Yay

Shoot 1UP - 80 MS points. From the creator of Weapon of Choice, Shoot 1UP is the definitive bullet hell shooter on the Xbox 360. The concept of the game is actually fairly simple, yet wholly original: every extra life you collect spawns instantly into play, allowing you to control up to 30 ships at a time. And you're going to want all of those ships. A spread out formation (which can be expanded or contracted with the 360's triggers) offers devastating firepower, as well as adds huge score multipliers to every enemy you destroy. But those advantages come at a great cost, as a spread formation also makes it that much easier for enemies to take out one of your ships. And then there are so many tiny nuances to the gameplay on top of that. When you aren't shooting your ships charge a short range shield that can be used to repel bullets or destroy enemies for huge points. Or the fact that when one of your ships are destroyed it creates a cloud that destroys enemy fire creating a safe zone that you can use. Or the fact that in order to earn full points for each enemy you need to collect the point items they drop. Throw in three devilish difficulty levels, an unlimited survival mode, achievements to earn, a second ship to unlock, the ability to adjust gameplay speed to your liking, and branching levels, and you may start to wonder why Shoot 1UP wasn't released as a 400-800 point Live Arcade game. Oh, and then there's 2-player co-op on top of all of that, allowing you and a friend to have up to 60 ships against the enemy. If there's one downside to Shoot 1UP it comes from one of the game's levels that is like a terrible nightmare full of conveniently covered, near-naked women. The boss of that level is the terrifying robo-boob monster pictured above that makes you wonder how anyone could be straight. Blatant over-sexualization aside, Shoot 1UP is an amazing game that, for only $1, should be playing on every 360.

Soulcaster - 240 MS points. Soulcaster can best be described as the unholy union of Gauntlet and a tower defense game. And you know what, it's really good. In typical Gauntlet style, you make your way through dungeons collecting treasure while fighting back hordes of enemies. Where it starts to feel like a tower defense game is that you can't attack any of the enemies directly. Instead you have three units at your disposal to place in the enemy's path for attacking. There's the long-range archer, the knight with high HP, and the bomber who can attack over walls for an area effect. The balanced strengths and weaknesses of each unit lends to some surprisingly deep strategic play, which you'll need to use since if any enemies reach your character he has no attacks of his own. There are also shops along the way where you can upgrade each of the units or buy items with the treasure you collect. Soulcaster uses a nice 8-bit art style that makes it look like a long lost NES game, which I found particularly charming. I highly recommend action and strategy fans alike to check out Soulcaster, there's good a reason why it has already shot up into the top 20 rated Xbox indie games.

MotorHEAT - 240 MS points. MotorHEAT tricks you at first into thinking that it's a racing game, but that's not completely accurate. Yes, you're in a car, and you're passing other cars, but it's never really in the context of a race. The object of the game is to swerve between traffic at breakneck speeds to get to each checkpoint in time scoring as many points as possible. More points are awarded for driving dangerously close to the competing traffic, reminiscent of some of the best parts of the Burnout games (though the crashes in MotorHEAT aren't nearly as spectacular). And that's really just about it. It's a game that does one thing, but does it extremely well. If you're a fan of Burnout, or just driving fast in general, MotorHEAT is a great way to get your speed fix.

Last Line of Defence - 80 MS points. Last Line of Defence (I am told that this is the proper spelling in the UK) is a lot like the Atari classic Missile Command. In this game though you get two turrets to fire the missiles from, which can either be controlled by 2 players or switched between with the right and left bumpers, and a machine gun in addition to missiles. My favorite ability, and one that saved me in the game quite often, is that any missiles you fire can be turned into mid-air mines with the press of a button, and then detonated when enemies fly near. I found the game much more fun as a single player game, since having one player on each turret took away some of the challenge, but co-op experience is still a good one. You also have UFOs to fight back against instead of just shooting down incoming missiles, though you'll be doing plenty of that too. There's a lot of enemy variety with each new type offering a fun new challenge. That is, with the exception of one annoying enemy that acts as a bullet sponge and positions itself right in front of your turret. That's where swapping between turrets becomes an integral part of gameplay, or where the advantage of playing co-op becomes apparent if you're playing that way. If you have fond memories of Missile Command, and who doesn't, Last Line of Defence is a much appreciated upgrade to the classic formula.

Ay?

Pixelkiller - 80 MS points. Graphics definitely aren't everything, as Pixelkiller shows. Pixelkiller is an action platformer with simple pixilated graphics (as the title suggests) and prides itself on its difficulty. You have infinite lives but you will die, a lot. In fact, at the end of each level it tells you how many times your little pixel soldier bit the dust as if to challenge you to replay the level in fewer lives. And it's a replay mechanic that works quite well, or at least for me it did since I found myself replaying many levels to try and bump up my score in as few lives as possible. There are also 10 gold coins scattered in each level, which don't seem to actually serve any purpose but I found myself trying to obsessively collect them anyway. Perhaps it's because of how convoluted their hiding is. In order to reach most coins you need to walk through fake walls and find hidden passages, so just seeing if it's possible to reach a coin becomes a game in and of itself. If you take out the obsessive compulsive collecting though, you're still left with a fun and challenging action game. My only gripe, and this is no fault of Pixelkiller's, is that it's very similar to the indie PC game Star Guard, which is frankly the better game and available for free. I still say Pixelkiller is well worth the $1 price, but I would also say to go play Star Guard first.

Kukaku - 80 MS points. Kukaku is a competitive puzzle game for two players, or one player against an AI opponent. You drop colored blocks horizontally to try and match three of the same color and clear them from the board. Clearing blocks on your board sends more blocks to your opponent as in other similar competitive puzzle games. I enjoyed the puzzle gameplay in Kukaku, but I did feel like the blocks I dropped moved quite a bit too slowly, especially when other aspects of the game seem to speed up.

Maze Haze - 240 MS points. Maze Haze is, you guessed it, a maze game. Instead of controlling the ball going through the maze, you're controlling the tilt of the maze itself, using gravity to navigate. The game boasts over 100 levels, with challenges ranging from mazes that take 6 seconds to several minutes. The physics always seemed just a little bit off when I was playing, with a floating feeling to the ball and not changing direction with gravity right away. It takes an adjustment, and in some levels can cause frustration if you repeatedly miss the goal due to the physics, but once you get accustomed to how it works it feels fine. The shining point of Maze Haze is the online multiplayer, which allows up to four players to compete in a maze simultaneously. There are a number of power-ups in each level, many of which I didn't see a point to in the single-player mode (like a parachute that slows your movement), but can be used against your opponents in multiplayer to add a lot to the game. If you have other people to play it with, definitely give Maze Haze a download, but if you're going solo you may want to try before you buy.

Nay

Avatar Showdown - 80 MS points. Despite my natural reaction to be skeptical of any indie game using "Avatar" in its title, I had high hopes for Avatar Showdown. A 2D fighting game with Xbox Avatars? That sounds great! Unfortunately, Avatar Showdown is instead a reaction game. Both avatars stand on either sides of the screen, and when a sound cue triggers the first player to press any button wins. It's a big letdown. It seems like Avatar Showdown was thrown together more as an advertisement for the developer's upcoming indie game Unstoppable, with a trailer for that game taking up more space on the main menu than the menu itself. To be fair, Unstoppable looks really good, but that doesn't excuse Avatar Showdown for the shameless cash-in on the avatar craze that it is.

Autumn - 80 MS points.

Santa Bomber - 80 MS points.

Mouse Maze - 80 MS points.

Space Poker - 80 MS points.

SPACE RADAR OPERA 360 - 240 MS points.

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