CAG Recommended Xbox Indie Games

Myncy

Myncy

CAGiversary!
I always seem to be looking for a website to review Indie games but can never find anything consistent. So I thought I would go ahead and post at least some of the Xbox Indie game's I've enjoyed and hope to see some other recommendations pop up

Aban Hawkins & the 1000 SPIKES

A very old-school sort of platformer with 8-bit graphics and chiptunes. The gameplay itself is very tight: you feel in complete control of the character and few deaths can be blamed on anything but the player's fault. It's more like the old Price of Persia than Super Meat Boy, as the focus is on getting through one room full of different traps. Depending on skill it took me usually 10 minutes to finish a level, sometimes significantly less or more though. This game is pretty hard, but a recent update allows players to skip levels giving them trouble. Overall it's a highly-polished if difficult platformer that I can fully recomend
Price: 80 Points
 
Shoot 1-Up:

What I like about this game is when you collect a 1up, instead of a traditional extra life, you have another ship added to your phalanx, so you're controlling a whole fleet at once. Plus there's a ghost powerup that mirrors your phalanx for a period of time. You can see in the video that guy had 15 ships in his phalanx and got the ghost powerup, that's what the power meter is that counts down, so there's 30 ships at once all firing, or you can just drive them right into things. There are a couple areas in the game where you can take a right path and you fly sideways and it becomes a horizontal shooter like R-Type, or there's a free path where you can fly in any direction like Geomtery Wars (or Asteroids if you're a dick about it). You have to physically collect the points as they fall, which I'm not sure if I like or not. It's really short, but in my opinion, it's probably the best Indie Game out there as far as just the general quality of it all. You could easily put this in the Arcade for ten bucks. But you'll pay a dollar and you'll like it.

Click here for gratuitous shmup content:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhVuyXGIdkc
 
I 2nd Shoot 1-Up... great game that oozes quality :) There are a ton of great shmups on the 360 thanks to the indie channel. Shoot 1-Up, Vorpal, Vampire Rage, Score Rush, Decimation X3, Crossfire 1 and 2 (all the radiangames are amazing)

Since you like Aban Hawkins... why not give the same dev another shot with their earlier game Tempura of the Dead. It's $3 and an awesome retro style game. I haven't put in the time to beat it yet but I am about half way thru it and am really enjoying it. Basically it's like Contra with zombie head juggling :)

My favorite game on indie channel is Apple Jack. It's a great 2D platformer that is quite difficult and very fun. You throw enemies at each other like in Mario 2 on NES, except this time around you can time your attacks to build up a multiplier for the coins dropped by the fallen enemies. It's so awesome building it up huge and seeing the screen fill with coins. 100 levels of platform/puzzle brilliance. Prolly the best gaming $1 I've ever spent.

Another game similar to Aban Hawkins is Platformance: Castle Pain. It is much shorter than Aban but it is still a lot of fun. You can actually zoom the action out so you can see the entire game on the screen at once. It is basically one huge level that you have to navigate thru with tons of traps and obstacles. Great fun for $1. It was recently patched to include a local leaderboard, and they also have a future patch in the works for a LIVE leaderboard. The devs are also working on a sequel which I am highly anticipating.

Echoes+ is just about the best asteroids game you can ask for. If you even have the slightest interest in Asteroids, do yourself a favor and check this one out for $1.

Epic Dungeon is another one I have been having a blast with. There are a ton of reviews for this one around the web. Its a retro dungeon crawler that is done really well and is a lot of fun. $1 well spent on this one :)

I mentioned Vorpal earlier. This might be my favorite shmup in the indies. Nothing but straight up 1 on 1 boss fights. Maybe I like it so much because it's the only one I am decent at lol. The graphic style is awesome. I know if this game hit the arcades in the 90's it would have been a huge hit. I have beaten this one on Normal, still trying to improve my skills to master Hard. It's pretty tough and you feel great when you are dodging those crazy bullet patterns like a ninja.

Those are just a few I wanted to touch on. There are still a ton more great games in the indie channel for you to discover.

http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/

This guy is buying an indie game everyday and posting up brief reviews and video links. He has already reviewed some great games. Today's was Zombie Estate. If you don't have this one yet, just blind buy it, invite some friends over and have a great time. You can thank me later ;)
 
I made a game with zombies in it..

Spelled all jacked up though. It's easily the best $1 I ever spent on XBL. Think Super Smash TV but with zombies.
 
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