Sorry for the delay, a failure with my 360’s wireless adapter kept me away from the games last week but it’s sorted and we have a double week to contend with. I want to share something that caught my eye this week though to do with the brilliant Clover. It’s found a proper publisher! Clover: A Curious Tale has been picked up by Blitz 1up to be published on the PC with improved animations, soundtrack, extra puzzles and generally more stuff. If you’ve held out on getting the brilliant side scrolling adventure then this will no doubt be the version to get. It’s also the first XBL Indie Game to get picked up by a major publisher, so congratulations to Binary Tweed for that.

Next a little bit of business, there’s a patch out for Nasty which supposedly fixes a load of the complaints John had when he reviewed the game a while ago. There’s a proper note of the patch changes at the end of that review. OK then, let’s get down to the 33(!) games that comprise this week’s business.

On A Roll
Battenberg Software – 240 Points

Rolling a ball around levels has been done very well before, but usually in full 3D. I dare say it’s been a while since I last saw a 2D game do the idea justice but this game has managed to do it. The physics are restrained enough for momentum to not be a major annoyance while the ability to kill enemies by rolling into them at speed means you never get caught out by something you didn’t see. The level design in general is surprisingly good with all the major hazards well signposted so when you lose lives it never feels unfair. We’re starting on a high really.

Astero Defender
Deadwood Studios – 80 Points

One of the things which makes me wary of games is when they brag on the box art about only been 80 points. This is one of the many times when my fears are justified. Yet another dull and uninspired twin stick shooter that appears to have had no effort put into it whatsoever.

War Ships
Sevcikus – 240 Points

It’s Battleships. Very good looking and well made Battleships but still Battleships. There are a few things that justify it in videogameland, you can place your ships diagonally and also shoot down opponent’s missiles. There are also minesweeper-esque numbered squares to let you know you’re getting close. Surprisingly decent I think.

Tartaros
Enomiya – 240 Points

The FPS has become something of a holy grail in the world of Indie Games. Jonny Crush tried and failed due to a severe lack of polish and bad collision detection yet somehow Tartaros has managed to make the exact same mistakes. Poor animation mean you’re never really immersed in the world and shooting just over an enemy’s shoulder often results in a hit. Despite this however the game has much better pacing and controls than Jonny, which means those problems don’t annoy you as much.

Vector Force
David Turner – 80 Points

California State University San Bernardino is where this game was developed. I have to ask, does it really take a university to create another bland scrolling shooter? Vector Force does nothing that hasn’t been done before in much better games from selecting power-ups to bullet hell. The bullet hell in particular is shameful because there’s no pattern to it and the hitbox (the area of collision detection in a shooter) covers the whole ship. That’s a fundamental flaw that makes the game much harder and less fun than it should have been.

Astro Taxi
FifaKane – 240 Points

Landing games only really need 2 things to be successful. Good level design and tight controls. Astro Taxi manages the first bit but falls down on the controls which are so insanely sensitive that it took me 8 crashes before I could actually get off my starting platform. That’s a shame because the taxi gameplay actually works well with this kind of game, you just shouldn’t have to fight the controls to have fun.

Fireworks Screensaver
Lutas – 80 Points

It’s a screensaver with fireworks. As usual for this sort of thing we’re dealing less with anything resembling fireworks and more some cocky programmer showing off his particle skillz. You don’t even need to look at the rating image below really.

Mole Game
PA2 – 80 Points

There’s a whac-a-mole game elsewhere on XBLIG which utilises the Rock Band drum kit. I played it some time ago and it was surprisingly fun, however what made it fun was that tactile feedback from the drum kit itself. Mole Game has none of that, choosing instead to have 2 hammers controlled by the left and right sticks. It’s a good idea in theory and makes for a suitably tricky game but it’s just not fun.

Jake’s Room
Dennis McWilliams – 80 Points

Flight time now with a game based around destroying some kid’s toys. I love the look and the idea but here comes a flurry of flaws. The controls are stiff, your plane moves incredibly slowly, the game has a very loose definition of ‘toy’ (a bin is considered a toy) which makes clearing levels frustrating and the power-ups rarely seem to be effective in any way.

Cassie’s Corner
North Squard – 80 Points

One of our favourite gripes on NG is the notion on larger blogs that tits = hits. Well in this case a bad quiz game has been bundled with tits belonging to a horrible camwhore and at the time of writing is the second best selling game on XBLIG. Sometimes humanity just doesn’t live up to expectations.

Criminals Under Arrest
InterfaceKO – 80 Points

“One of the most beautiful city in the world” is the first line we get so things aren’t looking good already. It’s not much better in the game itself, the MS Paint graphics are nice but the gameplay is the usual bad collision detection we’ve come to expect from side scrolling fighting games around here. In this genre, that’s a critical flaw.

Junkyard Battle
Daevid – 80 Points

I’ve been honestly surprised by this game. The idea is to use a crane to pick up and carry bits of rubbish around the play area before using them to build a tower up to a line. The crane works well and controls with the precision and accuracy needed for this sort of thing. The physics of the tower are predictable enough for pre-planning to work. You can also concrete your tower to keep it stable. Then there’s a 2 player battle mode if you fancy doing things at speed. Really very good indeed.

Lander Mania
Hotshot 10101 – 80 Points

Hotshot 10101 is well known to us. He made his name with the rubbish maths games. However this is different, a lander game which controls tightly enough for them not be an issue. Landing on pads earns points and the idea is to land on as many as possible before running out of fuel. It’s good, but insubstantial. A more goal-based system of gameplay would’ve made this much better.

Picture Slider
Mortlash – 80 Points

Sliding tile puzzles. If you’re that desperate to play one of these then how about chopping up some of the photos you have around the house then mixing them up? It’ll have the same effect.

The Adhara War
Samuel Potter – 240 Points

At first glance this appears to be a fairly decent space strategy game. You can construct ships, defences for your homeworld and explore vast reams of space dodging suns and black holes through the campaign mode. However there’s a problem. When attacking or being attacked by enemy ships the whole thing changes from a decent (if a little overcomplicated) strategy game to a clunky and horrible to play shooter. This could have been great without that, with it the game becomes horrible.

The Fart Machine 2
Alex Blickenstaff – 80 Points

No. Just no. I am not even going to dignify this with a response, in fact I’m just going to do a little dance right now. Can you see it? Can you see me dancing? Hopefully that’s enough for formatting reasons, now here’s the inevitable.

PushCrates
KRGkill – 240 Points

The first time I played a game like this was on the old prelude to XBLIG the Net Yaroze. The basic aim is to push the crates onto the red X’s to clear the level. Simple and basic yet capable of such horrific mental torture. If you have a burning desire for this sort of game then go for it, but everyone else should seek out the hundreds of flash games that do it just as well.

RadRiverRun
MadMojo – 240 Points

First thing’s first, Rad River Run is very good looking. In screenshots. Yes what looks pretty and 3D up there is actually extremely generic and jerky. The game suffers from the same shiny model syndrome that plagued a lot of early 360 games. Riding round a river also doesn’t have the same sense of excitement when you will just go in whichever direction you point with no momentum carrying over. This is a good game concept which has been done brilliantly before, however R3 just doesn’t cut it.

Alien Encounters
SGN – 240 Points

SGN. Star Gaming Network. These guys have produced some incredible turds in their time. This shows promise though; it’s a full 3D game in that holy grail Indie Game genre, the FPS. So after sitting through not one but two long loading bars (I’ll repeat that, two loading bars for no real reason) we get into a fairly decent shooter with a rather brutal difficulty. Not taking cover will see the enemy’s vastly superior weapons destroy your health bar in seconds. If you can get past that annoyance there’s a lot to like here with a surprisingly complex game.

Summer Vacation
DK Alpha – 80 Points

If you like puzzle games you’ve probably played the awesome Toki Tori (WiiWare). A puzzler based around collecting eggs by using tools and the environment to avoid enemies and cross hazards. Well this is very similar. By pushing blocks around and using the tools you’ll find around the level, the idea is to collect all the stars on the beach. If you have a love of puzzles then certainly check it out, but it’s really not for everyone.

Rail Gun Charlie
Duckocide – 240 Points

This is action defence, defending pods from enemies trying to snatch them away. It’s decent in concept but moves at such an insane speed that it’s a nightmare to control. This sheer speed plus the blisteringly bright colours make everything extremely hard to play, and hard to play makes a game not fun.

XCross
Ralph78fr – 240 Points

Confession time again like it was for Golden Tangram a few weeks ago. I love Picross puzzles to the level where it can get rather disturbing. This is a vast array of very fine puzzles which will give newbies a gentle introduction while providing some stuff I haven’t seen before like 3D Picross puzzles (labelled at ‘experimental’ in case people find they don’t really work) which add an entirely new level of challenge. Picross fans should snap this up and everyone else should at least try this awesome puzzle form. It’s better than Sudoku.

Spider Evader
SRH – 80 Points

We’ve all seen that steady hand mouse game that lulls you into a false sense of security before scaring the living shit out of you once you finally make a mistake. Well this is the same thing. I didn’t play it myself, instead I followed the game’s instructions and got my roommate to play it. My roommate is terrified of spiders and as you’d expect this game scared him shitless. Well worth it, but not worth any kind of money.

D-Cypher
BlatterChip – 80 Points

This is an old form of logic puzzle where a preset sequence must be guessed through trial and error. The game doesn’t work. I entered in the same guess at the code twice and was given 2 different responses as to the colours I’d gotten right. File this one under broken game.

Alien Pyramid Challenge
Swampopus – 80 Points

This kind of minimalist platformer has become pleasingly prevalent on XBLIG lately and I’m very happy about that. The idea is to ferry blocks around the levels to reach the exit. It’s the purest form of puzzle platforming and the well designed levels and difficulty curve make this a joy to play.

Tarot
Pill360 – 240 Points

As someone who writes rather sarcastically I’m supposed to be extremely sceptical and dismissive in all matters related to mysticism and fortune telling. However it’s confession time again and I must say I have some belief in Tarot readings. I like the artwork on the cards (something this can’t quite get across), I have friends who are otherwise incredibly sceptical yet believe in it and it has a specific-ness (that’s a word) that other forms of fortune telling lack. A computerised version though can’t even come close to any of that, so don’t bother.

Paint Boll
Candela Creations – 80 Points

I would love to give you some details on this game, but it only supports two players and I only have one controller. If you’re in a similar situation then avoid, if you’re in a two controller situation then maybe try it but for not bothering with a basic AI…

Galactic Escape
o KB o – 240 Points

More lander nonsense. You start to notice an over-abundance of these genres when you do a double week. This one is pretty and controls rather nicely but commits a cardinal sin of lander games. You can’t see where you’re going. All vision is restricted to your ship’s headlamp which makes playing a nightmare. In a lander game you must be able to see what’s around you, else you turn to look and end up smashing into a rock two inches below you which you couldn’t see.

Pumpkin Carver
Stegersaurus Games – 80 Points

Something like this could work, but only if it’s done in a proper free-form manner. This has you selecting parts from an (admittedly large) list which ruins a lot of the creative fun of carving a pumpkin. Pointless.

Arkedo Series: Jump!
Arkedo – 240 Points

More platformer tomfoolery now in a proper 8-bit style. The idea is similar to Bomb Jack where you must gather up all the bombs dotted around the stage before finding the level exit. Naturally enemies and hazards like falling platforms and spike pits get in your way. The visuals have the same mix of 8-bit graphics with 2009 effects that made us fall in love with Rocket Riot and the game has a very similar sense of humour. Not to mention the power-ups and generally excellent fun this game offers.

Slingstar
Ork Princess Games – 80 Points

What does a token look like? Well Wex knows because he’s gotten the one we have been sent for this not-a-shooter. The full review should be up within a week, so you can look forward to that if you want opinion.

The Visualiser
ShadowRage – 80 Points

Visualisers have started to genuinely annoy me now, partly because they’re worthless piles of turd that don’t belong on the service but also because the default 360 visualiser is very good. It was designed by Jeff Minter, a man who spent years studying lightsynths and then ended up using them in the excellent Space Giraffe. This is probably the closest anyone’s gotten to that default brilliance though. It doesn’t get very close, but it’s the closest. Still not worth paying money for though.

Fields Reloaded
Reedake2 – 80 Points

Side-scrolling shooting, Contra-style. The gangsta look actually gives this game a bit of personality while the light platforming works well enough to not get in the way of the shooting. The game also has a little bullet-time mechanic much like Max Payne. Using this slows time down allowing you to dodge bullets and fire off plenty of your own. It’s something that can go incredibly wrong but has been implemented perfectly, allowing you to escape nasty situations without immense frustration. So it looks good, plays well and its gimmicks work. Only one reward for that combination.

Game of the week? Well it’s tricky but Arkedo Series: Jump! has to take it. Good platforming is hard to come by and this game has gotten it 100% right.

If you’ve been struck by game-creating inspiration then check out XNA Creator’s Club or Kodu Game Lab for tools and advice for making that dream a reality. 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 accept a token for will get a full NG Review. You can also advertise on the site by clicking the Project Wonderful links below any of the site ads.