Official Xbox Live Arcade Thread

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My impressions of the new XBLA games...

Being a fan of puzzle games I can safely conclude that Roogoo is not a game, it's just a way of insulting the puzzle genre. This is a pure mindless extremely simple action game, there's no thinking involved, just a very simple test of reflexes.

Aces of the Galaxy seems rather fun though. Was a bit overwhelming to begin with and it took a while before I got used to the controls (one part of my mind kept expecting the controls to be inverted). Probably something I'll buy once I have someone to play coop with.

If anyone's got the full version of that, how does the coop gameplay work? 2 players on the same screen, or splitscreen? I imagine it would be very chaotic if both players play in the same space.

Rlan said:
True, but I've been playing it, and the game just seems to go for such a long time. Like they've just extended the game by making you move slower through the environment. If theh game was set to be only an hour long total with better pacing, it would have been much more fun.
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Did you take any breaks while playing? First time I played AH2 it was only in 2 sessions and it did feel a bit stretched out and it got tiring. But the second time I played through I took a break each time I lost all my lives, and it was surprisingly a lot more fun that way.

Chiaroscuro said:
I think you mean Namco should adapt to 16:9. I agree that the borders are ugly, but to change the aspect ratio without scretching the screen would have been too much to do.

And my main complain about this port: there is no mission mode!!! The coolest mode in the DC version is nowhere to be see. So this <<<<< DC version.
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I've never played Soul Calibur 1 (only 2 and 3), can you explain how the mission mode works? Something similar to the "RPG" mode in 2, or the minigames in 3?
 
Ace of the Galaxy is AWESOME. It feels like the spiritual successor to Starfox 64 and is way more fun than any recent Starfox game.

I'm going to have to pick up this game when I get some MS fun bucks on my account.
 
I just bought both of them. I am surpised because I was not really looking forward to either.

Aces as others have said is a nice little fusion of Panzer Dragoon and Starfox, of course without those sort of production values. It is still a lot of fun and just completely relentless. It looks like there is a lot of replay value there also with the different difficulty levels, branching paths through the galaxy, and trying to 5 star everything for the achievements.

Roogoo does not seem to be a puzzle game as much as a simple test of reflexes so far. It is still strangely satisfying and different from anything I have played before. I may get bored of it pretty quickly, but after the demo I wanted to see more of it.
 
Sectus said:
I've never played Soul Calibur 1 (only 2 and 3), can you explain how the mission mode works? Something similar to the "RPG" mode in 2, or the minigames in 3?
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Like the RPG mode (Weapon Master?) in 2. Is it official that there won't be that mode in SC XBLA?
 
Archie said:
Ace of the Galaxy is AWESOME. It feels like the spiritual successor to Starfox 64 and is way more fun than any recent Starfox game.

I'm going to have to pick up this game when I get some MS fun bucks on my account.
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Is it true that you have to always start the game over from the beginning? No level select options?
 
Bah! just logged onto the net to catch up half way through my summer trip to see these will two I've been looking forward too will be waiting for me when I get back ;)

Cant wait for aces and Roogoo seems like a new twist on a puzzle game that i dont already have.

How come no official threads for worthwhile XBLA games now Shard tut tut!
my impressions will come next week when I get back, laterz.

(got damn qwertz keyboard)
 
Just saw this on Xbox.com:

Xbox.com said:
"Aces of the Galaxy is an old-school arcade thrill-ride! Take control of the gun turret on an AI-driven spaceship aiming the reticule to vaporize waves of enemies. Featuring pick-up-and-play game play with optional co-operative multiplayer, the user is thrust into epic space battles in the ultimate struggle to survive!"
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Is this true? Can you only control the crosshair? Does the AI control the ship for you? If so, I'll probably pass. I was pretty hyped for this game too.

Also, is it possible to change the controls to inverted? I know that's pretty standard, but you never know.
 
Dark Octave said:
Just saw this on Xbox.com:



Is this true? Can you only control the crosshair? Does the AI control the ship for you? If so, I'll probably pass. I was pretty hyped for this game too.

Also, is it possible to change the controls to inverted? I know that's pretty standard, but you never know.
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They word it pretty bad, it's basicly a star fox clone, an on rails shooter where you get limited movement but follow a path to the end shooting things.

Before I think about buying it though I need to play the demo a few times again, only got one chance this morning but still on the edge.
 
Diablohead said:
They word it pretty bad, it's basicly a star fox clone, an on rails shooter where you get limited movement but follow a path to the end shooting things.

Before I think about buying it though I need to play the demo a few times again, only got one chance this morning but still on the edge.
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Thanks for clearing that up for me. I'm kicking myself for not playing it this morning before I went to work. I can't wait to get home now.
 
xbhaskarx said:
If that is true, sold. I'm downloading the trial version right now...
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When I say Panzer Dragoon, it has that same multi-target lock on capability from the series and Rez for one of your three weapons. The other weapons are basic free aiming machine gun fire and torpedoes. Not to say it is as good as either of those series, but it is a nice budget game in the genre.
 
There are also branching paths. This is especially cool on the levels with warps. I went ahead and bought Aces, and boy is my arm sore. It's really, really intense. If you like the demo, the full game is just going to blow your mind. I wish they had branched out five paths instead of three though to make a single run a little shorter.
 
Gowans007 said:
Bah! just logged onto the net to catch up half way through my summer trip to see these will two I've been looking forward too will be waiting for me when I get back ;)

Cant wait for aces and Roogoo seems like a new twist on a puzzle game that i dont already have.

How come no official threads for worthwhile XBLA games now Shard tut tut!
my impressions will come next week when I get back, laterz.

(got damn qwertz keyboard)
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You mean this thread, yes?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=303294
 
http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2008/06/04/ninja-bee-finds-a-kingdom-for-keflings/

Taking a different approach to the traditional video game press release, the crew over at Ninja Bee have put together their creative minds announcing a new XBLA game A Kingdom for Keflings and the fact that they've actually hired twenty of these mysterious Kefling creatures to help around the studio. You can watch some of the Keflings' super helpful soda handiwork in the Ninja Bee produced video above. Interesting, no?

Details are extremely light, but all you really need to know is that A Kingdom for Keflings is some sort of game that'll release this Fall, will feature "light-hearted gameplay with graphics and original music to match" and will somehow incorporate a bunch of three foot tall Keflings. Maybe it'll be an updated Lemmings-style game. Or maybe an elf simulator.
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Just tried Aces (thanks GAF!), fucking awesome fun. I'm a big Starfox fan so this was right up my alley. It's like Starfox, but with more enemies onscreen that you can realistically process, and more stomach-churning rails that you are on. Great fun!

My only gripe is the lack of an automatic fire on the machine gun, I have a tired finger already from the two levels in the trial. Let me hold that shit down rather than taptaptap, it effects my aim too much. I got used to it though, 5-starred the second level which was very rewarding (good trick to get someone to buy your game, tell them they're awesome at it).
 
Rlan said:
True, but I've been playing it, and the game just seems to go for such a long time. Like they've just extended the game by making you move slower through the environment. If theh game was set to be only an hour long total with better pacing, it would have been much more fun.

Anyhow:

XBLA Delisting - Developer Response Part 2 - Merscom LLC

http://www.xblah.net/2008/06/xbla-delisting-developer-response-part_03.html
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They do realize that their game has a 62 rating on metacritic, right?
 
Rlan said:
Anywhoo - 7.0 / 10. NOT reviews by David Chapman, surprisingly. He does, like, every damn XBLA review for them. Instead it's Tom Price.

Claims (I assume the review goes back down soon)

- New graphic style is great
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What?

commando-great-graphic-style630.jpg
 
Open Source said:
They do realize that their game has a 62 rating on metacritic, right?
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I bet it will sell well enough to keep it on the service. It is one of the few games of its type and the only Sudoku game.
 
Shard said:
I think they have made it over the sales hump.
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That's totally irrelevant to their argument, though. They are saying that their game is high quality and therefore should be more visible than games with less than a 65 rating. If it is true that it's high quality, other high quality games may be under 65 as well, and metacritic ratings shouldn't matter. If it's not true that their game is high quality, then their argument that their game should have more visibility than other low-quality games is dumb.

Bejeweled on PC has a 1% conversion rate. The more people try a game, the lower its conversion rate will be; that's just how it is. The more recent the game, the lower its conversion rate will be because of the larger market, automatic downloads feature, competition with other XBLA games and retail games, etc.
 
Didn't like Aces of the Galaxy, I was hoping for less of a on-rails type shooter, I can see it being fun for some people but it seemed sort of dull to me. Coop might be better but the game just isn't for me.
Roogoo was shit, I don't understand how anyone thinks this is actually a game. It's like a poor mans version of a gimped Klax.. bleh.
 
Achievements List: Schizoid

http://www.achieve360points.com/game/schizoid/

1. Wired
Destroy an enemy with a razorwire.
10 points
Single Player achievement
Xbox 360 Achievement - Playing The Field

2. Playing The Field
Play a game in each mode - Xbox LIVE, Local Co-Op, Wingman Bot Training, and Uberschizoid.
15 points
Single Player achievement
Xbox 360 Achievement - Sploderific

3. Sploderific
Destroy all enemies on level 12 ("Smartbomb") with a single smartbomb.
10 points
Single Player achievement
Xbox 360 Achievement - Barber Of Schizzville

4. Barber Of Schizzville
Shave the Orbiddles from 8 Astramoebas on a level, without destroying Astramoebas or losing a life.
20 points
Single Player achievement
Xbox 360 Achievement - Schiz Hunter

5. Schiz Hunter
Destroy 30 Schizzes on a single level, using powerups and without losing any lives.
20 points
Single Player achievement
Xbox 360 Achievement - Flitt Breeder

6. Flitt Breeder
Get a gold medal on level 5 ("My Man Flitt") without destroying any Flitts.
10 points
Single Player achievement
Xbox 360 Achievement - 21st Century Schizoid Man

7. 21st Century Schizoid Man
Complete level 21 ("Tyger Tyger") either in Local Co-Op, Xbox LIVE, or Uberschizoid.
15 points
Single Player achievement
Xbox 360 Achievement - One Mind, Two Goals

8. One Mind, Two Goals
Earn 20 silver or gold medals in Uberschizoid mode.
20 points
Single Player achievement
Xbox 360 Achievement - Schizoid Sensei

9. Schizoid Sensei
Earn 10 medals (any combination of gold, silver, and bronze) over Xbox LIVE.
20 points
Multiplayer / Co-Op achievement (2+ players)
Xbox 360 Achievement - Huevos Done Naked

10. Huevos Done Naked
Gold level 47 ("Los Huevos") without activating any powerups.
20 points
Single Player achievement
Xbox 360 Achievement - Seafood Buffet

11. Seafood Buffet
Destroy 2500 Scorpios.
20 points
Single Player achievement
Xbox 360 Achievement - Corpus Callosum Severed

12. Corpus Callosum Severed
Complete level 119 ("Ragnarok") in Uberschizoid mode.
20 points
Single Player achievement
Click to expand...
 
No6 said:
Like the RPG mode (Weapon Master?) in 2. Is it official that there won't be that mode in SC XBLA?
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several previews and hand-ons stated specificaly that, including gamespot: http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/soulcalibur/news.html?sid=6192026&mode=previews


GAMESPOT said:
So does that mean it's a note-for-note reproduction of the original game? Well, not exactly. One of the key features found in the Dreamcast game, Mission Battle mode, is not in the Xbox Live version. In the original, Mission Battle mode had you guide a character through a storyline, taking him or her through multiple battles and earning points as you went along. You could use those points to unlock extras in the Museum mode; things like concept art, fan art, and the like. Though Mission mode is removed in the XBLA version, the game will still have all of the items in Museum mode unlocked automatically from the beginning.
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I wanted to like Aces but I don't. It looks nice but it doesn't generate any feeling of moving through 3d space. It feels very flat; more like Space Harrier than Panzer Dragoon, although I couldn't put my finger on why. It's also difficult to spot bullets coming at you at times. Disappointing.
 
So i was reading Major Nelson's blog and i must say i'm pretty fucking bored by this new - apparently cool for the trolls - tendency to say "lolz delist" or some other shit to that effect.

I wish Microsoft never let the public know that they were going to delist some old titles.
 
MalevolentPanda said:
I wanted to like Aces but I don't. It looks nice but it doesn't generate any feeling of moving through 3d space. It feels very flat; more like Space Harrier than Panzer Dragoon, although I couldn't put my finger on why. It's also difficult to spot bullets coming at you at times. Disappointing.
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I love Star Fox and Panzer Dragoon, so this game should have been right up my alley. Should have been, because it's very generic and lacks polish. There are no bosses, the story is obviously a last minute toss in. It's too fast and there is way too much going on at one time to really feel like you're doing anything but wildly smashing the "A" button while holding "X" and sweeping until you see "1,2,3,4" lock on apear on the screen, anywhere, because you don't have time to strategically place your lock ons or shots. And why is there a big ship that keeps coming in randomly in the middle of the level? What's the purpose of that?

The diologue is silly, the character art looks goofy, yet the in game graphics aren't. And I wish there were a few planet based levels. Just a huge lack of imagination from this game. It could have done so much more, imo.

The game is still decent though. The gameplay is fun enough for me that I made a purchase. There aren't too many on rail shooters out there so it's better than nothing. I like the first level and pause music.

Not the greatest on rail shooter I've played, but for $10 in a rail shooter deprived world, it's well worth it.
 
Aces just crashed on me big time while calculating the score :( It was an awesome run too and was bound to end up in me getting 5 stars for stage 4 :( Damned sloppy code. Anyway, having tons of fun with it. Going for the 5 stars on all 25 stages now.
 
Dark Octave said:
:lol No it didn't.
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I agree, Undertow never looked good to me. Never. But people liked it how it looked, and people actually enjoy the game, so I didn't want to rain on their parade. But for me (and I know I'm not the only one), I knew I was going to avoid the game as soon as I saw it.

Colosseum looks real early to me...If it's like the Colosseum in Fable with the same sort of fighting and upgrading, it has potential.

Rlan said:
What needs to be on the XBLA? #7 - Jazz Jackrabbit

http://www.xblah.net/2008/05/what-needs-to-be-on-xbla-7-jazz.html
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Great piece, totally agree!

Clicked on an ad on your site about buying Jazz 2 for PC for 5 Pounds. If it's being sold for PC (for Vista and XP)...thus the assembly code is running on some emulation, and thus it should be possible on the 360. I mean, I played that game with a keyboard when I was younger...it would be perfect with a gamepad obviously.

Hopefully you're getting some revenue from ad clicks to help pay for the domain registration, heheh.

-addendum:
Sorry for not being clear, posting while on the phone. :P
 
I thought of a possible solution to the whole de-listing thing. MS should add a Gametap like service to XBLA. People would pay a flat fee per month for access to the full versions of these low rated games, including some of the higher rated but older games as well. If they decide not to pay the next month, the games they downloaded revert to demos, but they keep any achievements they've earned.
 
Hey GAF, any word on the next price-drops?
I want to buy Pacman C.E. but what if they drop it to 400 one day after i bought it? :lol
 
I am in the same boat. I want to pick up both Pacman C.E. and SOTN but I'm apprehensive about doing that because I feel that a price drop for both could (and should) be around the corner.
 
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