XBLIG prices can be changed every 7 days starting May 23


Big news from Microsoft today, as they announced via the App Hub, the official MS forums where XBLIG developers Read more

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 Review: Rolling in the Right Direction


A new Sonic game always brings a level of uncertainty with it. Sega’s mascot has seen more highs and Read more

One Million Fans Take a Stroll with The Walking Dead Episode 1


Comic books, television, and now video games: is there any form of media that The Walking Dead can't conquer? Read more

Kittens Spit Fire When Serious Sam Double D XXL Assaults XBLA This Fall


Take a long, hard look at you what is on your screen right now. Yes, that’s a kitten, spitting Read more

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Avatar Trivia Party is Released Just in Time for the Holiday Gatherings

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Dave Voyles in News, xblig, XBLIG News | Leave a comment

What better way to spend the holidays than surrounded by friends and family, who are then surrounded around your Xbox? Red Crest Studios, who previously developed Bonded Realities and most recently Andromium, thought exactly that and released their current XBLIG project, Avatar Trivia Party today.

Doubling as a fully-featured board game and trivia game, players race one another to arrive at the end goal first. To get there, each player is asked a trivia question on their turn, and the number of dice they are able to roll depends on whether or not the question is answered correctly, thereby relying on a combination of luck and trivia talent.

So light up that yule log (not the app, because you’ll be playing this), bring out your Menorah, or plant that Festivus pole, because the holidays are here and you’ve got the perfect game to play with those visiting folks.

You can find Avatar Trivia Party on the LIVE Marketplace today for 80 Microsoft points ($1).

Avatar Legends impressions: Redefining ‘legendary’

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Mike Wall in xblig, XBLIG Reviews | Leave a comment

i hate when people waste my time too

Somehow I don’t think Microsoft envisioned Avatars singeing goblins with fireballs and hacking the arms off of ill-tempered skeletons when they first revealed the bobble-headed doppelgangers, but sure enough, my bell-bottomed stud has developed a bloodlust for the sweet nectar of ogre blood. Kinect might empower me to be the controller, but in Avatar Legends, I am the actual hero. My Avatar is a bona fide master of magic and people’s champ. It’s a bit surreal, wildly ambitious, and quite fun…for awhile.

Avatar Legends is an action RPG where you, or at least your Avatar duplicate, is sucked into a world of displaced Avatars. Nobody knows how they got there or how to return home, but the ostracized Avatars are a resourceful lot, and they’ve managed to set up shops, towns, farms and even an arena for gladiatorial bouts. And then you arrive. Like a balloon-headed King Arthur, your Avatar opens up the fabled chest and wields of the wooden sword of destiny. Excalibur, it’s not, but it does cement your destiny as the fabled one who will lead the helpless Avatars home.

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Xbox Indie Review: Trivia or Die

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Mike Wall in Reviews, xblig | 1 Comment

questions

Trivia games are
a) fun because they give me a chance to showcase my untapped reservoirs of otherwise useless information.
b) a great way to get a controller into the hands of my non-gaming friends.
c) educational and fun (even if they make me feel dumb sometimes).
d) about as much fun as homework. Why can’t I call in air strikes or level up?

If you find yourself circling one of the first three responses, then it’s a pretty safe bet that you’re going to enjoy Trivia or Die. There’s no board to navigate or other gimmicky extraneous bells and whistles to kill time; this is a trivia buff’s trivia game, with random multiple-choice questions firing out at a snappy pace and bonus points awarded for answering within 3 seconds. If you want to hang out with some friends, answer questions and rack up points, this is the game for you. Read more

Xbox Indie Review: Avatar Karate

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Stephanie Yeager in Reviews, xblig | 4 Comments

avatars do battle!

Have you ever wanted to high-kick Kayne, bitch-slap Paris, or karate-chop the Governator? Well, now you can fight your favorite celebrity Avatars in Avatar Karate. You’ll unlock new opponents and locations as you work your way through each stage. There are 20 celebrity opponents in all; some appear as characters they’ve played and others appear as themselves. While the developer never outright names each celebrity by name, they’re fairly easy to identify by the lines they quote or through other pop-culture references.

The moves are simple: a variety of kicks, punches, jumps, and blocks. While the opponents get more difficult in single player mode, your Avatar doesn’t seem to level up or acquire any additional skills making the last few fights challenging. There 4 locations in the game, but all are fairly limiting and you are only allowed to fight in a portion of the screen. Read more

Xbox Indie Review: The American Hot Dog Race

Posted on July 2, 2010 by Mike Wall in Reviews, xblig | 1 Comment

the title screen

A few years ago, some friends and I attended a Phillies game during dollar dog night. Despite my rather svelte build, I still wagered that I would be able to pack away ten hot dogs over the course of the evening. I put it in perspective by rationalizing that it was merely about a dog an inning, which should have been easy money. Needless to say, I failed in my endeavor to consume an entire pig, or cow, or whatever hybrid creature is mechanically separated to create a hot dog these days and have been salivating for another shot at competitive-eating immortality.

My failure did not dismay me to the finer qualities of the processed delights. Hot dogs are an important – dare I say, integral – part of the American spirit. We devour huge quantities of them at ballgames, bar-b-ques and beaches. And once a year, on the greatest day of the year, we gather around our televisions and tune into ESPN 42 to stare in bewilderment as a bunch of tubbos gorge themselves on processed meat and water-soaked rolls only to be inevitably defeated by a Japanese fellow with an expandable stomach and an extra set of teeth. Yes, it’s that time again: it’s the Fourth of July.

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Xbox Indie Review: Avatar Ninja

Posted on June 27, 2010 by Mike Wall in Reviews, xblig | 4 Comments

ninjas doing what they do best

Avatar Ninja. Just take a minute to soak in that thought and relish the possibilities. Avatars are inherently endearing due their customizable nature and even the most jaded nerd still has a soft spot for ninjas. Now, I’m a bit of a sucker for games that are both competent and involve avatars – not that the Venn Diagram for those two attributes has much overlap – so I was excited for the prospect of Avatar Ninja. Would my avatar don a ninja outfit and surreptitiously sneak up on other unsuspecting avatars? Would my monocled man-child get to cut up some fools, or at least some fruit with a razor-sharp katana? Would he leap from rooftop to rooftop, effortlessly scale walls and disappear into a cloud of smoke leaving his enemies in a stupor? Well, not quite.

With great expectations frequently comes great disappointment, but, hey, at least there is one area in which Avatar Ninja excels. Instead of any of the aforementioned tasks that actual ninjas might be caught doing, assuming they actually wanted to be caught, Avatar Ninja is really a game about running willy-nilly across rivers, leaping over logs and sliding under spikes. It could be renamed Avatar Water Dash or Avatar Jesus Racing Simulator, but I guess Milkstone Studios had the urge to capitalize on the ninja fever that swept nerdom about a decade ago. Haven’t they heard? We love zombies now!

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Indie Review: Avatar Onslaught

Posted on May 1, 2010 by Erron Kelly in Reviews, xblig | 6 Comments

Water Balloon Avatar Conflict

Stop right there, reader.

Before you make it past this very sentence you need to do something for me; it isn’t difficult to do, and it will take but a moment.  All I need you to do is create a mental picture for me.  Take just a few seconds to engage in a little theatre of the mind, in the form and shape of Space Invaders.

Do you have it: that vague recollection of Space Invaders?  OK, good.  Now take that and flip it, so that instead of a top-down perspective you are in a third-person perspective.  The camera is floating just behind your tank, and you are shooting down the field at the legions of invading aliens instead of up into the sky at them.

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Xbox Indie Review: Baby Maker Extreme

Posted on April 13, 2010 by Mike Wall in Reviews, xblig | 2 Comments

Flying babies in Baby Maker Extreme

From its infancy in Pong to the emotional resonance of Mass Effect 2 and Heavy Rain, videogames have come a long way in their growth as an artistic medium. I’m elated to see how the industry has blossomed into something where intelligent adults can discuss decisions made in games and how they feel about certain characters.

Baby Maker Extreme continues this trend of sophistication that games have migrated towards over the last few years and will be remembered as the next great step. Oh, alright, enough gobbly-gook. It’s a game about babies shooting out of their mother’s wombs like a McDonald’s double cheeseburger is expelled from my angry turd hole.

Juvenile, right? I’m not proud to talk about poop in two straight reviews, but that is what this game has done to me. A few brief minutes after playing, I feel a wet spot on my nape where my brains have seeped out of my ears.

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