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.

Halfbrick Rocket Racing Review

B

What, another Halfbrick game?! You know it. I have to admit - I get a little extra excited when I hear about a new Halfbrick title now. You know that you can expect a polished game from a studio that has several nice titles under its belt already. There's a certain consistency among their games - even though they span several genres now, you can feel the similarities in the design.

In Rocket Racing, Halfbrick introduces another simple-to-understand, but tough-to-master game mechanic. The rockets on your racer (two of them) are controlled by the right and left triggers - so propelling your racer is all about carefully balancing those two rockets to move the direction that you want. Even cooler, using your rockets near a wall will quickly add speed as you push off - and the closer you are to the wall, the more speed you pick up. But don't get too close, because hitting the walls is jarring and will have the opposite effect. Riding along walls, and blasting off them can be extremely exciting when you start pulling it off. Speaking of which...

Let me get something out of the way. I had a really hard time with the controls - the dual trigger blasting was so brutally hard for me, that I had to step away to make sure my index fingers weren't actually breakfast sausages. I eventually started learning to move in the intended direction, but there was simply no way I was going perform well enough to progress. Thankfully, Halfbrick included alternate controls! "Stick" controls allowed me to use the left analog to steer and the trigger to blast - perfect. Now I was getting somewhere. I felt a little lame doing so, but it had to be done.

So now I jumped back into the single player mode, which is essentially a battle against yourself. And a clock I guess. The general idea is to beat each track in the best time possible, earning medals along the way. There are tracks based on getting from A to B, completing a number of laps, or hitting a number of checkpoints - but it's all a race against the tic toc of the clock. I soon learned that to get gold medals (or the elusive "brick" medal), I had to put up some seriously nice times. And if I didn't get golds, I probably wouldn't have enough medals to unlock the later tracks. This really tapped into my competitive nature. Stop me shall you?!

I can honestly say that this one of the most addicting racers I've ever played. Even without human or AI competition, I found myself hooked on trying to shave split-seconds off my times. Certain tracks are a bit unexciting, but others are a blast to whip around trying to ride a centimeter off the walls. Halfbrick must have known just how unforgiving each track can be, and smartly installed a self-destruct button that allows you to quickly blow up and restart a track quickly. You will use this feature many many times. You will curse. You may throw your controller. But you'll also be fist-pumping in your living room when you nail the track you've been attempting for an hour.

I am still working unlocking the later tracks because as mentioned it seems like you need golds on most of the tracks to keep progressing. I have one "brick" medal which was 90% luck but I still cherish it like a functional NES. I will be back to try again.

So the controls may frustrate at first, but I'd recommend sticking with it, or switching the control scheme like I did. There's actually much to appreciate in just how much fine tuning went in to the wall-blasting/sliding mechanic. The main reason I didn't score the game higher is because it really relies on mutliplayer for any real "racing" aspect. As a lover of games like Off Road and RC Pro Am, the lack of AI racers to challenge in a standard race setting leaves you wanting more. While racing the clock (and your sanity) is still a ton of fun, not being able to race others will leave lonely gamers with half of a game.

Give this one a go - see you on the leaderboards!!

Veks and Silence Review

B

Me want to kill more zombies!!! Part 2 of our "violent" series, and staying with the zombie theme, is Veks and Silence (cool website). Armed with a token and four high powered guns, I sat down for a couple consecutive nights of play. You aint gettin' my brains, bitches.

The first thing that struck me here is "wow, visuals." I am utterly impressed by the sheer amount of 2D art and 3D graphics stuffed in to this game. You can feel the man hours piling up faster than the bodies, and there's a massive amount of killing going on. There are cut scenes with animations/storyboards between every level, tons of 3D graphics, animations, and background art - it's worth noting that you're getting a ton of content and higher-end graphics for your measly 400MP (hence the three emblems).


Now that said, here are some other words that describe the visuals. Mayhem, brain explosion, bloodfest, radioactive flying sharks (yup). For those of you who like the wacky insane asylum stuff, prepared to be whopped upside the head with a shoe full of crazy-sauce. There is so much happening on screen at once that I have to admit that I was a bit distracted and overloaded. There's a lot of colors and contrast, screenshaking, explosions, lasers, dialogue appearing on screen, and camera shifting going on. Again it's impressive that so much was put into this, I am just not sure if everyone will be able to "hang."

In many instances, like when the camera shifts from normal sidescroller view to a 30 degree front-to-back angle, that I said to myself "wow that's pretty cool." From what I gather, this game was built on the Mad Game Engine, which probably has something to do with the presentation - but I couldn't find any info on it, it's looks to be custom. And other times, like when amid an explosion and a camera shift and when my player is screaming pointless babble, I said to myself "I am too old for this." (I am not that old) My point is, it's all quite cool, but arguably overboard.

This theme sort of continues in to the gameplay. It's packed full of awesome features and some interesting design decisions. You have four very different guns (assigned to D-pad) which all have their advantages and disadvantages, along with bombs which can be thrown a varied distance, and a double jump feature and a reverse-shoot feature. There's also a sight-lock for the sniper rifle, multi-directional shooting, crouching, melee attack, and a "rage" power up using right-trigger. It's packed full of rad.

You have many different types of enemies - from several zombies, to blob-heads, robots, laser cannons, the aforementioned radioactive sharks, and huge megaboss battles. Each level is themed differently, creating the need for lots of different set pieces. Again, kudos - all of this content = work and as players we gobble it up faster than a fat kid gobbles up cake. All the while the developer manages to work in a light rescue story, and carry a wacky sort of "Tarantino on crack" feel.


So what's the problem? Well for some there may not be one. Overall I found this to be an impressive run-and-gun blitz with 8+ hours of gameplay. But it's analogy time. Have you ever started making an omelet...and you pick out some ingredients...and then you keep adding more because they all sound good...and then suddenly the omelet breaks open, burns a little and you sort of wasted all of those ingredients because you can't really taste all of them anyway?

(excuse me I have gone to make an omelet)

Damn it! I can't taste the tomatoes because I added too much bacon!! Comprende?

There's simply so much going on, it can feel crowded, overwhelming and for some maybe even headache-inducing. The gameplay can actually get lost in all of the fuss. For example, I forgot that I could throw bombs until I realized I needed them to beat a certain boss (unfortunately I believe this boss also has a stalemate situation). I couldn't decide if I was better off trying to use the slow-but-target-locking sniper rifle or spread shotgun on the turrets which could hit me from off screen (holy crap they are annoying). The visuals are impressive but so content-heavy that I actually walked right into death-holes because they blended in with the rest of the screen.

Nevertheless, this is a must buy for most run-and-gun sidescroller fans, especially if you're down with the wacky juice, zombies, and/or fat dudes who wear bags on their heads and scream stuff. And it also really will hit home with the hardcore crowd who likes mastering gameplay elements and facing difficult levels with finite lives. At the very least, you should download the demo just to see some of the visuals and polish on this one.

Angry Barry Review

B

I love it when developers let there imaginations loose. This loony, mature, political satire beat-em-up granted me a very enjoyable Sunday morning.

This is the second community games release from Arrogancy Games and I believe this one is the hotter ticket. The premise is a twisted take on all of the current notable political figures/events and despite the nickname/name changes, I don't think anyone will be confused as to who the characters are supposed to be (unless you live in a van down by the river).

This first element that struck me was the very crisp, cartoony art style. It allows for a good deal of exaggeration and makes for some satisfying over-the-top effects. There is also an opening sequence that I could have sworn was a shot of a female's butt walking, but the pan out revealed it to be our protagonist's (Barry's) rear end. I am not sure what that says about me, or potentially the developer's sick imagination. Moving along...

The reason for the 3 emblem score is that there is a great degree of polish beyond the impressive graphics. Also included are special moves, a variety of attacks/combos, varied enemy AI, several unique bosses, storyboard style interludes, a 'hard' mode - and most notably, the ability to play 2 player co-op (awesome). This is the kind of effort that deserves a round of applause.

Small spoiler here, but I really want to mention it. You can pick up a cow and smash enemies with it. Yep, that's right.

So time to get beefy. There are two related issues I had with Angry Barry. First, the endless droves of enemies can be mind-numbing. Sometimes there are so many packed on the screen that I actually was having trouble finding Barry. It's not unusual to go 5 minutes just fighting the same one or two enemies over and over in repetitive fashion. I believe this could have been balanced better by making each enemy tougher to take down (seems that they all take 1 or 2 hits max, besides bosses). On a related front, this repetition may have been an effort to extend the game time, which is understandable because I was able to play through on normal difficulty in about an hour, without dying.

So this, for me, is another example of quality over quantity. It can still sting when you realize that that you've nearly exhausted the playability in a single sitting, but it was a memorable experience. Angry Barry is appropriately priced at 400MP and the developer does make mention in the game that he struggled with that choice - which is something I actually found refreshingly honest, not arrogant.

Any old sckool beat-em-up fans should definitely have a look for a unique and current take on an old genre. Head over to the Arrogancy Games website, or the Xbox Live Community Games Catalog for more info.

Halfbrick Echoes Review

B+

I have to be upfront here and tell you all that I did not purchase the full game on this review. So take that for what you will. Halfbrick decided to limit the demo to only one play-through (aka you can't reply the demo levels more than once - eek) so my playtime is quite limited. I honestly don't like this move and find it a bit aggressive. I understand the need to limit the content, but limiting that content to one play-through... stings. I'll be curious if that has a positive or negative effect on sales. They almost got an "ah f*ck it" sale out of me, but I decided to hold strong. I often like to try a demo a couple times before making a decision.

On a positive note, what I did play was quite cool. This is another well-polished release from Halfbrick and while I was not a large "Halfbrick Blastoff" fan, I was in fact the minority there. It's really fantastic to see Halfbrick's devotion to high quality development on the XBCGs and they are doing a good job of developing a noteworthy brand.

What Halfbrick does best, is something they nailed again here with Echos. It has a very simple, very addicting, pretty innovative mechanic. You basically control a character from the a top-down view and race around collecting crystals while avoiding the baddies that spawn. The catch is that the baddies trace the exact path that you just ran to get the crystal, so you have to plan accordingly. Add in a really interesting array of maps, smooth controls, several game-types (including multiplayer), and lots of power-ups, and you get a really addicting face-paced "free roaming Pac Man." (that was off the cuff, sorry)

One thing I like too is that Halfbrick does put some effort in to creating a theme. This time there is a light story about a woman who "falls" in to her Salvador Dali studies, which then sets the foundation for the various map settings. It's not deep or taken too seriously, but it's there and it helps. I'd actually like to see Halfbrick make an effort to go one step further on this front, because the ideas/themes are fun, but they usually leave a robust story and narrative out.

And I give 1 bonus point for letting the player mess around with the credits. :)

If you like fast, addictive, and straightforward gameplay, then I think I can safely recommend this to you at 200 MP. Halfbrick is establishing itself as a reputable developer that knows how to get things right and deliver fun high quality games. I send my plea to let us play your demo more than once!! (had to twist the knife one more time)

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.

Orbyx Review

B

"ORBYX!" (in a robot voice). That's what you hear when you launch this new pachinko-style game on XBCG. I guess the idea here is that we're blowing up orbs with bouncing flaming cannonballs - sounds good to me.

Some of you might be familiar with this type of gameplay because this pachinko mechanic has become quite popular recently. You essentially aim your shots at at the board, trying to blast specific orbs away, and build up mega scores and combos with all of the ricochets. It's quite addicitive, I must admit. It's as if every shot has a dose of strategy paired with the rush of a gamble. It's easy to play and enjoy a couple rounds, or a couple of hours of rounds. It's sort of like getting to play Plinko over and over and much as you want. (no cash prize though, booooo) Oh and that's a Price is Right reference.

Orbyx adapts this simple mechanic well, and you're going to enjoy a crisp game with solid production value. There's plenty of levels/boards to play, and it's very easy to learn the basics. You can preview your shot in order to get a feel for the first couple bounces that will occur - which is pretty key when you get down to your last couple shots.

For me personally, the randomness of the third/fourth/fifth unpredictable bounce lends itself to a bit too much luck. After you plan your initial shot, there's quite a bit of sitting and watching your ball (sorry, I mean flaming cannonball) take it's course. Sometimes you catch a break and start landing unforeseen combos, sometimes you get screwed and the balls just bounces once/twice and then manages to hit nothing else. Not that 'chance' is a bad element in a game, but there's quite a bit here.

Orbyx adds a wealth of frills that add to the experience. There is an element of 'magic spells' that you can unleash if you collect the 5 letters to spell m-a-g-i-c. There's zoom-in and slow-mo action as you come close to beating a level, and there is a great array of SFX that really add to the fun addicitive nature of bouncing around the boards. All-the-while, the graphics and backgrounds are rich, colorful, and deep.

In that same vein however, you might find that the mixmash of prominent themes sort of clash a bit. From the opening, which sounds robotic, to the techno breakbeats, concept of flaming cannonballs (medieval?) and then elven princesses, magic spells, and fantasy style music tracks....I was a bit lost. In someways it does keep things interesting and adds variety, but I would have personally preferred if the developer picked one and really drove it home. With the four female fantasy characters and magic themes, I think that would have worked just fine to carry that through. Maybe even go one step further down the RPG/fantasy road and add a leveling/experience system and maybe a shop to buy powerups and items from, etc. There's room for innovation. (granted you might only attract a certain audience that way)

So Orbyx is a fresh take on a popular style of game and it's great to have this option on XBCG, especially at this level of polish. A 400 MP, I believe it's fairly priced considering it could keep you going for 30+ hours of gameplay. So it really just comes down to whether or not you like the basic game mechanic of pachinko. If you do, you should snatch this up faster than you can say "Elven robot techno cannonballs." ;)

Colosseum Review

A


Wow. Stop reading my review and go get this. At 400 MP it's the best deal I have come across. But I am getting ahead of myself here. And I was just kidding! Please keep reading.

I had been following this game for awhile as it was undeniable from early versions and screenshots that production value was high and that a strong team was behind it. I've finally had a chance to download and play the full version (which was priced at 800 MP originally, FYI).

The only reason you shouldn't be buying Colosseum is if fighting games just aren't your cup of blood. It's a high-action fighter with an abundance of moves/combos/weapons etc - it's actually more diverse/deep than some AAA fighters you may have played. The cell shaded graphics are gorgeous and I believe special recognition should go to the animator who did a fantastic job of creating tons of fluid animations that basically feels like a comic book come-to-life.

The story is what you might expect (a bit shallow), but this is cleverly mocked by the characters in the game - and the dialogue is actually quite hilarious, delivering jabs at cliches of the fighting game genre. Furthermore, there is a whole Macy's full of unlockable gear that you can buy to upgrade the look of your character. (sorry no lingerie section)

I am just about out of breath, but let me touch upon a couple small critiques.

The deadly "camera plague" can rear it's ugly head sometimes. You can use a button (RB) to adjust it, but sometimes you can't afford to do that when totally surrounded and dying. This is understandably a tough element to perfect and overall it's not something that greatly impacts the experience, but I had a couple "aaarrrrg" moments. Also, while the control scheme is somewhat innovative, that comes with a bit of a learning curve. Using the right analog to attack/combo takes some getting used to - thankfully there is a robust tutorial that you can practice in if need be. There are also three difficulty levels, so cut your teeth on 'easy.'

This is probably the deepest experience that I have had on XBCG so far. While simplicity (graphics and gameplay-wise) is often the foundation of an addictive indie game (which granted, works fine often), Colosseum succeeds in breaking that mold and offering something you could very well expect to find on the shelf of your local game store. Replay value is high (lots of unlockables, and versus modes) and you can easily get 20-30 hours out of it.

For anyone out there that knows how games are developed, the sheer amount of man hours involved, and the skill required to create something as polished as this - jeez, I sort of feel guilty paying less than my daily lunch in NYC. :) Well not THAT guilty, but you get my point. If you haven't tried Colosseum, and aren't adverse to fighting games, you should be playing it.

By the way, I need some tips because I am getting ass whooped. :) Where can I find some strategy guides?!

Ultratron Review

A

A tight retro/arcade style game - seriously loads of fun and just the right amount of challenge. I had played this one on my PC before playing it on my console, and it translates very nicely.

It actually pains me (in the groin area) that Ultratron is not a consistent "most popular" game on XBCG. I fear that this game gets overlooked or wrongly lumped in the 'pass' category due to it's retro look - possibly a victim of the 'clutter,' sort of speak.

You're probably wondering why I gave Ultratron 3 emblems. First, I just ate a whole can of crazy beans, and second, this game has loads of polish and professionalism despite the old skool look. It's in the bones.

The concept is straightforward enough. You're a robot with some sort of laser gun and it's time to kill craploads of bad robots. The first couple levels won't seem like much but when you get rolling you start to see why this game is so addictive and well-made. There's a ton of different enemies that attack with different strategies, lots of powerups with cool effects, and upgrades to your gun (like bouncing bullets, tripleshot, sentry bot, etc.). Part of the strategy is making sure you use the right powerups and choose the right upgrades at the right times. Adding to the chaos are boss levels and ambush levels where all of the baddies spawn at once. (arg! I died here about 5 times until I figured out a better way to fight 'em off)

The Xbox controls are made nicely intuitive - using only the two joysticks, one to aim/fire, and the other to move (your choice on which is which). The SFX are spot on, there are achievements built in, a co-op mode, and high scores to shoot for. For me, the only real shortfall is the music, which in my opinion could have been used to bring a bit more intensity to the action.

Very solid game. If you have any love for the arcade games that captured us back in the day, you need to get this one. (400 MP)

Supercow Review

B

We've all dreamed of Supercows before...wait. One time I dreamt about a cow...no. Utters. Alright, Supercow is an easy review. You know why? Because it's easily summed up as a simple colorful charming platformer with an cute cow heroine as the lead. And when you fork over the 400 MP, you actually get your money's worth.

Supercow has been around for computer gamers for some time. And it's honestly a blessing to have it as an option on XBCG. It's presence alone helps up the real estate, you might say. A very high production value warrants three emblems, with some gorgeous graphics well-complimented by the art style and cool storyboard style transitions. It's nice to look at.

The gameplay keeps it simple (often a wise move) with a simple run-and-jump style that anyone can pick up and play. And in fact my wife, I mean hot date, actually did pick it up and play, which is no joke, remarkable in my experience.

I only have two critiques, and honestly many people will have the opposite opinion (screw you?). The bright colors and busy screens are borderline 'too much.' It's a blitz on my senses - to the point where after playing for an hour you might fart a pinkish puff of smoke. Just a warning. Second, the gameplay is really really straightforward. This is great for the likely target audience (younger) and for those who need a break from getting chainsawed in half. But what I am saying is, some people may find it too simple of a platformer.

Bottom line though - fun game, great value (400 MP), high degree of polish/presentation, and one of the best we've seen come to XBCG in 2009. Get it - especially if you have kids, act like a kid, are a kid, or eat kids.