Platypus Review

A-

It's time to alert you to another sparkly gem on XBLIG. Amongst the many options and holiday AAA game release blitz, it's often easy to miss a smaller outstanding title. Platypus is a 'port' that you may have seen elsewhere - but it's release on XBLIG was my first experience, so there's a good chance that it will be for many of you too.

Without a doubt, the first thing that will strike you is the visuals. With gorgeous and stylish graphics made of clay (that's the best way I can word it), this side-scrolling ship shooter immediately has a unique, polished, and dare I say 'tasty' look and feel (I want to eat it). The ships feel robust and dynamic and the landscapes are rich. But as we all know, that's never enough alone.

Thankfully, Platypus follows though bigtime on gameplay. The controls are crisp and intuitive, the guns are satisfying, and the many enemy types offer fresh challenges. There are all sorts of great little touches, but one of the best is the way enemy ships fall apart as you damage them. The smaller basic explosions are cool, but the larger ships bust apart and get beaten up as you pound on them - panels of armor fall off, burn and dimple marks appear, and pilots eject prior to the final booming explosion. It's lovely.

Another standout feature for me is the powerups and goodies. A shooter rests its loins on the powerup system and Platypus sits confidently on a nice variety of boosts. There are five main gun powerups, each with different advantages. Adding to the strategy is the ability to shoot the powerups to change their color/ability - so if you're skillful, you can snag the gun that's best for your situation or playstyle. My personal favorite are the hard hitting red missiles that just feel beefy as they swarm around the screen.

But the items don't end there. You can also blow up certain structures to find little crates that's can provide even more firepower, points, extra lives, etc. But again, you have to skillfully shoot the crate, not the balloon carrying them, or else the powerup will plummet to the ground. And lastly, most of the bigger enemies and structures will explode with fruit (yes fruit, I told you it was tasty) that are worth points towards extra lives. You can juggle and split the fruit with you gun to help grab it before it hits the ground - nice touches right?

There's more but I am running out of blog real estate so I have to resort to a list. Huge bosses, co-op play, three difficulty levels, and cool music round out a feature list that is hard to knock.

One main complaint - sometimes the depth of play was really tough to perceive. As with most shooters, there tends to be tons of mayhem on screen, and sometimes I would confuse background set pieces, with foreground (deadly) enemies and structures. Some levels are bigger culprits than others, but on more than one occasion, I died in the key of 'what the F sharp" when a building I thought was in the background was actually in the foreground. The same goes for one particular level with a floating minefield - which mines am I dodging?!

But all and all, that is forgivable crunch in an otherwise deliciously moist and chewy cookie of a game. Some people may be turning up their noses at the 400MP price tag, but don't be a cheapass - that's a good price.

Fishing Girl Review

A-

How very interesting. For those of you who are familiar with Lost Garden, you may already know the origins of this game. I remember back when that game-making challenge kicked off. This XBLIG release is not the first or only version of "Fishing Girl," but it is the first one I've played - and it's a nice filet of casual gaming.

With graphics courtesy of the Lost Garden guru Daniel Cook, there's no denying the high level of visual appeal. The smooth simple lines, and colorful fish against the neutral background create a beautiful little world that's pleasing to the eye. The clean interface and easy to grasp concept follow suit - creating a casual experience that will appeal to a wide range of gamers.

So what are we talking about here in terms of gameplay? Well, it's time to go fishing - that's right. You're little bear-like creature has access to rods, some lures, and a lake stock full of small, medium, and large fish (along with some superhuge sharks). In general, it's as simple as casting your line and reeling in some fish - you only will use one button (well two, but barely), and you won't be sweating over it. In fact, this game has the opposite effect - it's actually really relaxing and I believe that to be the intent.

There are some intuitive gameplay elements that add to the feeling of progression and reward. Certain lures are better than others, and only work on the appropriate fish. Larger fish will strip you of smaller lures, and weaker fishing rods won't allow you to cast very far or deep into the lake. You eventually need to catch enough fish so that you can earn money to buy upgrades and progress towards the endgame (which I will leave unsaid).

There are varying rarities of fish too, so as you become better at casting, you can attempt to catch the rarest fish and earn more money. This concept taps in to the addictive "collector" mentality, and it's hard to temper the desire grab those fish that are most elusive and hard to come by.

One nice bonus that I appreciate is that there is a little story involved that will help motivate you to keep fishing and progressing - nothing monumental by any means, but effective. Another nice little touch is a built in achievement system that rewards you for hitting certain milestones and achieving perfect casts, etc. They are well-conceived to make you keep playing towards separate goals and had these been real achievements, they'd actually carry some serious weight.

The main issue some players will have with Fishing Girl is that the challenge level is really low, and the overall experience is quite short. Because other Flash versions of the game exist (although most are quite different than this version), I can't imagine this being priced at anything other than 80MP. But at that price, it's a perfect fit and a very worthwhile impulse buy. While nearly polar opposite to I MAED A GAM3 W1TH ZOMBIES 1N IT!!!1 (grrr), it's another great example of simple but well-designed game that will appeal to many at that price. It's a nice trend we're seeing. If you're open to a more casual experience and enjoy a little fishing, I recommend this one.

(you can also see a trailer on Eric W's blog here)

I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 Review

A-

Good luck getting the song out of your head. I am warning you up front so that you hear me loud and clear. Also, I refuse to type the game's name again so from now on it will be referred to as "gam3."

For the first time in my reviews I am introducing bullet points, look out:

• This game [type] has been done many times in and many forms, but this one works better than most.
• It's tongue-in-cheek delivery gets our guard down and it's self-mockery is easy related to.
• There are little nuggets of originality that are instantly recognized as "kickass."

Allow me to extrapolate, dear reader.

Top-down shooters, dual stick shooters, and zombie shooters in general are plague-like themselves, spreading everywhere all of the time. But gam3 is sexy because it keeps all of the fun parts and gets rid of the crap. You cannot deny that blowing away hordes of zombies is really entertaining, and when you add in smooth gameplay, lots of guns, attractive effects/graphics, and a dose of the bizarre, you've got a winner. But that's not exactly hard to find either honestly, sooo....

What draws us to the game and allows us to shrug off it's common theme/style is that we're immediately told that the game is not taking itself seriously. The title, the box art, the titlescreen - they are sending a message. Gam3 is essentially mocking itself, and we as gamers, GET THAT. Thank you, gam3 developer, for your slice of humble pie.

Because of the tone that is set from the onset, we tend to forgive the lack of cohesiveness and actually chalk it up to awesomeness. So all of sudden you're not just fighting zombies, but horribly unrelated smilyface worms, poorly designed asteroid diamond thingies, and weird 8-bit faces...okay, funny!! I likey because it's weird!! Really strange and sort of bland backgrounds, that include disco lighting, a checkerboard, and even the developer's logo? Ok, more awesome points! No story, no real ending, and about 15 minutes from start to finish? Whatever, it's crazytime!

Gam3's theme song (title track) is pretty hilarious and I found it really cool how enemies spawn to the beat of the music. And how can we not love the retro arcade style lettering contrasted with modern day Internet language? Thumbs up, tally up some more kickass.

So yes, this game indeed rocks. It's short, it's fun, it's one dollar (80MP). It's a fine example of what can be accomplished in the 80MP price range and make perfect sense to buyers. I played it for an hour and will play it again to see if I can get through without dying.

The only other point that I am trying to make is that this game might have sucked had it not taken the right tone with it's potential consumers. It sets expectations low by making fun of itself, and then over-delivers with solid gameplay and quirky touches. Very smart. Go try it.

Light's End Review

A-


Old Skool RPG lovers rejoice, and join me for a celebratory drink! I've been keeping an eye on this one since it's low-key announcement, and I took a couple days to reflect, just to make sure I wasn't overreacting. I wasn't. This is a really cool (and yet modest) game.

Yes, I love RPGs and therefore you can accuse me of a bias, but I would argue that regardless of your like/dislike of RPGs, that Light's End does so many things right that you can still acknowledge it as a great game. Whether or not you enjoy playing it is another story.

First up on the awesome list, innovation. Any game that brings a fresh mechanic to the table and does it well gets points. Light's End approaches the RPG from a new angle and asks the question, "What if you don't just play as one one character, but as all characters?" And I am not referring to a party of characters - I mean you can literally play as anyone that you meet in the game. You just hit 'Y' and a small flame indicates the transfer of control.

Now then, this is cool on a couple levels. First, as a puzzle-solving mechanic it creates some creative scenarios. In order to advance the game, you need to encourage interactions between the right characters - paying attention to dialogue clues can help point you in the right direction, and there are some very clever solutions. (no spoilers here folks) There's also a great amount of well-written dialogue that of course changes depending who you're controlling.

Second, the character-switching mechanic is geniusly tied to the plot. I can't go into detail, but there is a reason why the game is played in this manner and it all comes together in the end. And for a game with no combat (neither turn-based, nor live) and no 'big boss battles' the ending was quite a treat.

You may look at the screenshots, and think that it's nothing special graphically. And it's true, you'll need to appreciate the charm of simple 2D graphics, but it's actually far more appealing once you see it in action - they grew on me. Also, the design is so tight that it becomes easier to love, and some wonderful music tracks raise the bar up again.

All of this said, plenty of people will likely feel starved or grow bored of a game that is primarily based on dialogue and one stand-out character-switching mechanic. There is lots of reading to do, and some puzzle solving that may get tedious for some. You won't fight monsters, gather loot, or explore huge maps. But you will experience a wonderful short story with dynamic characters and some thought-provoking social commentary.

At 200MP, this is a no brainer in my book. It's a tight, unique experience. The auto save feature lets you replay the demo until you make it through the first chapter (nice touch) - so there's no risk in trying it out and seeing if it strikes a chord.

Trino Review

A-

When I sat down to play this one I sort of thought to myself, "Oh man another game with basic geometry as the premise, bleh." Based on the score you can tell that I underestimated how fun triangles can be. All those other shapes can go to hell. Yeah I said it.

But Trino is more than just a shape-based game with an average mechanic. Is has tight intuitive gameplay, slick (but modest) graphics, and most of all, character. That's what made this game stand out for me - it doesn't stop at "create triangles to trap baddies." Trino goes a step further to create a game with a little blobular hero, and the fits together the pieces (SFX, music, animation, AI, effects) to drive a comprehensive theme home. It feels complete, like an equilateral triangle.

Trino is a very peaceful game. That's not to say it can't make you sweat a little, but I really appreciated the calm atmosphere created by 'swimming' around and trapping encroachers. The soothing SFX and music really make this the type of game you can fire up when you just need a break from it all.


The mechanic that the game stands on should be clear by now. You create triangles that when closed off, trap and kill anything inside. It's essentially your weapon. It's a strong mechanic, and certainly one to base a game around, but that's going to be hit or miss for some players. The developers did a good job of realizing that even a cool mechanic like this can get old after 15 min or so, so they smartly added powerups that can alter the amount of triangles you can make and number of sides you can create on screen at one time. This is well balanced with the increasingly bothersome baddies who learn how to hone in on you and destroy your triangles at the axis. Also, the means to advancing levels is pretty innovative, as you're required to powerup the axis of the level then connect them all to "close out" the whole board. Pretty slick and adds some challenge as you navigate around the perimeter.

I don't really have any major criticisms beyond, "what you see is what you get." Even with level shape variance, powerups and soforth, you pretty much do the same thing throughout the game - so you better like the foundation this game is built on. I wouldn't have minded a little narrative describing the setting, but many players would disagree there saying it's mostly ignored anyhow in a game like this.

I do recommend this game for anyhow who read the description and is intrigued. If you're like me and think it's just another gimmicky shape game (at first glance), I'm here to tell you that it delivers beyond that. Enjoy - it's fairly priced at 400 MP.

Clover Review

A-

Hear that? That's the sound of fresh air blowing into the Community Games section of your Xbox Live. Take a deep breath of it.

I could write 3 pages about Clover, but at some point my ramblings must become boring, and you should really just go play it for yourself. Now before I over-hype, I will say that this type of game is obviously not for everyone (how many really are?), but it fills an empty niche on the XBCG platform and will be a huge hit in the minds of many.

Clover is self-described as a platforming-puzzler-adventure game. And yes that's about right, but you won't be bopping on the heads of enemies. You will likely be overwhelmed with nostalgia in certain moments - although I am not sure exactly for what (only the town sections of Zelda 2 come immediately to mind for me). The primary mechanics and gameplay involve item collection and puzzle-solving via narrative. You don't carry a weapon, you cannot fight or shoot lasers out of your eyes - you just have an adventure to go on, so hop to it.

There are so many things that Clover does right, that I basically just have to list them, or else proceed with the aforementioned 3 page review. So then: Beautiful watercolor-based graphics, amusing SFX, great story (with a political tie-in should you look for it), fun characters, easy to pick-up gameplay, excellent puzzle/clue design, and a great "mood." For me, my favorite aspect is that I was able to jump in to a totally unique (yet modest) world, become entirely immersed, and achieve a strong sense of reward every time I figured out a solution.

So what then, could I possibly have beef with? Oh don't you worry. ;) I have a small list of gripes that are of course subjective and may not be issues with some. I honestly found the music to be spot-on and very moody initially, but after 15 minutes or so it was actually grating on my brain. It's purely piano, and very repetitive sort of jarring piano without much of a melody. Second, some may find fault in the short length of the game combined with low replayablity - though you should try to be in the "quality-over-quantity" mindset. Last, as is often the case with adventure-puzzlers, you may find yourself doing much mindless backtracking and running around while you try to manage your inventory and solve the puzzles. It comes with the territory I suppose (and the developer did actually build in one 'quick-travel' solution) but I found myself *sighing several times upon realizing I needed to travel ALL the way back across the gameworld to get what I needed.

As a final word, and without giving away too much, players will experience a rather unique ending and one that I did not expect to find. In my mind, it creates the urge for a sequel so we'll see what the developer (Binary Tweed) says about that. I definitely recommend this game to just about anyone, unless you have an aversion to puzzle-adventure-platformers (I like to mix the order up - keeps things fresh) At 400 MP it's not so much a value pick as it is an indulgence. It's like that small tub of Ben and Jerry's you keep in the freezer.