Every week, Dave, Mike and Taylor play all of the new Xbox Live Indie Game demos and give you the lowdown on what is worth playing, and what will make your eyes bleed.
Play it
Ultraviolet - demo - Mike
I thought this was going to be the official game to the Milla Jovovich movie vaguely having something to do with vampires, but instead I was treated to a futuristic tug-of-war board game of sorts. You have to collect gems faster than your opponent on the other side of the board by roping them in with your laser lasso. The action heats up when the board starts to tilt back and forth and of course, when bombs are introduced. Definitely a weird game, but promising.
Bomb Those Wheelers - demo – Taylor
This is actually kinda good. Four spaceships pass by either to the left or right, each colored red, yellow, blue or green corresponding to the 4 face buttons on the controller. During each pass the ships can drop a bomb to blow up incoming waves of tractors.
Zombie Death Zone - demo - Mike
What if Duke Nukem was thrust into the middle of the zombie apocalypse? That’s the premise this game’s impressive intro promised, but the payoff was a far more mundane zombie twin-stick shooter. Humongous hordes of zombies swarm your pea-sized hero like ants to a sugar cube while you collect glowing orbs within a very constricted time frame. There are a few different weapons you can use, but their ammo is extremely limited and one hit kills. Challenging, but fun.
Kinetic Kube S - demo – Mike
Kinetic Kube S is pure madness. You control a smiley-faced block that leaps from platform to platform on a scrolling level while avoiding enemy helicopters and occasionally the beams of death that rain from the sky while simultaneously maneuvering your own helicopter that you use to attack the enemy copters while jamming out to some wacky trance music. It made my brain bleed cotton candy.
Pass it
Farbles - demo – Dave
This game is not very good. It’s a simple puzzle game, where marbles fall from the sky and you catch them in a cup. From the cup, you then drop the colored marble into the matching colored tubes. Connect 4 of the same marbles in a row for each color to advance to the next stage. Very simple, but marred by some poor design decisions. The controls are WAY to sensitive, and there is no way to adjust them. Also, the yellow and green colors look very similar, so it is difficult to discern which is which sometimes. Finally, your score and display are located halfway up the top of the screen, thereby blocking your view from incoming marbles. Why not have it on the bottom of the screen?
Maze Game - demo – Taylor
You roll a ball through a maze. You collect coins that you use to buy upgrades. Sadly, none of the upgrades I could buy in the trial made me move faster than painfully slow.
Bombies - demo – Dave
This game is about as plain as humanly possible. There is one background (grass), and there isn’t even a menu. Your objective is simply to stay alive through the wave of attackers. It would be nice for a high school programming project, but other than that I wouldn’t waste my with it. You’ve played Ski-free on your Windows 95 machine, right? That probably had higher production value. I’m surprised it even got 2 ½ stars. Definitely pass.
Monster Talk – demo – Taylor
This is a voice augmentation “game.” You choose a monster, each with a distinctive voice, use your microphone at home to record whatever you want, and then the monster will repeat it back to you, augmented. Only one monster was available in the demo.
We Come in Peace – demo – Dave
This game is also pretty bad. It seemed promising at the beginning with the funny Cheers references and story, but as soon as the gameplay started, the fun quickly died. You pilot an alien UFO through space as a scrolling plane moves horizontally across the screen filled with debris including satellites, radioactive canisters, tires, and other unidentifiable objects. The graphics are as bland as can be, and your only inputs are on the thumbstick. Often times I am unsure of what I should collect and should avoid, thereby resulting in a number of unnecessary deaths. The hit detection is off a bit as well. After the first stage ends, you are prompted to purchase the game because the trial ends. Why you ever would is beyond me. – Dave
Hack This Game – demo – Mike
Hack this game is basically like if someone ripped the hacking game out of Fallout 3 and made a full game around it. If your idea of fun is counting buttons on a grid and a whole lot of trial and error, than there is finally a game just for you.
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