moving the analog stick right or left you get the wheel turning in either direction, and by working with the game's excellent physics and momentum you must guide the monkey to the end of each level. There are also coins to collect just off the beaten path in each level, and later levels introduce items such as jet packs and grappling hooks to add new puzzle elements to the game. Oh, and there's also a level editor which allows you to create your own levels and share them with your friends. If you liked N+, then you'll love Zoomaroom.
- PercussOne - 400 MS points. A very frantic puzzler where colored discs fall on a grid board, and you have to swap them around to match three or more of the same color. The catch is that the colored discs stack on top of each other, and if a stack gets too big it's a game over, so you need to be quick moving the discs around. Oh, and all of this is set to music that changes as you play Lumines-style, which is always a good thing.
- The Gravity Effect - 200 MS points. A platformer the allows you to change the effects of gravity to jump higher, walk on walls and the ceiling, or survive giant falls. You can even change the gravity on individual objects to help navigate the puzzling levels. It also includes level creation tools to make your own gravity bending puzzles.
Nay
- Micro Invasion - 200 MS points. Tiny robot spiders are attacking someone's brain and you must squash them in this lackluster game. It's like Missile Command, but without the strategy from blowing up multiple targets with the same explosion.
- Puzzlix - 200 MS points. Do you like slide puzzles? You know, when there's a picture and you need to slide squares around to make the picture whole again. I don't, and I have yet to find anyone else that likes them. If you happen to like these puzzles, then give Puzzlix a whirl, but most people should just pass this one by.
- Spacebrix - 200 MS points. It's Tetris. How many versions of Tetris do you already own? If the answer was more than zero, then give this game a pass.
- Barf and Beer - 200 MS points. If you take away the disgusting frat-boy exterior of the game (which amounts to chugging beer as fast as you can without throwing up) it boils down to mashing the A button as fast as you can, while sometimes pressing B (to burp). It's shallow, and not fun.
- Snax Lite (Cooking Arcade) - 400 MS points. A cooking puzzle game where you grill food and serve it to the right customer, but without burning the food. The challenge is diminished though since you can choose when to put the food on the grill, so you can take it at a leisurely pace and still make it through the game.
Ay?
- Slottso Party - 400 MS points. It's admirable to try and turn something as boring as a slot machine into an exciting puzzle game, but I'm not sure it fully works here. It's more of a combination of slots and bingo, where the slot machine gives you shapes, and you need to match them to shapes on nine cards. Worth a look, but I can't say for sure that it's worth a purchase.
- Classicard - 400 MS points. A very robust card game with a ton of variations for house rules. It's a slightly odd assortment with Euchre, Hearts, Oh Hell, Spades, Knockout Whist, and Romanian Whist, but if you're a fan of those then it's worth a look. Although all of these card games really should be played with friends around a table rather than an Xbox 360.
- Lights Off - 200 MS points. A puzzle game where you need to turn all of the white blocks to black. Every time you change one block though, any block that shares a side with it turns also. With 750 puzzles, this game will last you a long time. Just be warned, it cna get very frustrating.
- Bricks4ever - 200 MS points. A nice Arkanoid clone with a stylish presentation full of bright neon lights. There's nothing wrong with this game per se, it's actually very fun, but so is almost every version of Arkanoid/Breakout. But if you don't have it in some other form already, this is a nice one to get.
- ArkX - 200 MS points. Another Arkanoid clone. This one doesn't look as pretty as Bricks4ever, but it has more gameplay variation in the levels with moving obstacles or controlling paddles on both the floor and ceiling, which in my book put it a step above. Watch out though if you get motion sickness easily, some of the backgrounds twist and move in ways that could make some people queasy.
NaviFairy
Posted to Video Games on 20 February 2009
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