Yay!

Scribble Defense - 80 MS points. It's getting pretty hard to innovate in the Tower Defense genre, but Scribble Defense does an excellent job of doing just that. There's still a predetermined path for the enemies to travel along, around which you place towers to rain down death upon them. But in Scribble Defense, the cursor you control to lay down the towers can also get in on the action. As long as your cursor is inside the range of one of your towers, that cursor takes on the abilities of that tower to help attack the incoming waves of enemies. So if you have three or four towers with overlapping areas, setting the cursor inside that area will give it all of those tower's abilities. It's a fun an unique mechanic that encourages both planned placement of towers and constant moving around the field, making for a much more engaging experience than your typical tower defense game. Each level is also set up almost like a puzzle game, with a different predefined set of towers available in each stage. Sometimes levels will even have a few specific towers already laid, and your only ability is to manipulate the enemy's path. These puzzle levels, combined with the more active play style make Scribble Defense an easy download to recommend.

Orbitroid - 240 MS points. Orbitroid is a planet busting game, and possibly one of the nicest looking indie game on the 360. For some reason your little astronaut wants to blow apart planets, so you set out with two upgradeable guns (a high-power precision gun and a low-power area effect gun) and do just that. There's a lot going on on-screen at once, and occasionally this can cause enemy fire and asteroids to blend in with the surroundings until its too late, but it happens seldom enough that it doesn't take away from the game. It's nice to see creative space shooters make it onto the indie game marketplace that don't rely on twin-stick or forced scrolling gameplay, making Orbitroid a breath of fresh air in the vacuum of space.

Ay?

Allegory - 80 MS points. I'm not entirely sure what this game is an allegory for, but Allegory sure is a nice game. You control a shield and bash into enemies to clear a path for a node following along its set paths. There is some gameplay variety from some modes showing the follower's path or changing its speed, but ultimately it doesn't change your job of ramming into as many enemies as you can. But as much as I've enjoyed Allegory, the game's longevity is in question, so I'd definitely suggest playing the trial (possibly more than once) before paying up.

Moonshine - 240 MS points. Moonshine is like those lemonade tycoon games, only set during the time of prohibition. Buy alcohol low and sell high as you try to amass as much cash as possible during the campaign's 50 days. Or you can take on one of Moonshine's challenge modes to raise a certain amount of cash, lose a certain amount of cash, or create a custom game mode with your own set win scenario and time limit. Occasionally there will be police raids that you need to account for, my favorite method is to buy decoy items to disguise my storehouse as something more legitimate like a pet store. While most of the interface is presented through the spreadsheet-like buying menu, between each day you get a nice newspaper clipping that gives you hints about which alcohol is rising and falling, while also infusing authentic atmosphere from the time period. Honestly, I've never been much into these types of tycoon style games, but the newspaper clippings kept me engaged despite my aversion to the genre. If you're actually a fan of this style of game, I'm sure you will like it even more.

Meds - 80 MS points. What would happen if Arkanoid was infused with Eternal Darkness style insanity effects? Meds would happen. As you play this brick breaker game, weird things start to happen. At first it's little things, like blood splatter with each bounce of the ball or fish swimming around the border of the level. But as you continue and your supply of meds decreases, gameplay altering changes come into effect. Maybe a series of moving walls will appear, or the sides of the level will begin to move, and this changes how you need to play and survive the level. These effects are completely random for each level, so no two playthroughs will ever be quite the same. And there is a lot to play through, with 50 levels of mind bending craziness. The main thing keeping this game from the "Yay" category is that not all of these random effects are much fun to deal with. The worst offender I've found is an effect where the ball stays close to the walls of the level, only occasionally bouncing from the wall before coming right back to it. It's almost impossible to complete a level with this in effect. Perhaps if you could refill your meds and push back the insanity effects by breaking bricks this would be a stronger game, but the only way to refill is a power-up that seldom ever drops. If you can push past the few effects that delve into frustration, it's a fun and creative game that is at least worth downloading the trial version.

Meltdown Moon - 80 MS points. Meltdown Moon is a puzzle game full of astronauts, asteroids, and colored moons to clear. You fly your astronaut around the puzzle board and select groups of three or more adjacent moons, clearing them from the board. The more moons you clear, the higher your combo grows, which increases the game's difficulty and earns you more points. The difficulty increases come in the form of asteroids flying by, which you must dodge while still clearing moons and building your combo. If you're looking for a more hands-on puzzle game, then it's well worth giving Meltdown Moon a try.

Dr. Mazing - 240 MS points. I've been shocked by how few arcade beat-em-ups have come out on the Xbox indie channel, so Dr. Mazing is a welcome entry in the genre. The animation is a bit spotty at times, but the classic arcade gameplay is still just as fun as it always was. Plus you get to play as a guy in a labcoat beating up robots with his fists, which is just improbable enough to make the game even better.

Knock Balls - Spin To Win - 240 MS points. No, the title is not some dirty euphemism. Up to four players roll marbles around labyrinthine obstacle courses while competing in a number of multiplayer modes. The modes are fairly standard, with variations on deathmatch and king of the hill, but the fact that you are a marble rolling around gives each mode a fresh feel. Solo players are left without much to do though, so consider this one only if you have others to play with.

ElectronZ - 80 MS points. ElectronZ is a competitive puzzle game where up to four players place electrons on the board. These electrons circle atoms, and when an atom has four electrons around it the atom will burst, sending electrons to all neighboring spaces on the board. These bursts also can overwrite an opponent's atom color with the color of the atom that burst. The goal is for one player to control the whole board, and at least in 2-player mode is a fun and strategic experience. I didn't get a chance to test it, but I imagine more than 2 players would perhaps be a little too chaotic. But as a competitive puzzle game for 2 players, ElectronZ is a lot of fun.

Words of Wisdom - 80 MS points. Words of Wisdom is, at its core, hangman with a time limit. But the presentation goes a long way toward making it more than just another hangman clone. You're given a series of enemies to defeat, each one beaten by correctly guessing and spelling a word. Each level becomes a sort of endurance trial, since health and time remaining carry over between enemies (with a small amount of each recovered for a correctly spelled word). There are perhaps better word games on the Xbox indie marketplace, but this is certainly the best hangman variation yet.

Uprising - 80 MS points. Uprising is another twin-stick shooter to add to the multitude on the Xbox indie marketplace. That's not to say its bad, it's actually quite good. You play as a computer virus and fight back against antivirus software. Physics play a part in the game, with environmental obstacles like desktop icons getting pushed around with each shot, allowing you to move the cover to your liking in each level. Other than the physics though, it's a pretty standard twin-stick shooter, of which there is no shortage on the Xbox 360.

Nova Lancer - 80 MS points. Nova Lancer takes Asteroids and turns it into a mission-based dogfight game. The missions break the game into easily digestible chunks, which for me is necessary with the tried and true Asteroids forklift control scheme. By completing missions you can upgrade your ship or buy a completely new one, making you more powerful and able to complete more difficult missions. I can't, but if you can get past the Asteroids-style controls then Nova Lancer is a space combat game well worth checking out.

Project Zero - 80 MS points. Project Zero is a vertical scrolling shooter with the unique twists of letting you shoot in any direction. This also means that enemies will fly in from all directions, which keeps you on your toes. Other than aiming in all directions, it's a fairly straightforward shooter. It's a technically sound and fun game, but there are more creative efforts out there.

Avatar QuizCall - Africa 2010 - 80 MS points. Now here is a trivia game all about the 2010 World Cup. I know nothing about Football or "Soccer" as I like to call it, so I'm pretty miserable at this game. But for Football/Soccer fanatics this game is sure to be a hit at your World Cup parties.

Reversi - 80 MS points. It's Reversi, or Othello if that's what you prefer to call it. It's pretty no-frills, but if Reversi is what you want, then this is as good a version as any.

Nay :(

3 in 1 - Game Compilation - 80 MS points. This game includes a ball dodging game, a simon-style color and sound matching game, and a game where you press the corresponding colored button to shoot colored squares. At least the developer didn't try to sell each one individually, but I'm still not sure they're worth paying for as a collection.

Avatar Penalty Kick - 80 MS points. A Football/Soccer penalty kick game. It seems like it should be a reaction game, but there's so little time to react that it's more of a predictive game. Imagine rock-paper-scissors where instead of three options you have a full range of movement to guess your opponent's move. There's a reason why this is the punishment for a penalty in the actual sport.

Battle Tanks - 240 MS points. A top-down tank battle game marred by horribly clunky controls. I'm all in favor of trying to find alternatives to the standard twin-stick control scheme, but replacing it with a more convoluted control scheme that also uses both analog sticks isn't the answer.

Avatar Calendar - 80 MS points. It's a calendar and planner all in one. Unfortunately the interface isn't the best to navigate. And since the interface is pretty much all Avatar Calendar has going for it, that's a pretty severe blow.

Divining Orb - 80 MS points. Oh look, another magic 8-ball app. If you wanted one of these, you probably already have wasted a dollar one of the others already out there.

Dossun Island - 80 MS points. Platformers are at their best with precision jumping and tight controls. Dossun Island has neither. It doesn't help that the background has odd vertically scrolling layers that simulate the distinct feeling of seasickness.

The MANLY Game for MANLY Men - 80 MS points. As if the whole "manly man" thing wasn't bad enough, the actual game is pretty bad on its own. You vaguely control an Avatar tumbling down a mountain, and collect deodorant bottles to smell nice for "womanly women." At least the developer took out the Old Spice product placement before releasing it, though given its quality I wouldn't be surprised if Old Spice requested it be removed.

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