Francis "njsykora"
Critique, iGames Monday, August 17th 2009

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This is usually the bit where I ramble on about stuff that’s rarely relevant. This week however we have a lot of games (21) to cover so I’ll keep this short by just mentioning 2 important things. Firstly you can now unlock Indie Game trials from the game library just like XBLA games. Secondly you can now rate games using a 5-star system. Make sure you rate your favourites and watch the Top Rated section to find the gems everyone else likes. Now we have 21 games to deal with so let’s get going.

Zen Sound
Polychrome – 400 Points

This is more of a toy than a game, you move the cursor around the screen and press A to play a note corresponding to that position. Notes will repeat in musical time as they were played which can make for some eerily relaxing tones that just come out of tapping the button whenever you feel like it. It’s fun to mess around with for a while, but I don’t think anyone will feel the need to purchase the full version.

Jump!
Yuwaka – 80 Points

It’s very rare for a game to come along that has so much charm and cuteness that I’m prepared to look past its flaws and just let my mind enjoy the visual and aural pleasuring it’s getting. This is one of those games, a constantly scrolling platformer (one of my least favourite game mechanics ever) which just has such a happy and carefree look and sound that almost makes me ignore the fact that this is a basic, easy and very short platformer that I managed to complete in the trial time. Worth a trial though, if only to see if it can melt the cold, cynical ice that surrounds your heart.

X-Over
Section S – 240 Points

I like shooters, I especially like hard shooters. So I like X-Over. Following the false start that was Crecendo Symphony a few weeks back this is what I consider a proper bullet hell shooter. A well sized hitbox, decent enemies who actually make some effort to hit you as well as some excellent artwork help to make this one of the best shooters on the service.

Bitstream
Projector Games – 400 Points

You may remember a game covered during Wardrox’s covering weeks back in May called Streamline. A line racing game which had very little depth, didn’t look too great and just wasn’t much fun. Bitstream is the complete opposite of that. First of all there’s a lot of depth to the game. Travelling straight will gradually increase your speed so winning races becomes less about reactions and more about finding the fastest route from start to finish. There are 16 tracks split into 4 tournaments with 8 racers in each. A load of flare effects on the lines and musical cues every time you move makes the game a delight to look at and listen to as well.

ULTRA POWERED MASSAGER
Clay Schubiner – 80 Points

Like Jeremy Clarkson this is a fairly weak and feeble thing that just screams POWER a lot. It’s the same developer as Get The Ball from about a month ago so if you missed that here’s your chance. Not that it’s really worth getting either.

Zombie Mania
William Ulrich – 400 Points

So it has come to this, Pac-Man with zombies. You wander around a maze collecting body bits and occasionally hacking a zombie with the axes dotted around. Then once all the bits are gathered you move on to a slightly more complex maze with more zombies. Zombies don’t make everything better, they deserve better than this.

Beer Screensaver
Entrager – 80 Points

Fuck off. From the one who brought you Remote Masseuse comes this shameless atrocity. Just a vaguely beer coloured screen with a few bubbles running up it. Remote Masseuse is the massage game most often cited as the spark for the flood and this isn’t going to help improve Entrager’s standing in the minds of most XNA developers.

Agent MMO: Maximum Overdeath
Agent MMO – 240 Points

AMMO is a game filled with references and in-jokes from Destructoid, a videogame site we love round here and where the game was nurtured through regular playtest sessions. The game is so steeped in the site that the entire staff is featured in the game. The problem is that the controls are extremely loose and the game moves as such a fast pace that it’s hard to keep track of just what the hell is going on. However, this is a game that was made for multiplayer dicking about and in Indie Game land that’s tricky territory. If you can convince your friends to buy it or if you’re already part of the Destructoid community that’s playing this game nightly already then it’s worth the money. If not however, you’re unlikely to get much fun out of it.

Pebble Dash
Lutas – 240 Points

We have recieved a token for this game so there will be a full NG review coming up before next week’s recap. Up until then I have no rating for you I’m afraid.

Music Roll
XELF – 80 Points

Another music sequencer, this time based around piano rolls. Those are those long rolls of paper that play automatic pianos. The problem I have with this however is that I can’t find any way to actually change the note played. I could figure out changing the note length, but an actual new note? Seemingly not possible. Something like this needs a controls diagram somewhere and for missing that out….

Destruction Tank
CS Kid AMC 360 – 240 Points

Yeah, bit of 3D tank action is what you need after that poncy music stuff. The 3D is very basic, almost 3DO stuff. Tanks have 2 weapons, a main cannon which needs restocking from ammo crates and a machine gun that overheats if used for too long. It’s basic one on one arena fighting but it’s still rather fun and if you can rope in a human competitor things can get rather heated and vicious. Might’ve just been my roommate though.

360 Mega App Pack HD
Seph – 80 Points

A massager, clock, button mashing game, a magic 8-ball, a calculator, random number generator and a Simon clone. This is pretty much the greatest hits version of the constant streams of crap that come through here. There’s a weird charm to the button masher though. Purely for gathering everything into one managable package I think this deserves more than the usual. If you have to buy this stuff, buy this whole pack so we only have one blight on the charts. Still cack you shouldn’t buy though.

Advanced Rock Paper Scissors
North West – 80 Points

Now I’ve seen this idea before elsewhere and I quite like it. The standard RPS (earth, water and fire here) formula plays out as you’d expect but numbers on the cards determine the damage done to each player. However the strategic possibilities of the idea aren’t properly realised. Breaking ties or even cancelling out potential winners with the element strength could’ve been done. This is an idea that shamefully hasn’t realised it’s potential.

Superspace
DeepSpace – 240 Points

The description made this sound like a sort of Freespace/Elite style trading game. What we have is a fairly dull game of collecting crates and shooting enemies in an environment so full of inertia that it makes any kind of precision control impossible. Disappointing.

SBDM-1
Notohoho – 240 Points

What is it with music sequencers around here lately? This is another one that looks very pretty but just like Music Roll is completely useless because once again it’s near impenetrable due to a lack of clear controls. I figure it’s based on a real sequencer, so if you know how to use that you’ll likely have more luck. For everyone else though, stay away.

The Last Cannonball
Jhample – 80 Points

Fire a cannonball and see how far it goes. That’s pretty much it. Bouncing the ball off dead bodies (slightly tasteless) and landmines will keep it going while sandpits and birds will slow it and stop it. It’s the sort of thing you’d see in a basic flash game but you’re being asked to pay for it. When pure luck is the only way to score highly it’s never a good thing.

Contagion
Trailer Matze – 240 Points

Contagion is a good looking game, there’s plenty of decent 3D models and animations in there. Just thought I’d get that out of the way because like so many good looking games the gameplay isn’t quite up to the job. The game itself consists of flying a ship around increasingly complex levels nurturing and controlling a bug population in order to restore power to the planet by utilising the bug’s inate electrical power. It’s fine in theory but the bulkiness of the ship combined with the need to keep the bug population under control makes things much more difficult than they need to be. Nice idea, shame it’s not really that much fun.

Megalopolis
Monkeys in Space Suits – 400 Points

They’re only there as window dressing in the stats screen but this is the first Indie Game to use Avatars! Good job the game manages to be pretty decent then. It’s a very nice looking Sim City-esque game with a focus on the environmental effects your growing settlement has on the surrounding area. So power stations and houses produce CO2 which has to be absorbed by planting trees. Produce too much CO2 and natural disasters will come in to wreak vengeance leading to global warming flooding your island. It’s nice and topical and really quite a lot of fun to play. Unlike regular Sim City.

Pentominion
Xisai – 240 Points

This is a thoroughly impenetrable puzzler. On the surface it’s Tetris with 5-part blocks instead of 4 to which I scream the usual “it’s 4 for a freaking reason” rage. However it adds in a scanning line that turns the blocks into music (which isn’t at all like Lumines, not even slightly) and an extremely confusing bonus system it terms “ignition”. This basically means finding a block with a special symbol in it, using that block to clear a line while ensuring no other block comes within a 1 block space of the symbol block and then surrounding the special block with other blocks to form an ignition block and boost the points you get for clearing lines. Confused? Yeah it didn’t make a damn bit of sense to me either, broken english tutorial or not.

Wacky Water Fun
North Squard – 80 Points

The shooting gallery idea can work for a videogame, it has been done. However it’s always done with a lightgun. With a controller this sort of game loses all of its fun and most crucially, its challenge. I’m not against these games being around, but with only an analog stick and a button there’s no fun in them.

Golden Tangram
Spyn Doctor – 80 Points

Here’s a confession, I love Tangrams. I believe that in any list of the greatest puzzling concepts ever made the Tangram and the lesser known offshoots the Pythagoras and Crossbreaker, both also featured in this game, should be seated high at the top table. The basic idea is simple, arrange the same 7 basic shapes into a multitude of different patterns. No time limit, no score, just you versus the puzzle. It’s basic to the point of insanity, but does contain 250 puzzles that should keep you going for weeks. For the price of an Avatar t-shirt, this is a no brainer if you have any interest in puzzles.

This week’s game of the week medal is proudly worn by Megalopolis, Keep an eye out for the full review of Pebble Dash at some point in the week and also bear in mind that we have plenty of other Indie Game reviews outside of this feature.

If you’re a developer who wants a bit more exposure for your game then feel free to send us a token, every game we get a token for will get £250 a full NG Review. If you want to get in on the XNA action yourself then check out XNA Creator’s Club or Kodu Game Lab.