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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The Sugar Killerz review: Sour mix

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Mike Wall in Reviews, xblig, XBLIG Reviews | Leave a comment

shoot stuff.

You know how sometimes a big hit movie comes out and then a few months later there’s some knock-off direct-to-DVD crapfest sitting on the Blockbuster shelf your Netflix list? As if some kid would be so stupid that he couldn’t discern the difference between Transmorphers and Transformers? Well, The Sugar Killerz are the Transmorphers of Square Off, except in this bizarre-o reality, the inferior impostor somehow has the audacity to charge fives times as much moula.

Oh where, oh where to begin? In The Sugar Killerz, you play a squadron of multi-colored blobs that look like SpongeBob Squarepants if the lovable little guy attended the Rambo school of shoving boots up butts. You can fly freely around the levels with the left stick, aim in any direction with the right stick, and fire with the triggers. You play through levels that pit you against waves of enemies that are partitioned into five sections each. Just like Square Off.

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Tic the robot scheduled to save the world in April; first trailer revealed

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Dave Voyles in Previews, xblig, XBLIG News, XBLIG Previews | 1 Comment

We’ve all heard the tale of corporate conglomerates putting our very existence at risk. Generally it’s one of our own who takes the role of the hero to venture out and save the world, but what if it was left up to a robot? Tic, a unicycling industrial robot from the small mining town of Copperville sets out to do just that. Like Inspector Gadget, Tic has a plethora of devices at his disposal to put the EvilCorp minions down, including a drill arm and my all time favorite go-go gadget, the helicopter head. Tic rolls, drills and flies his through a 2.5D casual story-driven puzzle adventure injected with charm, and his benevolent aura is reminiscent of Pixar’s robotic protagonist Wall-E. His experience will have him spanning a number of locations including the cavernous depths of Copperville, while fluidly transitioning to the moonlight skies.

RedCandy Games is using its own JawBreaker Engine to power the title. I caught up with Founder/CEO Julian Volyn at GDC, where he told me it currently runs at a  smooth 60fps with over 50 depth layers. This technically impressive engine will support an unlimited number of depth layers, with in-game level editing, which makes one wonder – could this be the first XBLIG game where we can craft our own levels?

Tic is shaping up to be a beautiful title, and RedCandy Games is planning this to be a  four-part series. The first episode should be available on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel tentatively within the next month for 240 MS points ($3). Be sure to leave your thought below on what looks like it could be a side-scrolling gem, and check back soon for our full review.

Armless Octocast Episode 43: PAX East 2011

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Dave Voyles in Podcast | 1 Comment

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 Hosts: Erron Kelly, Mike Wall, Taylor Bliss, Dave Voyles & Dylan Martin
Music: Paul Weinstein - Chipocrite
Twitter: @skrattybones, @mikejwall, @TaylorBliss, @DaveVoyles, @DylanMartin
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What luck! Clover: A Curious Tale is half price this week

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Mike Wall in News, xblig, XBLIG News | Leave a comment

sheep

Okay, so its relation to St. Patrick’s Day is dubious at best, and it’s developed by a Brit, but I don’t think anyone can complain about getting something half price. Clover: A Curious Tale is the latest Xbox Live Indie Game to be selected as a Deal of the Week, and it’s been reduced to 200 MS points ($2.50) for the remainder of the week for Xbox Live Gold members in the US. The 2D adventure game unquestionably stands alone as the only politically-fused 2D adventure game with watercolor artwork and allegorical references to the Spanish-American War.

Source: Microsoft’s Deals of the Week

Zeboyd Games announces Were-Zompire-filled version of Cthulhu Saves the World

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Dave Voyles in News, PC, PC News, xblig, XBLIG News | 1 Comment

still saving the world

What’s better than going back to play games you’ve already beat? Well going back to play enhanced versions of them of course. Cthulhu Saves the World: Super Hyper Enhanced Championship Edition Alpha Diamond DX Plus Alpha FES HD – Premium Enhanced Game of the Year Collector’s Edition (without Avatars!) or CStW:SHECEADDPAFH – PEGYCE (WA!) for short, was officially announced today by Zeboyd Games. This isn’t a sequel, but a suped-up version of 2010′s XBLIG darling. Shooting for a new market, this title will be released this spring on PC for $3 and as a free update for those who already own the original on Xbox.

Zeboyd Games promises a wealth of new content this time around. As RPGs are naturally heavy on the dialogue, you’ll be glad to hear that even more has been added. Furthermore, four new characters make an appearance: Molly the Were-Zompire, Elonalia the generic healer, low level October, and finally a Dark Knight version of everyone’s favorite trash-talking sword, Umi. We’re still trying to figure out what a Were-Zompire is at the Armless Octopus office, so if you happen to know, be sure to drop us a line. [it's a werewolf vampire zombie!  -Ed.]

For those of you who enjoy learning more about how Cthulhu got into the whole “saving the world” business, Zeboyd Games has included a Director’s Commentary mode, where marked commentary icons littered throughout the environment provide further insight. In addition, a number of gameplay elements have been corrected, as monsters and abilities have been rebalanced. In case it wasn’t difficult enough the first time around, they’ve  included an Insanity Difficulty setting to keep you grinding long into the night.

If you happened to miss our review of CStW last year, you can find our thoughts here. Why not leave your thoughts below, and let us know what you think about the enhanced version of a game that was featured in our top 20 Games of 2010 list?

Source: Zeboyd Games

Xbox Indie Review: Blocks Indie

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Taylor Bliss in Reviews, xblig, XBLIG Reviews | Leave a comment

look at that box...

I was 7 when my overly generous parents gave me a Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas. Back then, indie games hardly had a space to call their own and the space that they did claim was relegated to the (then infant) personal computer.

Through watching my parents take control of Mario and try to play, I noticed one odd reaction they often had. When trying to perform a specific task, whether it was to jump on a particular block or to clear a large jump, their arms would swing in the direction that they were trying to move. I distinctly remember thinking to myself, “why would they do that? It’s so unnecessary, and it doesn’t change a thing!” After my recent adventure playing Blocks Indie, I officially have an answer for my then naive self: it’s because of how much you wish thrashing your arms about would actually make a difference.

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Xbox Indie Review: Baby Mammoth’s Journey to Mars

Posted on March 5, 2011 by Mike Wall in Reviews, XBLIG Reviews | 3 Comments

Imagine ordering the ‘deluxe sundae’ off a menu with visions of a caloric monstrosity drizzled with hot fudge, melted peanut butter, cookie crumbles and whipped cream, only to discover it’s nothing but a bowl of vanilla ice cream. Plain vanilla frozen yogurt. Fat free frozen yogurt. And a bag of prunes. That’s the disappointment that seeped through me when I found out Baby Mammoth’s Journey to Mars was nothing but a cleverly named Canabalt clone.

I guess in hindsight the game was pretty much doomed from the start. How could any game possibly live up to such a ridiculous title? It promised humor, adventure and Martians, and it delivered a trotting mammoth and a flock of annoying vultures. I guess Baby Mammoth Runs and Jumps doesn’t have quite the same pizazz.

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GDC 2011: Interview with Antipole developer Edward Di Geronimo

Posted on March 5, 2011 by Dave Voyles in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

no hands!

It may not have garnered the attention or accolades of VVVVVV, but Antipole proved there is more than one way to design a gravity-flipping 2D platformer. I had a chance to sit down with lead programmer and designer Edward Di Geronimo of Saturnine Games and talk about the changes it went through during its development and their next project, Turtle Tale.

Where did you guys get the idea to do something with flipping gravity?

It started off awhile ago I was working with a platformer engine just to see where I can go with it. I enjoy those kind of games always, just to see where it goes, and I was talking with a co-worker and he just said to me ‘how hard would it be to reverse gravity?’ and I said ‘oh that’s really easy to do,’ so I just tried it and messed around with different things. The first thing that came to my mind was the time limit on it and to see what you could do within that. I think this was going on probably about the same time VVVVVV was being created and they took a very different direction. And we both ended up with spikes all over the place, and we realized that once you throw in the gravity, bottomless pits don’t work.

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