Xbox Community Games: DESU! DESU! DESU! Edition

Sorry about the later post, NGathering kept me away from the article yesterday so you get it a day late. Well into week 2 of playing every Cgame released onto Xbox Live and I come into this new week with a surprising amount of optimism. There is ability in the Creator’s Club and I have faith that the buying public will reward original gameplay.

What’s that? Blueprint Racer 4D is the best selling of last week’s games? With Strikeforce-Psi a close second? Oh for fuck sake. It gets worse though, at the time of writing Blueprint Racer 4D has become the game that finally ends RC Air Sim’s reign as the best selling community game. That’s horrible, there are far more deserving games on this service.

Tank Strike
Strategy Shooter – 200 Points

Did you buy Death Tank off XBLA earlier this year? Yes? Good. Then you don’t need this. Same goes for anyone who’s got Worms. So that just about covers everyone. It’s another take on that same kind of artillery shooting game that was perfected by Worms and GunBound in the 90s and it’s just really not very good. An inability to change shot strength, the ability to only move about 3 feet in a single game and no indication of how strong the wind is makes it near impossible to play with any kind of skill.

Leave to Die

Go 3D
Boardgame – 200 Points

Like many weeaboos, I know how to play the legendary game of Go. The basics of it amount to surrounding your opponent’s pieces in order to capture territory yet it’s gained popularity not only because of it’s weeaboo following but also because of its near infinite number of strategies. Go 3D is a pretty bare bones Go game, local and Xbox Live against human opponents is offered as well as some rather good tutorials to teach you the game. The lack of a computer opponent is a little disappointing but given that Go AIs are notoriously hard to code I’m willing to forgive it. If you have friends who are into Go then you probably already have a set to play on, if you don’t already or want to play online then this comes recommended even if you don’t already know how to play.

Try It

Let’s Draw A Picture Together!
Drawing – 200 Points

This was something of a communal test as I tested it along with 5-6 other slightly drunk people at NGathering this weekend. It’s a drawing program not unlike paint with online functionality for communial drawing like hundreds of drawing programs and websites on the internet. I can’t really see any appeal to serious artists, though if you really want to spend 5 minutes drawing a penis wearing a top hat and monocle (like we did) then by all means go for it.

Try It

Carrum
Boardgame – 400 Points

Pool’s predecessor apparantly. Basically you slide a disc over a square board to knock white or black discs into holes in the corner before potting the final red disc (known as the queen). Where it differs from Pool is that you replace your ‘striker’ on the line in front of you after every shot. Unfortunately that’s pretty much the only difference and the fact is that this really isn’t fun to play. You’ll probably get maximum enjoyment out of it after about 2 frames, which makes it hard to justify a 400 point price tag.

Try It

If you buy one game, make it Go 3D. As someone who enjoys a game of Go I’ve found it rather enjoyable. This week’s Hall of Shame place goes to Tank Strike though, XNA developers really need to stop trying to do better than games that are on XBLA. No-one is ever going to do a Worms game better than Team 17.

If you think you can do better then don’t just sit there flapping your mouth. Prove it. You’ll find all the resources and tutorials you need on XNA Creator’s Club.