Game of the Day:

Avatar Bowling – 80 points – Download
What’s this? Two decent avatar games in two days? Avatar Bowling is a solid bowling game with great presentation.

Other Games:

D.O.T.S. – 80 points – Download

Guide your dot through various obstacles. Controls were very floaty.

WordWise – 80 points – Download

A nice collection of word games well presented.

Wordsearch Rush – 80 points – Download

A really nice wordsearch game with the twist being there is no word list. Instead you are given a subject and must find words related to it. Good fun.

Bubble Buster – 80 points – Download

A really cleanly presented puzzle game where you must move rows and columns of bubbles to match colours. The only slight problem I had was there are two different blue bubble types and there colour is very similar making it hard to tell them apart.

Classic Minesweeper – 80 points – Download

A very simple Minesweeper clone.

Game of the Day:

AvaGlide – 80 points – Download

Finally, another good 3D avatar game to join Avatar Golf. In this Pilotwings-esque game you control your Avatar on a Hand Glider through various objectives. It’s only 80 points so get it now!

Other Games:

Ophidian Wars: Opac’s Journey – 80 points – Download

A really good 2D platformer with exploration, abilities and upgrades. Definitely give this one a go. Full review coming soon.

SudokuGeek – 240 points – Download

A pretty solid Sudoku game. Though the menu system is one of the worst I’ve ever seen.

Phat Fly! – 80 points – Download

Collect fireflies and avoid the flies bigger than you. Not bad but the collision detection seems a little off.

Avatar Bowman – 80 points – Download

An avatar take on a much-used formula. Adjust the trajectory and power of your bow and try to hit the other avatar. Not bad.

Four Corners – 80 points – Download

Interesting RTS/Tower defence hybrid. I didn’t get to play that much of this but what I did play seemed pretty good.

Cerebral Arena – 80 points – Download

Very average dual stick shooter. The voice over is hilarious though.

Avatar High Five – 80 points – Download

I couldn’t believe that the title really does describe this game. You put your hand on the screen (yes, really) and then press button combinations to high five your avatar. My screen is far too small so I couldn’t see what buttons to press and there are finger marks on my screen.

Super Avatar World – 80 points – Download

Surprisingly, this isn’t actually that bad. It’s heavily influenced by New Super Mario Bros. and the core platforming is okay. Even the animations hold up which is almost never happens in Avatar games.

Game of the Day:

B-A-Maze’d – 80 points – Download

3D maze game where you must tilt the maze to guide a blob through. Really nice presentation and solid gameplay.

Other Games:

Immunogen – 80 points – Download

Memorize certain colour combinations then try to match viruses using them. It is supposed to help your memory but I just found it frustrating.

Air Forte – 400 points – Download

Educational game that teaches you maths and geography, among other things, whilst you fly your plane through the answers. The menus and cutscenes have really nice presentation but the actual gameplay of guiding the plane is dull. Overpriced too.

Crazy Wizard in Creepy Castle – 80 points – Download

I love 2D platformers but unfortunately there isn’t much to like here. The platform mechanics are awful (especially the jumping), the collision detection barely works and it looks horrible.

This Way That Way – 80 points – Download

Puzzle game in which you must guide your character across a grid to the goal. The twist is that once you go in a certain direction you must use every other direction before you can go that way again. Seems interesting.

The Quest For Freshness – 80 points – Download

Average tower defence game. There are a lot better ones on XBLIG. Horn Swaggle Islands and Sol Survivor are two i’d really recommend.

StarField Battle 2 – 80 points – Download

Dual-stick shooter. With so many of these types of games on XBLIGs, this would have to do something special to stand out. Sadly it doesn’t. It’s not bad, there are just much better games at the same price point.

Ballern2D – 80 points – Download

The menus in this game made me feel sick. It’s a pretty poor vertical shooter. If you are looking for a good vertical shmup I’d recommend Vampire Rage (review coming next week).

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

Game of the Day:

Lumi – 400 points – Download

Winner of this year’s Dream Build Play competition, Lumi is quite simply the best looking game on Xbox LIVE Indie Games. It’s interesting platform mechanics are great fun too. DOWNLOAD IT NOW!

Other Games:

MusicNow! – 80 points – Download

This tool allows you to play music sotred on your Xbox 360. Unfortunately all my music is streamed from my PC so I couldn’t test it out.

Jurassic – 240 points – Download

Puyo Puyo clone with a twist. The twist is that dinosaurs are attacking form the right of the screen and you must make cavemen to defend yourdelf by matching the coloured blocks. Seems quite fun.

7strains : The Infectious – 80 points – Download

A very nicely presented game where you must avoid strains of bacteria and destroy them by throwing rocks. The gameplay seemed a little dull when I played it alone but maybe it’s more fun with up to 4 players.

Comet!- 80 points – Download

Destroy comets by pressing the face buttons of the matching the color. I couldn’t tell if I was bad at the game or it was just frustrating.

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.

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.

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.

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

Johnny’s Skydiving Lessons – 80 points – Action & Adventure – Download

Your parachute has fallen out of your plane and you must catch it. Not very fun.

War: The Card Game Advanced – 80 points – Card & Board – Download

Mix of a card game and QTE’s. When your card pops up to must press the corresponding buttons on it. Nice presentation but again, not much fun.

PyroManic – Solo – 240 points – Shooter – Download

A bit like Space Invaders but the falling enemies are color coded and you must destroy them by pressing the face button that is the same colour. Not bad.

Fishing Girl – 80 points – Action & Adventure – Download

Great little fishing game with great art. Could be as addictive as Miner Dig Deep.

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

Sol Survivor – 800 points – Strategy & Simulation – Download

Fantastic 3D tower defence game, really shows what is possible with XNA. I just wish it hadn’t come out the week after Defence Grid.

Fire – 80 points – Other – Download

Yet another rubbish screensaver app. You can’t even view it in the trial.

Dead Meat – 80 points – Shooter – Download

With so many shooters on XBLIGs this does little to set itself apart.

Azubi’s Pool Of Bethesda – 240 points – Puzzle & Trivia – Download

Some nice character models but the game itself is incredibly dull.

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

Gitigiti – 80 points – Strategy & Simulation – Download

Strange game where you have to breed slimes. It seems incredibly complex and it is not particularly fun.

Bust a Wall – 80 points – Classics – Download

Competent Breakout clone, but there a better ones on XBLIGs.

Warfare Soundboard – 80 points – Other – Download

Various warfare sounds that you can play when you want. Why would anyone want this?

Electron Defense – 240 points – Strategy & Simulation – Download

Very polished tower defence game but there are quite a few on the service now.

Bailout! – 80 points – Classics – Download

Terrible game where you must dodge falling stockbrokers and avoid homeless people. It plays worse than the atari E.T. game.

Pulsar – 240 points – Music – Download

Music game which plays notes based on which squares you mark. I couldn’t create anything decent.

GREEN ISLAND – 80 points – Platformer – Download

Nice little Japanese puzzle platforming game. You use your gun to make platforms to collect all the balloons.

Enemy at the Gate – 80 points – Action & Adventure – Download

You control three vehicles which are color coded to match the face buttons on the controller. You must then position them using those buttons to destroy similar colored enemies. Not bad.

Filler – 240 points – Action & Adventure – Download

Hold A to make big balls whilst avoiding the red balls. Could be fun with a bit more work and polish.

Charlie Cat’s Hot Air Balloon – 80 points – Racing & Flying – Download

Horizontal shooter aimed at a younger audience. The shooting mechanics a enough to put them off the genre though with poor collision detection.

Words Search – 240 points – Educational – Download

Word Search game. Not particularly well presented and nowhere near as fun as Word Soup.

The Headsman – 80 points – Music – Download

Chop off heads and try to make them fall into the scrolling buckets below whilst a music video plays in the background. Not fun.

Crazy Coins – 80 points – Other – Download

Control two piggy banks, one with either analogue stick, to catch money coming out an ATM. Pretty poor.

Graviton AI – 240 points – Shooter – Download

It claims it is ‘the thinking-man’s shooter’ but all this equates to is some complicated bars on the HUD that distract you from just shooting things.

Hollow Ball – 80 points – Classics – Download

Pretty nice Pong clone but the lack of any one player option kills it.

2GoVids Rachel Star Stunt Show – 80 points – Other – Download

Some mini-games apparently involving some girl. I have no idea what they are like as you can’t play them in the trial and I’m disappointed the girl isn’t the Rachel Starr I’ve heard of.

Hypnotizing – 80 points – Other – Download
You can’t do anything in the trial but I assume this is just a rotating swirl.