Nasty – Action & Adventure – 80 Points – Download

The temptation to make a tabloid-style comment based on title from from Fun Infused Games is overwhelming. But I’ll fight it. For as long as I can.

Here’s the elevator pitch: Nasty is a cross between Contra and Bubble Bobble. You’ve got a gun, you dodge and shoot, and jump onto platforms to collect fruit. Once you’ve killed all the enemies a door opens, leading you to the next level.

Nasty is nicely polished, with good attention to detail. Each level has a theme, and while some have clearly had more attention than others, there is a nice mix. The animation is smooth, jumping and moving is precise, the controls are simple, and graphics and sound are good. There’s tons of variety in the game, and a challenge that ramps up as you move from level to level. Your enemies include little green men, ghosts, sharks and large, menacing bosses. The levels include destructible walls, lava pits, spikes and much more.

Wrinkles are few, and if this kind of game is your bag, they won’t cause too much heartache. Nasty has a save system that can only be used every ten levels, with a fixed number of continues for each level. Run out of continues and it’s back to the last save point. Nasty has no Xbox live multiplayer, but this is balanced by local play modes. My only other niggle is that some of the levels could have done with some more attention to detail to make them distinctive.

Nasty has had two major updates already from the developer, improving gameplay and fixing many issues. More updates are planned. It’s good to see an indie studio standing by their game, and it bodes well for future releases from this studio.

Give Nasty a chance, with 100 levels, 4-player local “Battle Mode” and cooperative play, at a mere 80 Microsoft points this is a steal.

Nasty but nice.

Fourteen(!) new games released over the last four days.

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

Zombies 2.0 – 240 points – Shooter – Download
Nice top down shooter that sees you defend you base from a variety of different enemies. It has decent presentation and an in-depth upgrade system.

 

 

Dodge These Balls – 80 points – Platformer – Download

Extremely simple but surprisingly fun. It plays like the pacifism mode from Geometry Wars 2. You control one ball and must avoid rapidly increasing numbers of other balls.

 

Penguin Slip-Slide Lite – 80 points – Puzzle & Trivia – Download

I didn’t play the original version but this seems like a nice small puzzle game that can be enjoyed by younger gamers.

 

Pastels Square – 400 points – Puzzle & Trivia – Download

An interesting take on the brick-dropping game that sees you make squares of the same color. Lacks polish and is overpriced.

 

Bed Time Nursery Rhymes- 80 points – Family – Download

Collection of narrated nursery rhymes. Shouldn’t parents be reading their kids these themselves?

 

Shellblast HD – 400 points – Puzzle & Trivia – Download

An interesting take on a Minesweeper-like game. Fantastic presentation and some interesting puzzles.

 

Puzzle? – 80 points – Puzzle & Trivia – Download

Collection of word puzzles. The games could be appealing but the presentation is awful.

 

デッドラGO! – 400 points – Strategy & Simulation – Download

Japanese tower defence game. Seems to have a lot of depth and is really polished. It’s a shame that you’ll struggle to play it without knowing Japanese.

 

Nasty – 400 points – Action & Adventure – Download

Nice retro platformer. Challenging and it reminds me of some classic older platformers. The graphics are nice too.

 

Streets of Fury – 240 points – Fighting – Download

Streets of Rage-like game that uses real people for the characters. Innovative and entertaining so well worth a look.

 

Octagon – 240 points – Shooter – Download

Fun shooter where the four face buttons on your controller each fire different colored bullets. Enemies can only be damaged by bullets of the same color. Great presentation.

 

LOLCats – 80 points – Other – Download

Pictures of cats with irritating internet memes.

 

 

Storage Inc- 400 points – Puzzle & Trivia – Download

As a Shenmue fan I loved this. It’s a forklift truck puzzle game that makes you manage a warehouse with your truck and move cargo. Great presentation and a lot of fun.

 

ダウンタウン激凸ドッジボール！ – 800 points – Sports & Recreation – Download

Impressive dodgeball game but is way overpriced at 800 points.