Brixx – Card & Board – 80 Points – Download

Based on the traditional board game Reversi(Othello), Brixx is a very confusing,  challenging, and polished puzzle game. I’ve never played the actual board game,  but if this is exactly how it is played, it takes a long time to understand.

The object of Brixx is to cover each square of the board red before your opponent until there are no more moves left. In most games when you start, you expect a tutorial that shows a little demo of how the game is played, some basic strategies and maybe a little gameplay with an opponent. In Brixx, however, you either start playing and be thoroughly confused or in the main menu scroll down to the How To Play screen. While on this screen, the instructions are just as confusing – poorly translated, no video tutorial, or anything else. Now, I know the developer is German, but since this game is released for the English language, a proper translation would have helped describe how to play. Anyways, from what I understand, you are supposed to take turns placing a stone beside your opponents stone in three directions – Straight, cross, and horizontal.  Unlike the board game, you paint squares instead of placing stones. I’m sure there is some sort of strategy or proper way of playing, but no matter what I do, I can never really understand the proper way to play. If I win, it’s by sheer luck and controlling the corners but it is in no way fun. I’ve tried so hard to understand this game but had no luck. Also included in the game is local multiplayer; I didn’t get a chance to try this feature out, but I’m sure both my friends and I would end up confused.

Since Brixx is based off a board game, you would think it would be a two-dimensional game. However, the overall board is re-modeled in three-dimensional space. The graphics are polished and it is a nice re-imagining of the traditional board game.

In Brixx, there is no original music. It would have been nice to of had some looped music in the background, but for the amount of time you’ll be playing this game, I can see why it wasn’t included.

In the end, Brixx is a very short game. There are three difficulty settings, but even on Beginner, it felt like I was playing Expert. For players of the traditional board game, Brixx does a nice job of bringing Reversi to video game form. For newcomers, it’s hard to get into this game. Play the trial and see what you think, but even at 80 points, it’s a pass.

If you know how to play Reversi it may be worth downloading but newcomers should avoid it.

Along Came A Spider – Platformer – 400 Points – Download

Don’t let the opening few levels of “Along Came a Spider” deceive you, underneath the colourful and cute graphics lies one of the most challenging games I have played for some time. The premise for the game couldn’t be simpler, there is no story as such and no cutscenes, just you as spider trying to make your way to the end of 20 platforming levels trying to catch the 3 flies that inhabit each level until you have all 60.

The game guides you in gently and the difficulty curve is pitched just about right with the exception of a few difficulty spikes along the way which are sure to frustrate some gamers, however, the feeling of achievement is up there with the best when you finally crack that tricky level. You start the game with only the jump ability and every 5 levels you are given a fresh move to help you along the way such as connecting your self to the silk platforms so you can bungee yourself off edges and reach higher areas. It’s a great way of keeping things fresh and keeps the game varied enough to hold your interest until the final “hard as nails” boss.

Unfortunately the game won’t last you too long due to a feature within the game that lets you move onto a new level if you fail the last one a certain amount of times, some people might find this a useful thing to have but it does take away the challenge if you use it, so to get the maximum enjoyment out of the game just persevere and play it level by level.

On the whole this is a very well put together package that looks and handles like a dream, the 400 Microsoft Points might seem a little steep for an indie game but you get out of this game what you put in so it still comes highly recommended.

Underneath the colourful and cute graphics lies one of the most challenging games I have played for some time.

Goblyn Stomp – Action & Adventure – 80 Points – Download

Developed by Trevor Boone, Goblyn Stomper is a simple play-till-you-lose game with a lot of charm behind it. As Mr. Chap Scaliwag, you’ve been tasked with clearing the streets of a never-ending swarm of Goblyns with a taste for your ankles in the most gentlemanly way possible. For starters, you’re only capable of a care-free jump onto their squishy noggins, but as the Goblyn bloodsplatters pile up you gain access to super stomps, remote mines, and your trusty spinning cane to help knock down the Goblyn hordes. You’ll need all of those abilities too, as although the Goblyn numbers are few to start out with, they soon after start swarming in from nearly every side of the screen.

Chap’s animation of happily jumping in the air never fails to amuse me. The soundtrack to the game is great as well, composed of ragtime-style piano tunes made specially for the game. Sometimes the higher tempo portions of the music feel just right as fresh swarms of Goblyns emerge from the left and the right. The controls are very responsive and it is easy to manuver Chap around in the air as you position yourself to deliver a blow from above. As the Goblyns pile up, though, you’ll find yourself having to weigh the risks and gains. Do you go for a super stomp on a pile of 7 just sitting around, knowing that missing just one of them will leave you vulnerable, or do you instead drop some mines and hope they’ll come your way? While most of the weapons are useful for particular situations, you’ll find yourself using your standard jumps the most often as the safe spots upon the ground dry up.

Aside from the game itself, its only other feature is a high score board (no online leaderboards, sadly), but after putting in a hard effort it’s satisfying to see Chap standing upon a 50-foot tower of Goblyn carcasses. At the low cost of 80 points, Goblyn Stomper allows you to indulge in some ol’ timey ultraviolence at a price that matches those classic times.

Goblyn Stomper allows you to indulge in some ol' timey ultraviolence at a price that matches those classic times.

Snail Shot Torpedo – Action & Adventure – 400 Points – Download

Snail-Shot Torpedo is a strange little game.  It’s set underwater and you use a catapult to launch torpedoes into the “air” and down on to the advancing zombie snails.  Sound like fun?  Yes?  Wrong.

The problem seems to be that the majority of the effort has gone into the presentation and very little time spent on the gameplay.  As I type, it is probably one of the most polished games on the XBLIG channel with a unique art style, nice 3D models (as far as 3D snail models go) and decent sound, but it is perhaps the most tedious – and frustrating – game I have ever played.

You only get 3 torpedoes at a time to fling at the advancing zombie-snail horde before you are made to endure a painfully long reload. This usually results in the loss of a life because you are frantically mashing the A button in the hope the reload might take place sometime in the near future only to accidentally launch two torpedoes which flop at your feet.  This leaves you with one torpedo to deal with the imminent loss of one life before enduring another reload.

Clear the level though and you are treated to an end of level boss which takes a lifetime to kill as not only do you have to fling torpedoes at the boss but the snails are still trying to get you too.  I celebrated two birthdays before I dispatched the first boss of Chapter 1 and had worn out my A button so didn’t bother to continue much into Chapter 2 as I couldn’t see the game getting any less repetitive or offering much more variety.

The final nail in the coffin is the astronomical price tag of 400 Microsoft Points.  Save your hard-earned cash and give this one a miss.

Nice presentation but frustrating and way overpriced.

Note: These impressions are based off 8 minutes of gameplay and are not an accurate assessment of the full product.

Graffiti LIVE! – 240 points – Download

Essentially like MS Paint. You are able to share your creations with others over Xbox LIVE.

Hypno Vol. 1 – 400 points – Download

You play a psychic who can control other people. Very interesting concept and despite it’s extremely basic presentation it seems to be quite a deep game. Overpriced at 400 points though.

KGB Episode One – 240 points – Download

A fully 3D FPS with a good looking engine and solid mechanics. OK so it’s not the best FPS ever, but it’s an extremely impressive example of how powerful XNA is.

You Can’t Win! – 80 points – Download

Interesting rhythm puzzle game that sees you stack boxes on top of each other. The trial is way too short though.

Physics Lab – 240 points – Download

A bit (well actually a lot) like Physics Sandbox. If you haven’t played that it is essentially a (kind of) user friendly way to experiment with a popular XNA physics engine.

Warhounds – 80 points – Download

Pretty poor vertical shmup. Very basic graphics and very little animation. The shooting mechanics and collision detection are also pretty bad.

Titamus Attack – 240 points – Download

Another FPS. This one isn’t very polished but it’s crude enemy designs and broken English have a certain charm to them. You should at least try it.

Cell Life – 80 points – Download

Simulator based on Conway’s Game of Life. It’s quite interesting to watch and experiment so it’s worth a look.

Four Player Tangerine Fight – 80 points – Download

This one requires more than one player so I was unable to try it properly.

Lethal Judgment – 400 points – Download

The kind of game that made me so excited when I first learned of Xbox LIVE Indie Games. A stunning horizontal shooter with great mechanics. Full review soon.

Soul – 80 points – Download

Have any doubts that Xbox LIVE Indie Games won’t produce some amazing titles? Soul will shatter them. It combines atmosphere with stunning visuals and some brilliant surprises. I’ll call it now and say Soul will be one of the biggest games on XBLIG so far. Tip: Play with the lights out and the sound up.

Duel: The Art of Combat – Shooter – 240 Points – Download

On the Xbox Live Indie Game section, there is no shortage of dual stick shooters. Most of them are Geometry Wars clones, some add extra barriers you have to avoid and some are setup like a 2D platformer. If you’ve ever played ZP2K9, you’ll know what the Duel: The Art of Combat is like. It is quite similar in terms of how ZP2K9 plays, except one major difference, it’s much harder to play.

Duel: The Art of Combat, is essentially a side scrolling multiplayer shooter where you use both sticks to move and aim. You can also use only the left stick to move and aim, but that’s where the problems start. If you are facing left, and want to move left, but aim behind, you can’t. In most dual stick shooters, you would auto rotate based on the aim, but not in Duel. I guess it isn’t a huge problem as you can stop, rotate, and shoot, but it’s something to get used to. It’s something that should have at least been an option. You move around the levels by jumping and swinging from a rope that attaches on to anything above you. Actually, this game really reminds me of a spider man game, but with worms and weapons.

Included in the game are 3 modes – Story mode, Duel Mode, and Survival mode. The story can be completed pretty quickly and is done within waves of enemies. At the end of each level, you unlock new weapons and perks. Duel mode consists of you and a friend battling it out in splitscreen. I guess the best way to play this game is with a friend in survival mode; even though it is hard to control, jumping around the level and seeing how many enemies you can kill is quite a time waster in itself.

Duel offers a decent selection of weapons, perks, and powerups as you play through the game. Before each level, you have the option of picking what weapons and perks you want to use. I don’t recommend using melee weapons though as they are slow and weak. Perks give you extra speed, faster reload, higher jumps, and faster use of the rope.

There are two types of music in this game – Rock and Electronic. The Rock setting isn’t too bad and adds to the frustrating but fast paced action. I didn’t get around to trying out the Electronic setting, but I’d imagine it works just as well. Either way, I’m sure it’d work much better with your own selection of a metal album.

In the end, Duel: The Art of Combat has plenty of potential to be good, but the controls need plenty of work. The art style, weapons, upgrades and game modes are all fine, but in order to play those game modes again, you really need to to get used to the controls. If you like worms, ZP2K9, or any of these 2D multiplayer arena type games, this game is for you.

It's hard to master the art of combat, but when you do, a fun multiplayer game awaits.

Note: These impressions are based off 8 minutes of gameplay and are not an accurate assessment of the full product.

Asphalt Jungle – 80 points – Download

Rotate road pieces to keep the car moving along. Dull presentation but suprisingly fun to play.

Rubble Muddle – 80 points – Download

Nice little puzzle game where you must blow up adjacent blocks and collect gems. The presentation could be better.

Hoyle Texas Hold ‘em – 400 points  – Download

This is from the same developer as the XBLA Texas Hold ‘em game. If features Avatar support and online multiplayer for up to 10 players. Great fun.

Xmas Defender – 240 points  – Download

This obviously was meant to come out last month. With the seasonal theme no longer relevant you are left with a pretty average tower defence game and there are much better on XBLIGs.

Princess Baker Palace – 240 points – Download

Build machines that can create different recipes. A pretty fun little puzzle game with some unique ideas.

Football League Simulator – 80 points – Download

Simulate an English football league season. I love the Sky Sports News inspired interface but there is little point to it all.

Synth Jam – 400 points – Download

Another sysnthesizer program. As i’ve said before, anyone who is skilled enough to make something decent with this will find many better programs on their PC.

Musicus2 – 400 points – Download

Intresting musical puzzle game with great presentation. The actual puzzle aspect seemed a little complicated to me though.

Canno-Blast – 240 points – Download

A mix between a shooter and air hockey. It gets dull very quickly.

Merry Inc. – 80 points – Download

A Christmas-themed board game with Avatars. It’s come out at the wrong time and the mini games aren’t fun.

Trial Impressions are back! The aim is to post trial impressions as close to daily as possible.

Note: These impressions are based off 8 minutes of gameplay and are not an accurate assessment of the full product.

Decimation X – 80 points – Shooter – Download

Fantastic Space Invaders/Bullet Hell shooter form the developers behind the forthcoming Duality ZF. One of the most fun and polished games on the service.

Blood on the Dance Floor – 80 points – Action & Adventure- Download

Zombie themed top-down shooter. The co-op may be fun but the controls are a little strange.

Plucky’s 3D Adventure – 80 points – Action & Adventure – Download

Solid controls and very pretty 3D. I hope the full game has much more of a challenge than the trial.

Sidehill Gouger – Puzzle & Trivia – 80 Points – Download

Sidehill Gouger is Canned Games’ puzzle offering to XBLIG. As a young boy visiting his grandpa’s fishing hole, you must navigate your way through a series of grass-filled mazes to discover and knock-out the Sidehill Gouger before safely heading on your way. The game plays similar to minesweeper; as you walk through the mazes, you uncover things such as blood spots that hint at the Gouger’s location or rock piles that mark a nearby hole waiting for you to fall through it. Using these clues, you can approximate the hiding spot of the Gouger before beaning it with your slingshot.

While the game’s graphics, done in a hand-drawn style, and laid-back soundtrack are charming, it also falls into the same trap as minesweeper in that it is rather easy to get unlucky. Even when you’ve found a clue to a trap or Gouger location, it’s possible to accidentally step into the trap itself since the clues can appear on any square adjacent to the hostile one. Once you reach the stages that introduce curved paths, it becomes even more confusing as not only do they force you to go a certain square unless you double back, but clues don’t appear on them, making some of your searches less than informative. Also, your slingshot only travels one square across, so you’ll have to be certain of the clues on all sides before taking aim.

The game includes some re-playability by giving a “par time” to shoot for stage, but again there is some element of luck as to whether or not you’ll complete a stage that quickly. Each set of stages also includes a set of trophies to collect for completing certain objectives. Sidehill Gouger will lull you in with its storybook-like presentation, but players will need to exercise patience more than once to get through it.

Great presentation but ultimately frustrating.

Pilot Test – Other – 80 Points – Download

I can’t help but imagine the Air Force actually creating something like this… way back in the day of course and then asking their would be Fighter Jocks to give this a go. Pilot Test has a very old school Military look an feel and then mixes in a story line about some Top Secret, Pilot Test Program, to see if you have the skills it takes to fly with the best of them; in this Indie game you have all the makings of something potentially very interesting to say the least.

Now the game has nothing to do with any flight simulations for Dog Fights or missions in launching a payload of Missiles at various targets. So what you have left is one of the very basic aspect of gaming, dealing in the area of collision detection. Your task is to attempt and safely move your Red Square around very limited flight area, as you avoid the Green Squares darting all around and at you. The longer you survive in the air, the better and higher your score will be in the end.

Simple… only each time your Red Fighter (Square) collides with any Green Enemy (Square) on the screen, you’ll take on some damage and start to loose portions of your Jet powered Square. Take on to much damage or end up colliding head on with an Enemy, then its game over for that flight session. This game also tests out your memory, as the flight paths of Enemy Squares are the same every time and thus allows you to try and remember what happened the last time you were tested.

The game is easy to play from the control stand point, I mean you simply move the left or right analog sticks around to dart your Square like no other Pilot has ever flown before. When you first start the flying test, you’ll think its going to be easy and will quickly learn its not as easy as it looks. One thing for sure is this game is very challenging and it will push you to try and score higher on the list of Pilots.

For me it brought back memories of those very old school console games from those early days of Atari, only with some bumped up graphics in some areas of course. The game is priced at only at 80ms points and is worth that I feel. Holographic Dreams has really set a mood here and I feel Pilot Test has provided a challenge in such a basic game that uses Collision Detection.

Would it have been nice to see some other Test exercises in this Pilot program or at least some other flight paths perhaps? Sure it would have, but for what this game is, I think they did a pretty good job in setting the mood and creating a game that is a challenge. I’d say you should at least give it a try and see if you can come close to scoring higher on the charts.

Very simple and not much content but a good challenge.