Xbox Live Indie Games: In Wireless Hell

On a night with a full moon, I must offer it salt and vinegar Kettle Chips and bathe it in the blood drawn from a papercut. Then, and only then, will my Xbox 360 wireless adapter light turn green and allow me onto Xbox Live. This has become an issue and not just because I want to play games online. You see to play an Indie Game you need to be signed in to Xbox Live. Not just a trial or to download games, even Indie Games you’ve bought and paid for. This is something I feel has to be changed, I can play XBLA games and disc games offline but not Indie Games. I have to admit this hasn’t annoyed me until now, but I’ve become slightly addicted to last week’s Game of the Week SFG Soccer. I think it’s the first Indie Game I’ve added points just to buy and the stat building in the Career mode is becoming slightly addictive. I introduced it to my brother, who’s a FIFA nut but was raised on Sensible Soccer, and he loved it for its pure simplicity. So I’m extremely happy that this kind of sports game can work on XBLIG, now about College Lacrosse 2010….

We have eleven games to deal with this week including one game that I played in the Indie Arcade at Eurogamer last weekend. For more info on the other games I played there check out the post I wrote about it here.

Squid Yes! Not So Octopus!
Loafjaw – 80 Points

This game was in the Indie Arcade at Eurogamer Expo and I quite enjoyed it. It’s a very visually busy arena shooter (not dual stick) where the aim is purely to survive for eight minutes. Collecting gems and killing enemies will increase the score further past the eight so that the time bonus gives you up to a maximum score of nine. Awards (basically achievements) are in the game alongside options to play the game with autofire on for disabled people and even options to tone down the visual effects if you’re not into the whole Jeff Minter style eyefuck. I’m quite comfortable putting this alongside I MAED A GAME WITH ZOMBIES as one of my favourite XNA shooters. It knows what it does well and sticks to it, for once an 80 point game that doesn’t feel cheap.

Scare Me
WolRon – 80 Points

Just in time for Halloween last week is a miserable collection of minigames that can be tampered with to trigger unexpected scary things after a set time or by doing something. It’s basically a prank program that costs money and there are plenty of flash games around that’ll do the exact same thing for nothing. Pointless.

Lodestar 1000
BadRadish – 80 Points

Aww, a cute little robot mascot in a videogame? I can’t wait to see what imaginative little game this little guy’s creator has dreamt up for him. Oh wait, it’s another fucking Simon clone. Well that’s not fair, a Simon clone that also uses the analog sticks and the 360′s notoriously imprecise d-pad. So it’s Simon without the addictive simplicity.

Space Milkman
Smileboom – 240 Points

First things first, this is a very good looking game. It has tons of that ‘charm’ thing I keep banging on about whenever an XNA platformer comes around. Basically it’s a 2D platformer, you move left and right, jump and slide around enemies and obstacles to reach the level exit. What Space Milkman has as a unique selling point is coloured berries that give you new abilities. Using these in the right places is essential for finding all the hidden cakes around the levels and getting past the traps and enemies. These berries and their abilities are perfectly explained in the early levels as they’re introduced one by one. I’d probably call this the best platformer on Indie Games right now.

Antigrav Racing Championship
R3dDr4g0n – 400 Points

If I had to describe this game in one word it would be ambitious. R3dDr4g0n not only has a stupid name but also a bit of pedigree with XNA games, his first game Petank Party went all the way to the finals of Dream Build Play 2007 while he no doubt made loads of money from his rather less critically successful A Perfect Massage. So now he brings us a full 3D racing game in the Wipeout/F-Zero mould. It’s clear that a lot of work has gone into this from ship designs to tracks (of which there are 20) but for all it’s graphical prowess the game is let down by one major flaw. The lighter ships turn way too quickly and often buried me into a barrier, while the heavier ships barely turn at all resulting in an irrational fear of speed boosts. Once I had a handle on the game’s extremely loose handling, I found myself having quite a bit of fun. It takes a bit of effort to get into but if you’re willing to put in the effort then I think you’ll have the same fun I did.

Mirror
David Flook – 80 Points

The idea behind Mirror is that you have to guess the position of green dots once they’ve been reflected in a mirror. It doesn’t sound fun on paper and it isn’t fun in practice, even when multiple mirrors are introduced to try and make the game harder. The fractal artwork unlocked by clearing levels is nice, but not nice enough to want to endure the tedium of the game itself.

Snaker Ace
Lemonball Games – 400 Points

Oh hoo-bloody-ray it’s a Snake game. Somehow I have managed to do this column for seven months and not had to deal with one. Yet here we are at the arse end of 2009 having to play Snake, a game that was revolutionary in its day. Unfortunately its day was about six years ago and I’ve long since gotten tired of it. What makes me amazed then is that this game, with full 360 degree control and some rather nicely designed mazes and enemies manages to be a completely broken version of Snake. Once you reach the first real maze you’ll find the controls are so twitchy that the slightest correction to get that egg just over there will run you into either your tail or a wall. So well done Lemonball, you’ve managed to ruin Snake even more than everyone else who’s ripped it off.

Tank-tastic!
Ouch Games – 240 Points

A tank game isn’t interesting to me, a tank game played out through drawings on graph paper however is. It’s fairly basic stuff, the drawings are nice and have the hand drawn look I’d expect considering it’s all taking place on graph paper and campaign missions run a nice variety from kill everyone to capture the flag and capture point. There’s multiplayer value here to be certain so if you have a friend then certainly consider it. For everyone else give it a try as well, you may find there’s enough in the campaign to make you hand over the points.

The Flashlight
Alex Blickenstaff – 80 Points

Oh fuck the fuck off right now. It’s a program which turns your screen white and probably took less than a minute to make. That said there is a strobe mode so if you’re an epileptic looking to cash in on your health insurance or sue Alex Blickenstaff for not including an epilepsy warning you may want to have a look. Just don’t tell anyone I gave you that idea okay.

Head Shot 2
Silver Dollar Games – 80 Points

The original Head Shot was a horribly boring affair with no real goal other than shoot things. Somehow it managed to become popular and sells a metric ton of shit to this day. The sequel looks better and actually has some clues as to who you’re supposed to shoot which improves it immeasurably over the first game already but ultimately it’s still boring as hell because the game doesn’t go anywhere. The backgrounds change and people become smaller but you’re always just looking for someone and shooting them. Interestingly there’s a little catalogue in this game of all the other games Silver Dollar have supposedly done and surprise surprise, it’s practically the entire North Squard catalogue. However there’s something a bit more sinister there. The catalogue shows the brilliant DBP’08 finalist Blow among the games yet Blow‘s page on the marketplace makes no mention of them. I’m currently very wary of Silver Dollar, and I think they deserve to be given a wide berth. Here’s to the first Leave to Die rating for a renamed North Squard.

Experiment 12
Buddrick – 80 Points

Simple no-frills run and jump platforming is something I enjoy a lot and that’s what this is. Avoid pits and cross platforms to reach the level exit by jumping and wall jumping. There’s not much to screw up, but wall jumping is made awkward by having to push the control stick towards the wall before you can jump off it. For long strings of jumps this becomes annoying when you don’t move the stick fast enough and drop down. Jumping is also rather stiff and unresponsive so what I’d say is ignore this and go buy Pixel Man if you want a no frills platform fix.

A reasonable week leads to no clear game of the week. My decision however goes to Space Milkman, a gloriously charming platformer that is cheap, but I would say offers a level of enjoyment on par with plenty of upcoming 2D platformers going for full retail price.

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