For boys who like boys who like joysticks!

GayGamer Feeds:

  • RSS Feed button
  • Podcast Feed button

Staff:

Archives:

« Video: 78641: A TARG ADVENTURE Trailer | Main | Video: Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker GamesCom 09 Trailer »

Weekly Xbox Indies - 8/28/09

fenack story.jpg

Yay

  • Streets of Fury - 240 MS points. Quite frankly, I'm shocked at the overall lack of beat-em-up style games coming from the Xbox indie developers. Thankfully, Streets of Fury fills that gap excellently. A lot of the game's charm comes from the digitized actors, similar to what Midway did with the original Mortal Kombat games. The gangster fighting is ridiculous, and the game never tries to take itself too seriously to take away from the fun. If you have fond memories of the game's name-sake, Streets of Rage, then you'll enjoy Streets of Fury.
  • ダウンタウン激凸ドッジボール!(Downtown Smash Dodgeball!) - 800 MS points. Holy copyright-infringement Batman! Downtown Smash Dodgeball bears more than a passing resemblance to the NES classic Super Dodge Ball. It's still a great game, and very challenging, but it might be worthwhile to check it out sooner rather than later in case it mysteriously vanishes from the Xbox indie marketplace.
  • Nasty - 400 MS points. Nasty plays like a shooter, but feels to me almost more like a puzzle game. You're given a room full of enemies that need to be cleared to move on to the next level, and as the level layouts and enemy patterns get progressively more complex as you get through the game. You can also play through the whole game in 4 player co-op if you need a helping hand through the game's 100 levels.
  • フェナックむら ものがたり (Fenack Story) - 240 MS points. Ok, so I'm taking a leap of faith recommending this one. It plays almost exactly like the old 2D Zelda games, which is awesome. But then there's the fact that the entire game is in Japanese, which means non-Japanese speakers won't have a clue what is going on. You can still make it through most of the dungeons without understanding the text, but there seems to be a fair amount of story going on in this game that those who don't understand the language will be missing out on.
  • Track Architect - 80 MS points. Track Architect is a puzzle/racing game that puts a lot of stock in its physics engine. There are only 17 built in tracks to try out, but the real draw is the level editor where you can create your own physics playgrounds for running time trials.

Ay?

  • Storage Inc - 400 MS points. Many games have been criticized for having controls that feel like a forklift, and now finally that description is accurate. Using the Resident Evil "forklift" control scheme you control, well, a forklift sorting crates into the proper holding areas in a warehouse.
  • Shellblast HD - 400 MS points. Shellblast HD has an interesting puzzle concept, but it's marred by the controls. There are two cursors in the game, one controlled with the D-pad and the other with either analog stick, when it would have been much more intuitive to use a single cursor. If you can get past the unintuitive controls though, there's a fun and unique bomb defusing puzzle game there.
  • Octagon - 240 MS points. I'm very torn about Octagon. I love the concept of an arcade shooter with enemies color-coded to each of the 360 controller's face buttons. The only issue is that you can only fire in 8 directions. This is an issue because both your ship and the enemies have free movement, so there will hardly ever be a time when an enemy is coming at you from an angle you can actually shoot at. It can get frustrating, but the concept is good enough that the game can't be written off completely. Hopefully there will be an update in the future.
  • Pastels Square - 400 MS points. This is a nice puzzle game in which you create colored boxes from lines that fall from the top of the screen. 400 MS points may be asking a bit much for it though considering some of the other indie games available that offer much more for a lower price. But if the price goes down, say to the 80 point range, then this will be a fine download.
  • Penguin Slip-Slide Lite - 80 MS points. "Lite" versions of games are tricky. This one offers half the levels of the original (around 100 as opposed to around 200) for a third of the price. At 1 cent per level it's a great deal if you like this kind of puzzle game, but if you do like this type of puzzle then you might like more levels even more. You know, like the original version that was already available.
  • デッドラGO! (Deadline A Go!) - 400 MS points. Yet another Japanese game that I don't feel comfortable reviewing because I don't quite know what is going on. This one is a tower defense style game with a school setting and some excellent sprite animation. There's also a masked wrestler at the bottom of the screen yelling things at you. It's a pretty bizarre game, but if you can read Japanese it's worth checking out.

Nay

  • Zombies 2.0 - 240 MS points. I love zombies, but this game just didn't do it for me. It's an overhead shooter with a very limited cone of vision from a flashlight your character is holding. I'm sure that this aspect was put into the game to add tension, but the field of vision is so slim that it's really almost useless. Combine the small amount of the screen you can see with the fact that enemies blend in with the scenery, and you've got one frustrating game.
  • Arrow Run - 80 MS points. You follow a series of arrows to race across the screen before you opponent (human or computer controlled) does. It's simple, but not a game that you'll be coming back to after the first few rounds.
  • A Frog Game - 240 MS points. Jump from one lilly pad to another and eat flies in the process. You can either play a timed game or a game with a certain number of flies. I can't really recommend either.
  • Bed Time Nursery Rhymes - 80 MS points. This is a lengthy collection of nursery rhymes, so if you have a small niece or nephew it might be helpful to brush up on some of them. Just don't let the child listen to the game's narration of the nursery rhymes, the emotionless reading might frighten them.
  • Dodge These Balls - 80 MS points. A game with a very self-explanatory title. Just dodge the balls as more balls are added to the play field.
  • Puzzle? - 80 MS points. Puzzle? is a series of word puzzles including jumbles, anagrams, and several others. If you were playing them on the computer with a mouse or keyboard they would probably work fine, but the Xbox 360 controller just isn't made for selecting individual letters on a time limit.
  • Hotel Danger - 80 MS points. Hotel Danger is a memory style game where you choose two windows and see if you get two innocent civilians. You see, there's a killer loose in the hotel, and if you choose the killer and a civilian than he or she dies. Except, instead of relying on your memory the game adds a random element by having the killer move to a new spot every turn.
  • BallsAndBlocks - 80 MS points. A ball rolling game ala Marble Madness, but with one fatal flaw: wonky ball physics. I played a ton of this game to try and see if it ever would feel right, but the ball never rolled in a way that resembled real physics.
  • クレッシェンドシンフォニー 鏡の騎士 - 240 MS points. This is a single turn-based battle between two young, anime-style witches. Admittedly it's an interesting turn-based style, but it feels like a concept demo rather than an actual game.
  • LOLCats - 80 MS points. Is this really what we've come to? As expected this is just a series of LOL cat pictures, most of which you probably have seen hundreds of times by now.


Updates
Cold War Commander - price drop to 80 MS points
Find Teddy
Iris - price drop to 80 MS points
Halfbrick Blastoff
Endless Swarm
Tomato Blaster - price drop to 80 MS points
Fuel Depot 360 - price drop to 80 MS points
Poker Stacker - price drop to 80 MS points
Tail Gun Charlie - price drop to 80 MS points
Rocket Fart
Destruction Tank
Smart Splitter
Sqong - price drop to 80 MS points

1 Comments

Il Palazzo said:

クレッシェンドシンフォニー 鏡の騎士 (Crescendo Symphony? The actual title escapes me right now) is actually really decent. I'd like to see an English version using that gameplay style. And Streets of Fury is hilariously awesome.

And girls who like girls who like rumble packs!

E3 Twitter

Gay Gamer of the Week

GayGamer Of The Week: Rich P. Richard 031-1.jpg

Name: Rich P.

Forum Name: Keebler Fudge Packer

Age: 27

Location: St. Louis, MO (Go Cards!)

Find out more about me!

Recent Comments

Il Palazzo on Weekly Xbox Indies - 8/28/09: クレッシェンドシンフォニー 鏡の騎士 (Crescendo Symphony? The actual title escapes me right now) is actually really decent. I'd like to see an...

GGP Mailing List

Are you gay and working in the games industry? If you are interested in networking with other folks like you within the industry, try joining the Gay Game-Industry Professionals mailing list. Click here for all the details!

Links

The GayGamer Store

  • Help support GayGamer by purchasing your items through our store!

All rights reserved © 2006-2010 FAD Media, Inc.