Dark Octave
Banned
Man time is flying! 2012 is almost over, with only 11 more months to go. Welcome to the Xbox Live Indie Games thread where we talk about everything that is made by independent people and companies mad for use and enjoyment on Xbox Live.
Go. Play. Enjoy. Tell us what you think! Tell all your friends! Get them to tell all their friends…
(Xbox LIVE Indie Games are available in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States. If you’re outside those countries you can still play these games by setting up a Gamertag for free for one of those countries. It’s worth doing.)
The Gold award, for the absolute best game that came out last month.
This month the gold award goes to Evil Quest, an RPG by Chaosoft Games. This is a story of evil and revenge. It isn't the prettiest or best sounding game this month, but it has a charm about it that shouldn't be glossed over by anyone into RPGs. It's classic gameplay takes me back to the days of Soul Blazer and Legend of Gaia. There's a deep inventory system, an arsenal of magic spells and huge boss battles to test them with. Then there is the fact that you play as the bad guy without the option or pressures of being good. Feels nice for a change.
The Silver award, for games that are incredible, but hey, only one game can be the Gold award winner. In any other month, any of these could have earned it!
I had a lot of fun with Ninja Sneaking 2 from WINGLAY. I liked the first one as well. You play as a red headed, pigtail wearing, female ninja who is infiltrating a rival ninja compound. Enemies have vision cones that you must avoid or it's back to the loading screen. With it's spiked walls and floaty jumping, Ninja Sneaking 2 plays like a slow Super Meat Boy. Right trigger gives the ability to slash with a sword and holding down the "X" button allows the player to cling to ceilings. Very simple but nice visuals and good music. This is a decently polished game that I think you al should give a try.
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Ocean Drive Challenge from need1D is straight up Sega's classic arcade racer, Outrun. Everything from the ocean view and palm trees to the stripes in the road and even a end of race map, is just as you remembered it from 25 years ago, only now it's all in HD. You get to select from three drivers, each with their own car and attributes, Acceleration, top speed and handling. You select from manual or automatic transmission and then you get to select from three songs, I think they're all techno. I liked two of them anyway.
The gears only go from "low" to "high" but once you get into high gear the car starts really moving and it feels good. There is a good amount of traffic and when you hit the back of a truck going 200mph, the only thing that happens is you come to a halt and bounce back, which I don't mind considering what really should happen in that situation. It's not realistic but it keeps things moving and I like that.
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Hypership Still Out of Control from our very own FunInfusedGames at...Fun Infused Games. Infused with a lot of fun, this game is a sequel of sorts to HSOOC which I believe was brought out in 2011. It's a top down space shooter going back to games like Life Force but with a twist; not only can you not stop, you actually keep speeding up. It's a hilarious and fun take on the genre and it works very well. Along the way there are coins to collect and obstacles to either dodge or destroy. it becomes hectic pretty fast and the agle ship will cause you to make some frantic mistakes.
The visuals are retro aliased sprites and very colorful. I believe there is four player co-op.
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Little Racers STREET from Milkstone Studios S.L. is a racing title that plays like R. C. Pro Am for the NES if you remember that one. In LRS you have a bird's eye view of the action while you boost and drift your way to victory. The game is fast, smooth and pretty, which is pretty much everything you could ask for from a racer.
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Block Zombies by Nostatic Software was one of those games that I wasn’t too excited for until I started playing it. You’re alone on a farm, armed with a gun and surrounded by zombies. The action starts off with a slow single shot weapon that you can trade in for more powerful guns and distractions. As the game progresses, zombies become faster and more abundant.
The map seems like a good size and there is a crystal mining element that leads the progression of the game.
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I’m not sure how I feel about commercial titles and publishers (big and small) on the service. It really is a double edged sword. Games like this could bring more traffic to XBLIG but could also overshadow smaller titles and studios that the service was meant for.
But no matter how undecided I am about my feeling of Activision and Gameloft on XBLIG, there is no denying that Dark Reign Redux by Magnetar Games and Activision is a solid RTS and worth checking out. I’ve never heard of Dark Reign until this month, but it is obviously a port of an older PC title. It features CGI cut scenes and some really nice 2D visuals that harken back to the days of the early Command and Conquer.
Like it or not, working with publishers is a bold new step for XBLIG. I’m thinking we’ll see more of this in the future. The recent announcement of increased space to 500mb for development will make this a question of not if but when.
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The Bronze Award, not the best games out this month, but every one of these is still either great, or has a really unique aspect to it that more than makes it worth trying.
Lootfest: Live Design
Lootfest: Live Design from Gamefarm was a neat looking game. I admit that I have never gotten into the Mine Craft and clones so I couldn't tell you if this game is hot or hot garbage. All I know is that it has a ton of options, nice visuals and the ability to build a bunch of different things.
Turbo Rocket 3
I had a good time with Turbo Rocket 3. At the start you get to choose between a rocket propelled “thing” to control or one that controls like a traditional twin stick. Upon choosing the rocket, I immediately crashed into the wall directly to my left. I quickly switched to the twin stick version that looks a little like a ball rolling and the game opened up for me.
The object is to simply destroy all enemies on the screen with bullets that pour out smooth and fast. The enemies consist of swarmer types that don’t shoot, turrets and mobile shooting types. The frame rate is a little slow. My wife noticed it more than I did, so I can’t say that I was too bothered by it. It’s a dark game with minimal color. The walls are made of multilayered polygons which is a good look considering the alternative could have simply been flat polygon walls. It was a nice way to add detail.
Space Fighter 400 Training
I decided to give Space Fighter 4000 Training by Fednet Software some love because it has solid controls and offers a good time bombing buildings. A flight combat game similar to the Ace Combat series, this probably shouldn’t have made it to bronze without a couple more play troughs because there could be some fundamental flaws when trying to play beyond just messing around, but that’s all speculation.
What I do know is that they didn’t screw up the basics. They could be tighter (the axis felt like it was above the fighter jet instead of on it), but they work well enough. You have machine guns, missiles that seems like you can pump out at will and a heavy bomb to blow up buildings. Visuals are plain but there are a few jets flying around which I assume are enemies. I had fun with it.
Diamond Digger
Diamond Digger from Elemental Focus is a clever puzzle game that has you trying to free a diamond from its puzzle trappings, made to look like Earth/soil. In the basic stages, there is dirt which the diamond cannot pass through and metal, which it can. The object is to use gravity to let the diamond fall through the metal portions of the puzzle by sliding each section horizontally left or right one space at a time. You can also force blocks of dirt or metal to fall, altering the playing field. The tricky part is that each section will bounce back into position if nothing is altered after the attempt.
Diamond Digger is one of those games that is fun to play and can become very addictive.
Defy Gravity Extended
Defy Gravity Extended by Fisch Team is a side scrolling plat former in which the hero carries a gravity gun. The gun comes in two forms at the outset which act as a magnet with the player and objects in the game; negative and positive. Aiming your weapon like a twin stick shooter projects a ball of gravity that can help you get over high walls, large chasms, summon a platform to stand on or push away deadly objects. Good music, the visuals could be better, but what’s there is well thought out and fun.
Avatar Onslaught 2
Avatar Onslaught 2 is a third person defense game from Lighthouse Games Studio. All your buddies from your friends list come romping down a large field and allow you to shoot paintballs at them. You strafe side to side behind a wooden fence that your friends will proceed to break down on contact. You can rebuild your defenses and upgrade your weapons and physical attributes to make things easier once the swarm starts getting bigger and faster each round.
Some games are bad. Really bad. So bad that they don’t even deserve a functioning link to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. But if you’re in the mood for some punishment, or just want to be reminded how much better the games above are, check these out, last month’s most terrible games.
Smarter than a Cheerleader?
This game feels sleazy and insulting. My respect for Silver Dollar is…eh. I understand where they’re coming from, I mean, how much should we really expect for a dollar, but they sure aren’t helping the service grow in the right direction.
Dot
This is a Pong clone I assume that requires two players. I couldn't even play it. This is 2012, why would I want to play a Pong clone that doesn't look any better than the original, made 40 years ago? At least bring us to 35 years ago and give us some kind of A.I.
Musickness
So the object of this one is to move this thing across these notes that are scrolling quickly from right to left. You have to stay in formation with the row of blue notes while moving around the bad notes (I think they’re red). Some music is playing in the background but I have no idea if it means anything or is just there. The icon you control slides all over the place.
3D Setero Studio
3D glasses are required for this one and I don’t have any red and blues since my Caroline Blu-Ray came with magenta and green 3D glasses. So anyway, you get to look at a wire mesh ball with some random thing in it, the first plane ever made and a jet that looks like a harrier. They’re just 3D meshes with no texture or animation. You can rotate them and there is a decent techno song playing in the background, but really what’s the point?
Who's the Daddy 2?
So read my earlier post about Silver Dollar Games. There is a girl sipping on some hard alcohol on a bed being interviewed about who the father of her child is (again, kind of sleazy feeling). She’s supposed to be uninterested in the whole process and just wants to leave and get drunk/laid whatever. A row of guys is on the bottom and she describes him as vaguely as possible. Once instance she was like “He’s a black guy, it shouldn’t be that hard to narrow it down”. That might be really easy if the game was called "Whos the lead character in a videogame or Hollywood movie" but this chick looks like she belongs on Maury. Oh and don’t forget the bonus game of taking a drink whenever she does!
Mega Up
Goop: Hey we have an agenda we really wanna push!
Blaugh: Let’s make a game about it!
Goop: Sounds great what will you do in the game?
Blaugh: Press “A” to jump over objects with the worst collision ever in a videogame!
Goop: Done! *brofist*
Blaugh: Alright! Let’s get started!
Goop: No literally…I’m done. It took me that long to finish making the game…
Kiss Kiss
OMG, why? Answer trivia questions from a hideous looking thing lol dancing in the background. I guess the better you do, the closer it moves in for a kiss. God damn!
Hey GAFfers! Submit your list for your top XBLIG games in this thread and I'll add it here to the OP.
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1/1/2012
Ballochet 3
1/3/2012
Eyestorm
P3
1/4/2012
Smarter than a Cheerleader?
EvilQuest
1/5/2012
Lots of Guns
1/6/2012
Trailer Park King Episode 2
1/7/2012
4 PPing Pong
Cro-Mag Rally
1/12/2012
Dot
1/13/2012
Ballochet 3
Plugemons
NewsCopter
1/14/2012
Lootfest: Live Design
Fish Game
Siege King: The Siege of Aurum
Musickness
The Defenders
Don't Die Dateless, Dummy!
Natural Selection
1/15/2012
All Your Creeps
1/19/2012
Block Zombies!
Cowbots
Perfect Shooting Training Camp
Hypership Still Out of Control
1/20/2012
An Elfy Winter
1/21/2012
Detect
3D Stereo Studio
1/21/2012
StardustHunterPopoy
1/23/2012
Ocean Drive Challenge
1/24/2012
Avatar Grand Prix 2
1/25/2012
Who's the Daddy? 2
MegaUP: Upload if you can!
1/26/2012
Ninja Sneaking2
Kiss Kiss
1/27/2012
TurboRocket 3
Little Racers STREET
Dark Reign Redux
Defy Gravity Extended
Gold Digger The Comic 1 - 7
1/28/2012
Diamond Digger
SpaceFighter4000 Training
Worlds Best FREAKING Card Game
1/31/2012
Avatar Onslaught 2
