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[Jonnyram]

Bollocks! I got the perfect setup for sharp shooter on Zuma but I screwed it up.
I took out a pair of blues manually before giving the chain chance to destroy them naturally. The coin popped in the perfect place too

Anyone know whey they have the text "NEW" next to games like Gauntlet, Smash TV, and other games that have been on Live Arcade for a long time now?

It looks like all the games that just got patched have "NEW" next to them. I hope they fix Outpost Kaloki soon then...

 

[Jesiatha]

Another new game is up - Feeding Frenzy.

 

[jedimike]

It warms my heart when I see this thread get bumped. I'll try the FF demo before I decide.

 

[LakeEarth]

A new game is a new game. Any reports on the game? Price?

 

[Smilebit]

It's 800 points....with soothing music.

 

[jetpacks was yes]

I have a question for you XBLA users:

Are you mainly interested in classic arcade-style games where the main point is to rack up points and such, or would you consider other types of games as well? Achievements and scoreboards seem to be one of the most enticing aspects of XBLA, so much so that it seems as though most XBLA users wouldn't care for say, RPGs, platformers, adventure games, etc., unless they could compete for high score.

 

[Jesiatha]

A new game is a new game. Any reports on the game? Price?

There is a video of gameplay at majornelson.com. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask (I've only had a little time to spend with this game), and of course, try the free demo .

 

[BobJustBob]

Aww, I was hoping for Astropop.

OB1 - I don't care about the achievements or the leaderboards. I just like having smaller simpler games without all the overwrought storylines and cutscenes and boss fights and jumping puzzles and escort missions and all that crap that pervades more complex games. So yes, I would gladly welcome any and all genres to the system, as long as they were fun.

 

[lethial]

A Microsoft employee recently e-mailed Kotaku the inside dirt on some upcoming XBox 360 releases. Among other things the mole said, “Right now a lot of work is being done of Street Fight 2 [sic] because the lag is very bad and they are having trouble getting it playable online.”

http://shoryuken.com/?p=50

 

[jetpacks was yes]

OB1 - I don't care about the achievements or the leaderboards. I just like having smaller simpler games without all the overwrought storylines and cutscenes and boss fights and jumping puzzles and escort missions and all that crap that pervades more complex games. So yes, I would gladly welcome any and all genres to the system, as long as they were fun.

Thanks for the input. So, games with simple gameplay are good, but more complex current-gen stuff is bad. Gotcha. Although, boss fights?

 

[BobJustBob]

It's not that complexity is bad, it's just that complexity leads to bad habits. Does anyone actually like escort missions? Of course not. But because games are expected to be a certain length and have a certain amount of variety, escort missions keep getting made. It's that sort of thing. Smaller games means there's less room for a bunch of extraneous crap.

And yes, boss fights. They are and always have been a blight upon the gaming world.

 

[LakeEarth]

Leaderboards is what keeps you playing, though. I didn't understand what was so great about Robotron all my life, literally ALL MY LIFE I never 'got it'. I'd just look at Smash TV and go yeah, yeah! But with online leaderboards, I finally GOT Robotron. More points! Do better than last time!

 

[jetpacks was yes]

It's not that complexity is bad, it's just that complexity leads to bad habits. Does anyone actually like escort missions? Of course not. But because games are expected to be a certain length and have a certain amount of variety, escort missions keep getting made. It's that sort of thing. Smaller games means there's less room for a bunch of extraneous crap.

And yes, boss fights. They are and always have been a blight upon the gaming world.

I can understand the escort thing(though I love ICO), but boss fights? I thought people liked boss fights.

 

[SuperPac]

Leaderboards is what keeps you playing, though. I didn't understand what was so great about Robotron all my life, literally ALL MY LIFE I never 'got it'. I'd just look at Smash TV and go yeah, yeah! But with online leaderboards, I finally GOT Robotron. More points! Do better than last time!

IAWTP. I never, ever understood the lure of Robotron. Ever. I always thought it was a terrible game despite all the retro love it'd get from people I know. But I bought it on XBLA and I love it. Same goes for puzzle games like Zuma, Bejeweled and Jewel Quest... I don't play any PC games, so these were all new discoveries for me.

Can't wait to boot up Feeding Frenzy tonight.

 

[jedimike]

OB1 - there's room for all types of games on XBLA. Outpost Kaloki X (a sim type game) has received great praise and I know the devs said sales were better than expected. But if you look back on games of the past, there was always a score associated with it. Super Mario Bros, Metroid, etc. But no one gave a shit about the score at the time. It became more about "beating" the game.

XBLA makes those scores count again and believe it or not, can make a seemingly ordinary game like Robotron very fun just by adding that competitive edge. Also, the achievements can make you play games in ways that you normally wouldn't.

I'm guessing that there will never be an XBLA game available that doesn't have a scoring system. Just like you'll never see anything like that in a real arcade either. That doesn't mean that developers can't find ways of adding scores to RPG's, Adventure games, etc.

 

[jetpacks was yes]

Metroid's "score" was completion time and %. But yeah, same basic thing.

I definitely see the draw of competing for high score on XBL, as I'm sure it's very addictive. But can XBLA be something more than, well, an online arcade? I dunno, maybe you can add some sort of extra mode to a game for leaderboard stuff.

 

[Kai Dracon]

YEAARGH! I did it! Finally in the millionare's club in Geometry Wars!

1,024,990 - my nerves failed around 995,000 and I died four times in a friggin' row, and had one live left with no bombs. Holy crap, talk about running sandpaper over raw nerve endings.

But, I did it!

... now to /survive/ to one million Xp~~~

 

[Matrix]

YEAARGH! I did it! Finally in the millionare's club in Geometry Wars!

1,024,990 - my nerves failed around 995,000 and I died four times in a friggin' row, and had one live left with no bombs. Holy crap, talk about running sandpaper over raw nerve endings.

But, I did it!

... now to /survive/ to one million Xp~~~

Congrats dude The survive a million is a bitch,I just got that last week,it felt even better than breaking million.

 

[LakeEarth]

Good job.

I bought Feeding Frenzy, very fun but unfortunetly it doesn't get very hard at all. And some of its achievements are kinda dumb. Play 10 hours? Makes sense for games like Zuma with near infinite replay value, but for a game this easy, there's no point. And eat 1000 sharks, are you kidding me? You can't eat sharks till the last few level, and even then you only end up eating 5-10 or so maximum per stage. You're telling me I have to play the same few levels over and over a hundred times for no point, just for some crappy achievement?

And when you play the game you 'store' food, and the achievement is to store 40000 points of food. Problem is that I have already beaten the game, beaten time trial mode, scored 300000 points in one game, etc, and yet I only have 5000 points of food. I've done nearly everything the game has to offer and yet I'm only 1/8 of the way to this achievement, give me a break. Even the "get Frenzy Fanatic rank"one is a thinly disguised "put 9000 points into the food bank" achievement.

 

[jedimike]

Yah... I also to the plunge on feeding frenzy. It's geared towards the 7-10 years of age crowd. Fairly simplistic gameplay but complex enough that the real young gamers (3-6)won't get it.

I also got Wik. Definitely a lot more value in Wik. One of the achievements is to beat a Ghost challenger (i.e. best time on level). I thought that one was going to be a b**** for me, but I did it twice last night. I still can't figure out how to spin... I'll have to ask Dopeyfish for some tips.

 

[BobJustBob]

You mean how to loop? Just go to the Loopnatics level and watch the little demo movie. Then practice a lot. It probably took me an hour of trying nothing else to really get the hang of it. But it's worth it.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

You mean how to loop? Just go to the Loopnatics level and watch the little demo movie. Then practice a lot. It probably took me an hour of trying nothing else to really get the hang of it. But it's worth it.

Yeah, it takes some training in Loopnastics (training! awesome.) but once you get the hang of it, getting like ten in a row is the raddest.

 

[Azrael]

Feeding Frenzy was so boring I didn't even bother to finish the demo. It's like charging $10 for a freeware Flash game. Wik is great, although it probably controls better with a mouse than with the controller.

 

[Speevy]

If anyone wants a game of MBU, PM me.

 

[LakeEarth]

Feeding Frenzy was so boring I didn't even bother to finish the demo. It's like charging $10 for a freeware Flash game. Wik is great, although it probably controls better with a mouse than with the controller.

Yeah I got buyers remorse on that one. I assumed it'd get harder, but it really doesn't.

 

[DopeyFish]

omg lakeearth... you suck

feed frenzy normal mode

you're a rank ahead of me

this is war

 

[Fowler]

After trying and failing for far too long, please welcome me to the GEOMETRY WARS MILLIONAIRE'S CLUB!

My high score was 880,000... then I said alright, just ONE MORE GAME, and I scored 1.69 million

 

[LakeEarth]

omg lakeearth... you suck

feed frenzy normal mode

you're a rank ahead of me

this is war

Go ahead and beat it, I'll never try to get a highscore in that game again. If you want more points, there's a way to kill those giant 'gobey' like fish that terrorise you in the beginning that I didn't know about when I got that score.

 

[DopeyFish]

oh and if you want to know your best chance of getting 1000 sharks... play the last level over and over and over



the shark king does not actually effect your bar so you can get like 20-30 sharks eaten before you accidently fill up your bar with wandering fish

i just wish clams could eat you when you fill your bar on the last stage :<

 

[IAmtheFMan]

whoo! 1,783,305 in Geo Wars. Up from 987,000. The only achievements I haven't made now are the 9 bombs and survive 1,000,000.

 

[Fowler]

whoo! 1,783,305 in Geo Wars. Up from 987,000. The only achievements I haven't made now are the 9 bombs and survive 1,000,000.

Damn you!

I just got 9 bombs -- it's not as hard as I thought. It's basically just make it to 600,000 without using any bombs.

 

[LakeEarth]

oh and if you want to know your best chance of getting 1000 sharks... play the last level over and over and over



the shark king does not actually effect your bar so you can get like 20-30 sharks eaten before you accidently fill up your bar with wandering fish

i just wish clams could eat you when you fill your bar on the last stage :<

Did you actually get that achievement? Cause checking Xbox.com's forums, they say the king shark does NOT count for the achievement. So if that's what you're doing, stop immediatly.

 

[jetjevons]

Damn you!

I just got 9 bombs -- it's not as hard as I thought. It's basically just make it to 600,000 without using any bombs.

Oh yeah that's easy. Not.

 

[Jonnyram]

Looks like Astropop is out today:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/a/astropoplivearcadexbox360/default.htm

XBLA rush incoming?
I don't really have much time for this at the moment, thanks to FFXII , but I'll be getting Astropop, I think.

 

[ZootedGranny]

AstroPop is up.

 

[Blimblim]

Astropop is pretty nice to play, but it's not very polished visually.

 

[Matrix]

Astropop is pretty damn fun,might have to buy it....arcade owns me.

 

[joaomgcd]

Why does it have to be in such a small frame though? That sucks...

 

[Fowler]

Oh yeah that's easy. Not.

It's not easy... but it's not as hard as it seems, really. It's not as hard as Survive 500,000 because you don't have to do it in one life.

 

[jarosh]

okay, i can neither play astropop nor feeding frenzy. i get an error message about pal-50 not being supported. cool - my 360 is hooked up to a sanyo plv-z4 projector. it's running in 720p. wtf.

can someone help me out here?

 

[joaomgcd]

okay, i can neither play astropop nor feeding frenzy. i get an error message about pal-60 not being supported. cool - my 360 is hooked up to a sanyo plv-z4 projector. it's running in 720p. wtf.

can someone help me out here?

You probably have to switch your cable to non-HD, switch 50 Hz mode off in the dashboard, and switch the cable back to HD. It's stupid, but it worked with the Outfit demo that had the same problem.

 

[thorns]

You mean pal-50 being not supported. The outfit demo had the same problem. You have to connect it with the HD switch off and change the video settings to Pal-60, and turn back on the hd switch and use 720p. It's an annoying bug.

 

[hadareud]

okay, i can neither play astropop nor feeding frenzy. i get an error message about pal-60 not being supported. cool - my 360 is hooked up to a sanyo plv-z4 projector. it's running in 720p. wtf.

can someone help me out here?

swich the cable from HD to normal. Then go into the display settings and select pal 60.

Switch back to HD - should work!

 

[jarosh]

yeah, that was a typo, sorry. i'll try that, thanks.

 

[Chittagong]

Played Street Fighter 2 yesterday on Xbox 360, what a fantastic game. It's exactly how I remembered it, and unlike some of the games of its age, it still feels very responsive and fun.

I'm willing to bet that this is the next big seller after Geometry Wars on Xbox Live Arcade - underlining the value of high quality, branded games also in the more casual space. Too much of the current content feels generic and uninspiring. Definately a step in the right direction.

It's also a good idea not to bring out a ton of older emulated games at once, ensuring that SF2 gets the attention and community around.

 

[jedimike]

Played Street Fighter 2 yesterday on Xbox 360, what a fantastic game. It's exactly how I remembered it, and unlike some of the games of its age, it still feels very responsive and fun.

I'm willing to bet that this is the next big seller after Geometry Wars on Xbox Live Arcade - underlining the value of high quality, branded games also in the more casual space. Too much of the current content feels generic and uninspiring. Definately a step in the right direction.

It's also a good idea not to bring out a ton of older emulated games at once, ensuring that SF2 gets the attention and community around.

That's good news... sounds like they got the netcode tightened up. And yes, I expect it to upset GeoWars as the #1 XBLA game. Actually, I think MBU is approaching GeoWars numbers.

 

[Wunderchu]

Geometry Wars interview: http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=0&cId=3148915

EGM: The game (included in Project Gotham Racing 2) proved to be one of the greatest Easter eggs of all time-about how many seconds did it take you to think, "Hey, we should make a stand-alone version?"

SC: It was amazing how popular it turned out to be; it was completely beyond our expectations for Geometry Wars 1. We were always talking about how, wouldn't it be cool to do a version for Live Arcade? Geometry Wars was something I put together in like 40 hours. Wouldn't it be cool to actually spend some time and make something that takes advantage of what the 360 can do in terms of power?

EGM: It is kind of like Robotron, though. There, we said it.


SC: When I did the first game, I hadn't played Robotron at all.

EGM: [Head explodes]

SC: When everybody was saying, "You've gotta play Robotron, you've gotta play Robotron," one of the things I didn't do was play Robotron. It's just too easy to go, "Hey, this game's great," and then you look at all the good things in the other game and you go, "Oh, well, I'll try and put them into this." But after I finished Geometry Wars 1, I did go and play it, and I am absolutely terrible at it. But it's a good game. Jeff Minter [an influential U.K. game designer-Ed.] did a remake called Llamatron; I think they're both good games, but I like that one more because it's just mad.

 

[Jonnyram]

Does anyone know if they'll port across the old Xbox Arcade games to 360 too? It seems like that's what's been happening recently, with Feeding Frenzy and Astro Pop. There's a few titles on this list that look like they'd be fun to play:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/livearcadexbox/default.htm

Let me guess... Pipeline is another PopCap games ripoff?

It would be awesome if Puzzle Pirates came out for the 360, now I think about it.

 

[DopeyFish]

is pipeline like he game pipedream? because that game was awesome

edit: and i just saw the street fighter 2 interview at gamespot and the producer for the game said "You can look forward to street fighter 2 in Q2" even though technically Q2 starts next week... i don't think we'll see it until may

 

[brokenwatch]

I had my Xbox repaired about a month ago. Now when I try to play Geometry Wars offline, I can only play the trial version. Is there anything I can do?

I tried deleting and downloading it again, but nothing changed. I'm trying to get help from 1-800-4myxbox, but the people have been pretty rude and unhelpful. I'm going on vacation soon and I'd like to be able to play this (without broadband).

Am I out of luck?