XBLIG Xbox Live Indie Games discussion

D

dirtyvu

CAGiversary!
I know there's a lot of negativity regarding the XBLIG marketplace. And part of the negativity is how hard it is for the great titles to be easily found. But I think XBLIG deserves a regular thread for people to talk and show off some of the great titles out there. I tried to find a regular XBLIG thread and didn't see one that can encompass the genre.

So if this thread dies, it dies. But I'll do my part to keep it alive.

some great resources I found and others have told me about:

http://indiegamerchick.com/

http://thexblig.com/

http://theindiemine.com/

http://www.xboxindies.com/games/Default.aspx

http://gear-fish.com/

http://www.xblaratings.com/

http://xblig.co/


Here's a gem that I recently ran across. It's just beautiful. Youtube doesn't do it justice. Give the game a try if you like SHMUPs at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VpS0Ald5-g
It's call Snops Attack! Zombie Defense.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGvHFFihzJ0
Little Racers STREET. I love this game! great controls. great tracks. great graphics.
1:51 first race of career mode. 3:41 2nd career mode race. 7:07 3rd career mode race. 9:44 quick race showing beautiful rain and night effects on a great track and a major comeback win.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6MfZsdjl14
Gateways! It's on sale for $1 (normally $3?). A great 2D Portal.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWiHcRnystU
Smooth Operators. fun micromanagement game


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H82taaHLQWQ
MotorHEAT. a game that does a great take on the classic checkpoint racers like Outrun or Enduro Racer for the Atari 2600.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9an3YMyuhE
Speedrunner HD. terrific platformer with great graphics. you totally feel like Spider-Man in this one.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMFIg-ORPfU
Moe Mekuri 3. a nice puzzle with a naughty anime touch and some great music.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4U50Pawg48
Tic Part 1. beautiful graphics. great control.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_33fP3LMl_Y
Revolver360. another good SHMUP. the twist is that you can rotate the plane.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OClhxPm3pw
LightFish. a great game based on Qix. So if you ever wanted to play Qix on a modern system, this is a great way to do it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPYfTzaL1Y0
Orbitron: Revolution. loosely based on Defender. great job!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyIUqav480Q
Lots of Guns. This is a simple game but surprisingly addicting.
 
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I just played Decimationx3 today! yeah, it was interesting. for those of you who haven't tried Decimation, it's a space invaders type of game with some cool effects. give it a shot.
 
anyone try out this XBLIG title yet? you own an 80s arcade and it's your job to decide what arcade machines to add to the arcade. you have to manage everything from emptying the coins to fixing the ROM boards. looks interesting. for people that like micromanaging games (also like to give a shout-out for the excellent Smooth Operators which is only $1).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHYijBEZySM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1d0AQunxrs

damn... an arcade is hard to run! razor thin margins. gamers get bored of the game before you can pay off the expense of the machine. they break all the time. paying back that loan is crazy! did you learn any tips to running it better? I don't want to be jacking up the prices to 50 cents. and I didn't realize a killer is when they release a home version of an arcade machine.



I'm thinking you have to raise the prices when the popularity is sky high for the machine? I thought about lowering the difficulty of the machine when it's not popular any more. But it doesn't seem to improve the popularity or raise the revenue from the machine.



I made a lot of mistakes my first time around. I think I'll know better what to do my second time around. Did I say this is hard??? :p
 
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Arcadecraft is ok. It crashes to dashboard occasionally but the autosave is very reliable so nothing is ever really lost. There's not much to it and it's not difficult to get to the point where you're never in any danger of going bankrupt, but it's a decent game for 3 bucks.
 
what tips do you have for arcadecraft? the way I figure so far (just got it) is to be pretty frugal in the beginning with not a lot of machines. that was my downfall my first time through.

i'm on my second game save and trying to manage much better but it's still a struggle. i'm not cash starved like before but it's like I'm breaking even between what I earn and repairs. I don't see myself getting out of the $13K loan before it's due.

luckily, it's never crashed for me.
 
I've seen it best to be pretty aggressive - buy the soda machine and jukebox as early as you can and jack up the prices, especially in regards to the jukebox. You can leave most of your actual game pricing alone, just keep adding games. Even if a game was unpopular I'd usually keep it until they tell you a home version is released. First time around I messed with a lot of the extras like flooring and decorations and it didn't do much as much good as buying games would have. Can save that cosmetic stuff for later once you're already starting to rake it in.
 
I gave Arcadecraft a try. I played it for a few hours until it crashed, but I wasn't having any trouble. In my first game I never had a money problem, and had paid off the loan and had more money than I knew what to do with by the time the game crashed. I think I was in 1982.

My strategy was to judge which game to buy based upon which real life game they were representing. Like Phantom was clearly a fake Pac Man. There was also a fake Defender and Missile Command, both games that were extremely popular in real life. I put in a jukebox early on when I only had like 3 machines and jacked up the prices for it, because it seemed to hold its popularity for some reason. I never duplicated machines until I had a lot of machines and then it was only the games that I knew represented huge sellers in real life. The soda machine also was a good moneymaker and I jacked it up to 50 cents pretty quickly.

By the time my game crashed I had maxed out the building power and machines I could have, and was burning money on the useless stuff like changing the color of the walls. I was begging the game to give me a 2nd employee since machines were filling up faster than he could collect the money and spent 100% of my time zipping around doing nothing but repairing stuff and collecting change. Btw, at first I didn't notice you had to hold the button down to collect all the change. If you just quickly hit the button you won't get much cash out of the machine. That could also be your problem.
 
third time around was my success. the key was realizing the monthly cycle and where you were in the cycle. for some reason, I kept thinking it was a daily cycle and never knew when the start and end was, which is key for making purchases. once I saw that it was monthly and that you can see the days of the month roll by at the top of the screen, it became easier.

can't wait for the updates to the game. if the game does well, the programmer said he'll be able to update it for free. some of his updates sound great, especially the ability to have more than 30 machines as well as a bigger arcade:

http://firebase.ca/arcadecraft-faq/

First Large Content Update:
Date Planned: Mid March 2013 Delivery

  • 1980-1985 3-4 extra games added to back fill the game here and there.
  • 1985 fully fleshed out with the empty months having machine releases.
  • 1986 simulated including 12/13 new games to complete the year.
  • Includes one new import and one new sitdown cabinet.
  • 1-2 New Vending Machines. Snack Machine, Toy Crane, or Change Machine.
  • 1 new game manufacturer.
  • A new cash based item to improve your games.
  • Heatmapping the floor. Certain squares on the floor are naturally better to put machines on while others are worse.
  • Difficulty levels or difficulty tweaks. eg Genres only worth 1/4 a star instead of 1/2. Machine popularity lower to compensate for the heatmap.
  • All new, larger location with new customization options. At least one tile strip larger in both directions.
  • New Power Box Upgrade for more machines.
  • Everyone’s Arcade Names appearing in the Global Scoreboard Screen.
  • “Milestones” or faux Achievements to be attained.
  • Another Seasonal Item of some kind.
  • Exterior environment changes depending on the season and possibly the year.
 
Finally whittled down to what I "think" I'm buying from XBLIG, out of the 1500 or so I researched. (out of the almost 3000 available)

Yes, I went to 1500 results on this site. :drool:

http://www.xblaratings.com/xblig-ratings

From top ranked to lowest ranked, sure I know I probably missed out 20 or so hidden gems in there (there's that much junk on there to go through...sigh), but it took me almost a year to go through, have time to play them and then keep up on weekly releases, play those and then finally compile a nice little amount.

Some of the more "popular" ones that people liked, I didn't and wasn't going to pay for them, so away they went, I only wanted to keep shining examples of what was really cool as demos or things I was going to play. (Gateways and Blocks that Matter come to mind as not my taste) (also if you've not played A Voxel Action, you need to, I don't recommend a purchase, but it is so cool looking, that it needs to be played at least once, there is virtually nothing out there like it, imagine if Mario was in 2.5D and make up of pixels, 'Nuff said.)

If people are interested I can post what I kept. (its based on my taste, but I think what I kept are generally good to high quality titles) I was going to keep at 80pts only, but that was too strict and there are some awesome titles for 240 that I'd have to miss out on and I wasn't willing to do that. One 400pt game survived (the awesome Bleed) and only one that I played was 800pts (a JPN Super Dodge Ball clone with River City/Kunio inspired characters) I played it last night and it got deleted, it was too complicated and not as much fun or colorful as the masterpiece that is Super Dodgeball on the Neo Geo.

I did keep Protect Me Knight from Yuzo Koshiro's Ancient Corp. which is a throwback to 8 bit NES games, and its a love letter too, so awesome, worth getting and so addictive even at 240 pts.

I'll second Snops Zombie Attack, awesome game, if you like Shmups, and DoDonpachi, its a nice fit. And fitting with the zombie theme, Tempura of the Dead is pretty rad too, nice 8-bit throwback to the zombie explosion of games in the last decade.

Anyway I'll continue later, including what I've bought, some I recommend and some I need recommendations on since good 8/16 bit RPG's are quite prevalent on the service and I need to know if I should spend cash on some of them. (one really awesome 16 bit one, that is really cool just really unpolished and in need of a patch since the music cuts in and out during play, which is shame)

Oh and buy the Zeboyd games, they're awesome, and Bloody Checkers, even though it cheats....I'll stop now, I promise. ;)
 
[quote name='uncle5555']
(also if you've not played A Voxel Action, you need to, I don't recommend a purchase, but it is so cool looking, that it needs to be played at least once, there is virtually nothing out there like it, imagine if Mario was in 2.5D and make up of pixels, 'Nuff said.)

One 400pt game survived (the awesome Bleed) and only one that I played was 800pts (a JPN Super Dodge Ball clone with River City/Kunio inspired characters) I played it last night and it got deleted, it was too complicated and not as much fun or colorful as the masterpiece that is Super Dodgeball on the Neo Geo.

I did keep Protect Me Knight from Yuzo Koshiro's Ancient Corp. which is a throwback to 8 bit NES games, and its a love letter too, so awesome, worth getting and so addictive even at 240 pts.

I'll second Snops Zombie Attack, awesome game, if you like Shmups, and DoDonpachi, its a nice fit. And fitting with the zombie theme, Tempura of the Dead is pretty rad too, nice 8-bit throwback to the zombie explosion of games in the last decade.

Oh and buy the Zeboyd games, they're awesome, and Bloody Checkers, even though it cheats....I'll stop now, I promise. ;)[/QUOTE]

I also thought A Voxel Action was cool. But I don't really like platformers. People will kill me for this, but I never got into the Super Mario games.

Thanks for some of the recommendations! Looking forward to other games you found interesting. I'll look up Bleed, Protect Me Knight, Tempura of the Dead, and Zeboyd. haven't tried those.
 
[quote name='dirtyvu']I also thought A Voxel Action was cool. But I don't really like platformers. People will kill me for this, but I never got into the Super Mario games.

Thanks for some of the recommendations! Looking forward to other games you found interesting. I'll look up Bleed, Protect Me Knight, Tempura of the Dead, and Zeboyd. haven't tried those.[/QUOTE]

Actually I meant the Zeboyd games title like Cthulhu saves the world, Breathe of Death and Penny Arcade 3, sorry if that confused you.

Protect me Knight, so awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTgGBimNHSM

Found a new Japanese one, I'll have to look into it more it's a platformer you can slow time down (like Bleed) and it looks pretty cool, will post when time permits. (I wished there was a best of JPN XBLIG, out there, very hard to find information on many of them, for me anyway)

And I'll go through and post my semi-official keeper list when I can, I think I have a pretty good $#!% filter for good games after all of these years, and have the best of the best and even ones that stand out from the pack. Of course I deleted many "must have" XBLIG games people recommend, well just because I didn't like'em so I tend to go against the grain sometimes, so I might post those too.
 
I'd love to see people's lists. If I get the motivation I'll post all the indie games I've bought, along with those I'd still like to buy.
 
We had a ton of fun with Zombie Estate. Great couch co-op although IIRC the later waves kind of peter out since you have all of the powerful weapons. The music can be grating though so be sure to do a custom playlist (we made ours hilarious).

My kids love Techno Kitten Adventures. Not much to the game and it never saves your scores but it really screws with you on certain levels.
 
not to poo-poo the good zombie games out there because there are good ones... but the public fascination with zombies has been so bright, it's hard to see some of the gems in the marketplace. it's gotten to the point that games not related to zombies have to throw the word zombie in there to attract some attention. something like "a game not about zombies".

same thing with minecraft clones. so many people are looking for a cheaper alternative to minecraft so there's a glut of sales for these clones.

not that these zombie and minecraft games don't deserve their sales. but a lot of buzz is self-serving. the popular games keep getting pushed by their owners who don't go outside these popular games. and so unless you make a great impression at the beginning, you're forever left in the dust.

discovery is the biggest problem with XBLIG and I wonder how that can be fixed. all the XBLIG review sites are (not meaning to slight anyone) fringe sites. It'd be nice if the bigger sites reviewed them as well. I'd point to Kotaku but Kotaku has really strange game selections. They seem to prefer pointing to unique games because they're novel. and they love their 8-bit art! you make a game with 8-bit art and Kotaku will include it.
 
[quote name='dirtyvu']
discovery is the biggest problem with XBLIG and I wonder how that can be fixed.

all the XBLIG review sites are (not meaning to slight anyone) fringe sites. It'd be nice if the bigger sites reviewed them as well.

I'd point to Kotaku but Kotaku has really strange game selections. They seem to prefer pointing to unique games because they're novel. and they love their 8-bit art! you make a game with 8-bit art and Kotaku will include it.[/QUOTE]

Would be nice, but I don't see that to be a case that will happen.

As I mentioned in my initial post on page 1 with almost 3000 games, no one (who's sane anyway ;) ) will take the time to review all of them, or even really allow for the best of the best to rise to the top as it were, and even then, who's to say what the general public likes that you'll like, ya know, you're lucky to find Youtube footage of most of them if you're lucky.

I'll mention four of them right now (only sadly 1 is available on the marketplace at the moment, the time manipulation game)

Twin Blades (zombie and nun, was removed from marketplace) http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=NYi6_q-K5ps
Dawn of the Ronin (not released yet)
Ninja Rising (not released yet, from the developers of Revolver 360)

These last two have real promise and look really good and are lined up for release sometime this year hopefully. Should be interesting to see them come out.


Time K (the time game)
 
[quote name='uncle5555']
Updates on these two

Twin Blades - Was Win 7 phone only was XBLIG, then yanked, now on iPhone and PSN (as a mini)
Time K - I seriously cannot recommend even though it's cool looking, the 60 second per level time limit mechanic kills the game for me, and the 1 hit death and hit detection puts the nail in the coffin, looks cooler than it is, sadly

Will post my list hopefully in the next day or two, pressed for time otherwise I would've.[/QUOTE]

Took a bit longer than I anticipated but here it is, MY definitive list of XBLIG games.

Note: These are based solely on my taste, there are many on the list that I added back to the "cannot recommend" section that other people praise, that being said, I just couldn't see myself spending money on them, even with the pedigree they have.

Onto the list.

Prologue - As I mentioned before, I have literally scoured the XBLIG catalog looking for hidden gems and the best of the best (as is my compulsion to do, sadly) as I looked at top rated games (stuff like Minecraft clones, zombie games and other utter crap like that just littered the lists, I knew there had to be more out there games that fell through the cracks that needed to be discovered and played...so here is the result of that quest to find the best.

So I took on the arduous task of going through 1600 of 3000 total available titles rated from highest to lowest on http://www.xblaratings.com/xblig-ratings to find the best of the best, this took me over a year to compile, hence why I didn't want to go insane checking the list 100% to separate the wheat from the chaff, and I hope the list I compiled is just that what **I** consider to be the best of the best, sometimes I agreed with the masses other times, it wasn't even close, some critical darlings were like wtf, what did I miss that they saw they I'm not seeing. Others I was like, damn right this is a cool game.

And I can safely say I have compiled a list of what I consider games that are worth your money to buy, and even included a list of games that might be acclaimed for completions sake, but ones, I cannot wholeheartedly recommend, because they were missing that something.


Note: I'll add notes as I see fit, and comment on things on the list. Also most are ONLY 80 MSP, but there are few that are 240 (and recommended, btw, otherwise they wouldn't be on this list, since I'm that cheap, and one 400 one I recommend, there is an 800 point one, but I could not recommend it at that price, plus it's not the definitive version of that game)

I also might add links to all of the games at some point, but right now, this post is taking me forever to write (2 hours at present), so I hope copying and pasting into Xbox.com will suffice for most of you, I put links to the JPN games that might be hard to find otherwise.


Now because you asked for it, nay demanded it, I present....

My personal / definitive XBLIG list of games to play and/or buy

Yellow games are my personal must buys, highly recommended.

A voxel action - no buy recommendation, but you MUST play it once, so cool to see if nothing else, platforming in 2.5D from an isometric viewpoint is a bitch
Abel hawkins and the 1000 spikes - hard to recommend, as it can be frustrating, not for those easily angered
Aeternum - a side scrolling shmup with a magical demon girl, nuff said?
akane the kinochi - Simple, but cute platformer, still deciding if its fun or not, heh
apple jack - see below
apple jack 2 - much better than the predessor, think SMB - evolved
arkedo series - pixel / swap / jump (on PSN as a bundle, if you get one get Pixel! it's a cute and cool little platformer)
ascent of kings - if you like (or know) the games Clash at Demonhead or Uforia, play it, you will love it, recommended
astro man - loose recommendation, not sure if I will buy this or not
being - a 2d platforming game in the style of the amiga or commodore game, game has design faults with puzzles though or challenge as the designer probably likes to say video here https://www.youtube.com /watch?v=L19uylRxQDc
bleed - high quality 2D sidescroller, one of the more expensive ones on the list at 400 msp
bloodycheckers - you play checkers in a haunted castle, seriously, why are you waiting, addictive, but the CPU cheats...a lot in later levels, lots to explore, find and do, did I mention it's only $1
bonded realities - very hand made RPG, it has potential if you look past its gfx, recommended
breath of death vii - see cthulu saves the world below
chronoblast - haven't played it yet, suppose to be a good shmup
city tuesday - worth to play the demo alone, not sure if I recommend it though
cthulu saves the world - awesome, buy it, 8/16 bit RPG with lots of humor / satire thrown in for good measure
diehard dungeon - zelda like (kinda) hard to recommend though, worth a demo play to see if worth buying
dlc quest - cool little sidescrolling platformer
doom & destiny - four friends get sucked into another world, 16 bit rpg think FF 4-6 it needs patched though, sound and music break up badly during battles
dynasty of dusk - an 8-bit rpg, where you have one character who changes jobs within battle to best defeat the enemy, worth a play of the demo to exp. the unique battle system
escape goat - didn't think I'd like it, but very addictive puzzle game starring a goat?!?... and a mouse
evilquest - you're evil and on a quest, any questions, action rpg with good humor
guarding - a 16 bit rpg
lasercat - it's lasercat, old school platforming puzzle metroidvania, must buy
ophidin wars: opacs journey - a less fun, actionless metroid game, no idea why I kept it on here and am considering buying it, but it grew on me
overdriven - neat little shmup
penny arcade's rain slick 3 - must buy if you like Breath of Death or cthulu saves the world
platformance castle pain - do you like dying a lot, awesome pixel art, neat little puzzle platforming game
platformance temple death - see above
prismatic solid - JPN shump, bright, colorful, fun, any questions
raventhorne - milkstone sidescrolling beat'em up, low recommendation, fun, but missing that something to make it great
revolver 360 - never have you played a shmup that you can literally rotate the play field, recommendation to play only, not to buy as there is no real ending, also check out the devs new game it looks f'kn sweet, I mentioned it above, Ninja Rising.
shoot 1up - low recommendtion, unique take on the shmup genre, you can literally have 20+ ships on the screen at the same time, ugly as all hell though, (a mommy's best games creation)
snops attack! zombie defense - if you like shmups play it, seriously why are you still here, zombie cats meets dodonpachi, hell why am I not playing it right now, awesome (note 240 points)
soulcaster - awesome, archer, knight, (forgot one) and mage each one has a specific power to kill enemies, just play it, highly recommended
soulcaster II - the not as good sequel to the above
space milkman - JPN 2d sidescroller, weird, but worth a play/buy
sushi castle - milkstone game, clone of smash tv, good, but not great
techno kitten adventure - no recommendation to buy, just play it, you'll never be the same
the fall of the gods - nice little 16 bit zelda like game
the tempura of the dead - awesome 2d sidescroller, a samurai and the president kill zombies, play it....now.
white noise: a tale of horror - a Slender clone, you will still jump and be pissed you couldn't find all of those damned tape recorders (there is an online multiplayer mode for it now too)
wisplisp array of list - don't ask me how to play, I still can't figure it out, a weird shmup, that has to be experienced
wizorb - I usually don't like breakout clones, but this one I do, weird
Doki Doki Steam - a bathhouse, a girl in a towel and her duck, yes it's japanese and you must at least play it once, it's crazy. Here's a page talking about the game
heppokokisi - developed by winglay
protect me knight (Yuzo Koshiro's Ancient Corp made it) - already mentioned it already if you didn't buy it yet, why not, go buy it, now, note: 240 points


Cannot recommend
(I explained most, some couldn't be bothered, they have their redeeming factors, but I cannot recommend spending money on them for various reasons)

explosionade - why couldn't this be cooler, it looks so awesome too, but controls like crap and its boring, a shame too (mommy's best games release)
time K - I can't recommend this now after playing it, see my quote at top)
rad raygun - bad mega man clone with hit detection issues, worth trying
downtown smash dodgeball - not worth $10, play Super Dodgeball on Neo Geo instead
grand class melee - got some acclaim, I think it got tedious and boring since you do nothing more than jam buttons to kill your enemy, yawn.
gateways! - why did people like this, its boring, not everything that tries something new is worth playing and neither is this.
oozi earth adventure - nice little 2D sidescroller, worth $1, but not from me
bureau: shattered slipper - an adventure game with action sequences, try it it's unique...(best word I got)
cute things dying violently - no idea why people like this
t.e.c. 3001 - cool looking 3D indie game (think bit trip runner in 3D), gets tedious though
vampire rage - a shmup with heart that has its fans, but it's too garish looking and cheap with the hits for me to recommend to other than the shmup fan who has to play every shmup ever made
who is god - addictive, but gets cheap as you get further in, plus no real goal one of them how far can you make it casual games
weapon of choice - turrican & contra fans, this is a game for you, too janky for me, passed on it, shame lots of potential too.
soul - frustratingly hard puzzle game, that received lots of praise, I think it does cheap kills, you might like it, me I deleted it before the trial was even up
blocks that matter - critical darling, I hated it, you might not
rushing punch - quirky JPN title, no recomendation other than to download and play the demo and drink in the DC (maybe) era gfx
running with scissors
redshift - an overhead shmup, red outline design striking, but ultimately boring, for completionists only
rainbow runner - the psychedelic version of bit trip runner, you gotta see it, no buy recommendation though
hypership out of control & still out of control - shump with a blazing lasers vibe, not bad, just not worth buying to me
honey badger slayer of memes
don't die dateless dummy - ughh, large animeish big boobie girls, lame
dead pixels - going to try it again, didn't like it the first time, but megaman aesthetic meets RE and River City Ransom with zombies, yay?
demon house fps - awesome looking indie game, ruined by shit hit detection and control, these guys have some talent here.
rocketgirl - wtf, big tits with a giant rocket between her legs...yeahhh :roll:
johhny carnage - what Duke Nukem 1 & 2 are glad they are not...ughh
lumi - beautiful and charming, the controls ruin everything, if you take the time to learn it, I'm sure it's great 5 minutes in and I never wanted to play it again, how's that for damning praise)
curse of the crescent isle - loose recommendation, trying it again to see if I unfairly judged it, the first time
Nuclear Wasteland 2030 - awesome looking (some glitches), plays nice, but not my type of game (if you like Team Fortress I'd recommend it)
Xenominer - on many top 10 lists, if Descent and Minecraft had a baby this would be it, I didn't like it, you might though
Infinity Danger - milkstone game I beleive, shmup game were you fight bosses in increasingly more difficult challenges, which I believe are randomly generated, got tedious, but recommended to try and maybe buy
Motor Heat - another Milkstone game, addictive driving game were you boost past cars and power up to go faster to beat the clock and get to the check point in time, problem is, it gets boring fast, great looking and serviceable, just needed some goals is all
quiet please! - if I had more than 7 minutes to enjoy it, I probably would recommend it, even though reviews said 1-2 hours, and no replay value, if you like 8-bit side scrolling puzzle games about a little girl with an annoying family...this game is for you?
8bitsretroZsurvivals - think Wolf 3D with zombies, kill zombies, get cash and buy items and weapons, you are in an enclosed house, it would have been cooler if you could leave the house no recommendation other than to try it out
60 seconds to park - cool premise, the controls and hit detection run what could have been an awesome concept, a shame really.
red invasion: TD blitzkrieg - C&C Red Alert as tower defense, yes please, oh wait, not fun, now I'm sad
smooth operators - highly praised, think sim city meets call centers, I deleted it after 3 minutes, so keep that in mind
kung fu fight! - bit trip runner, with kung fu aesthetic, only for fans of those games, which I'm not one of them
fatal seduction - I would recommend this game on story alone a disturbed little girl narrates her life which is fully voiced, however the gameplay is crap, recommended at $1 for story alone.
gravitron 360 - wow awesome a 360 version of defender, damn and it's sweet looking too, but I forgot I hate defender, so if you like sweet gfx, defender and paying $1 check it out.
vorpal - a black and white vertical shmup - not recommended except for completionists
Spyleaks - overhead puzzle title about a spy breaking into a secure building, no buy recommendation, but you might enjoy it enough to pick it up


Developers to look out for
Milkstone Games - quality titles, but almost each one is missing that something that makes the games great, lot of talent here though, they have a few good ones in there as well, best part, they all cost $1.
Mommy's Best Games - hit or miss dev, some cheap looking titles, but quality game play in most of them
Zeboyd Games- If you liked 8 or 16 bit RPG's with some humor in them, these are the guys to go to, also Penny Arcade 4 (the final one, in Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger inspired gameplay) is on the way and has a release date of TBA 2013, so look for it.
radian games - high quality games that I sadly cannot recommend...at all, they are missing that something I can't describe, highly playable, great looking just not the fun I was looking for, still check'em out, you might find something I passed over and like it a lot.
 
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wow! thanks for the list! have to check them out.

i really like milkstone and own a few of their games. MotorHEAT looks like Burnout and reminds me one of my favorite Atari 2600 games, Enduro Racer. Little Racers Street is an awesome game with a terrible title.. If there's one Milkstone game to get, this is the one. I'm not sure why, but I also liked Avatar Ninja 2 (maybe it's because I see my friends running by me).
 
[quote name='dirtyvu']wow! thanks for the list! have to check them out.

i really like milkstone and own a few of their games. MotorHEAT looks like Burnout and reminds me one of my favorite Atari 2600 games, Enduro Racer. Little Racers Street is an awesome game with a terrible title.. If there's one Milkstone game to get, this is the one. I'm not sure why, but I also liked Avatar Ninja 2 (maybe it's because I see my friends running by me).[/QUOTE]

Glad to help, hope it is some help to people interested, it took long enough to compile and write up.

Yeah as I said on the devs on the bottom, milkstone is a quality dev, it just seems like some of their games are missing a little something from taking them from just good to really great, otherwise I'd recommend most all of them, lots of talent there. Now off to actually play some of these now, instead of writing about them, heh. ;)

Keep the comments coming, I'm interested in hearing what everyone thinks of the games, the list or anything else XBLIG wise.
 
I'd recommend Miner Dig Deep. It's a lot like Terraria, with a little less depth (pun not intended). If you ever found yourself trying to mine the whole screen in DigDug, you'll probably like it:)
 
I tried the demo for Bleed, and I must say it's pretty damn awesome. However, Given the current size of my backlog, and the fact that I rarely pay more than 400 msp for even XBLA games, for now I'm just going to keep my eyes open for a sale or price drop on that one. (Biology Battle is in the same boat for me.)
 
[quote name='seppuku']I tried the demo for Bleed, and I must say it's pretty damn awesome. However, Given the current size of my backlog, and the fact that I rarely pay more than 400 msp for even XBLA games, for now I'm just going to keep my eyes open for a sale or price drop on that one. (Biology Battle is in the same boat for me.)[/QUOTE]

Bleed is one of the few I would put down 400 MSP for.

Also I'll have few recommendations and such probably next weekend, as some new indies worth playing cropped up and some others I can't recommend, since they looked promising, but were total crap or didn't live up to the potential.
 
Did they ever change the DRM that made you be signed into Live to play the full versions of these games or do the ones you've purchased still show up as demos offline?
 
A real quick update, on a few newer (and older) demos I played this weekend for the first time or gave another chance too. Please forgive me if I mention some of these again, but that shouldn't matter too much I wouldn't think)

battle high 2 - nice little indie fighting game, some people adore it, I found it lacking, still for $1 you can't go too wrong. I personally won't get it though.
ascent of kings - nice little platformer where you play as the youngest son who must transverse a bunch of obstacles to become the new king. Simple, challenging and most importantly fun, get it.
dlc quest live freemium or die - the sequel to DLC quest, same charm as the original and just as tongue in cheek, if you like the original, why wait, its 80 points, making it a no brainer to get.
don't die pluto - I have a soft spot for pluto this game is essentially take Pluto eat Asteroids smaller than you, grow bigger and dodge missles fired from Earth, can't really recommend it, nice music, interesting premise, boring gameplay though.
end of days survivor - wow, this game stunk. Essentially a FPS survivor game with timed rounds. Problem is running out of ammo constantly, getting ammo is a pain in the ass and take much of the fun out of the game, recommendation, no buy.
explosionade - Didn't get tp play it again for a new impression, when I do I'll repost my impressions.
king swing - Imagine Jungle Hunt with realistic physics sound fun, no? That's because it's not, so don't buy it.
loot grinder - Did you ever want to play Final Fantasy but hated the story and loved the constant active time combat, yeah me neither....but if you were the one oddball then this game is for you. Cannot recommend, just too simple and there are many other RPG's on XBLIG that do it better for the same price.
mythos castle - A fairy (who can fly), a warrior and a wizard explore a castle searching for something, (didn't read the story) long story short, it's ugly, plays boring (you have limited magic and life that I can't figure how to increase), and kept my attention all of 5 minutes, even with the ability to fly past everything with the fairy I was still bored. I'm not recommending this to anyone.
rad raygun - I really, really wanted to like this game, it just seems like a cheap Gameboy Mono knock-off of Mega Man, if it controlled better (which is a hallmark of MM) I'd recommend it fully, only a small recommendation from me, just know what you're buying, an unpolished MM clone.
quiet please - new impressions coming soon.
the deep cave - Abel Hawkins meet your new competition, unless you have patience for cheap deaths stay away. Nice quirky little platforming game, but I can't recommend it to more than genre fans.
the wall - what's to say other than it feels like missile command with zombies, only not as much fun, no recommendation.
Curse of the Cresent Ilse - (RE-Review) I replayed the demo and it grew on me, so I go from no buy to recommend to buy, if you enjoyed 8-bit NES puzzle and skill platformers .
Hepposki - (I actually mentioned it above) - Cute JPN'ese sidescroller with a sword (spear and axe later) wielding warrior who fights across the levels killing enemies dodging death traps and all manner of monsters. Nice little title, but very light recommendation from me. 80 pts.
Chronicles of the Fairy - Another JPN'ese game, you play as a little fairy who collects stars, bells and 4-leaf clovers, dodges obstacles of all kinds and goes to an exit. Still with me yet...sounds boring, but its actually quite good, really nice graphics and music, quite challenging, looks like it's only six stages though, still for $1 one could do would. Medium recommendation

Indie Gamer Chick reviewed the fairy game and a few others check it out.

Every week or two I'll try and update this thread with my impressions of the latest and greatest of the XBLIG.
Until then.


[quote name='MSUHitman']Did they ever change the DRM that made you be signed into Live to play the full versions of these games or do the ones you've purchased still show up as demos offline?[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure, I stumbled onto thinking they might have not as I got logged out of my account the other day and could not launch one of the games I d/l'ed, so I can't say for sure, without unplugging my ethernet cable and trying one of the XBLIG games I own. Will look into clarfying that for you.
 
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Is anyone still interested in my updates on new XBLIG games? I'll continue to post updates if the interest is there, but if not, I'll stop (if no one is reading)

I know on the deals section there is a thread that pops up every now and again for those interested.

Reason I'm asking is a time issue mostly, plus I was hoping for a bit more back and forth with XBLIG fans and maybe finding out about a few games here and there I might have overlooked or not heard about before.
 
I'm just finding that most of the XBLIG that interest me, are all turning up for Humble and Groupees bundles. Hard to drop $1-$5 on a game when you can get 5 or so for the same price
 
[quote name='uncle5555']Is anyone still interested in my updates on new XBLIG games? I'll continue to post updates if the interest is there, but if not, I'll stop (if no one is reading)

[/QUOTE]

I like your updates. disagree with a number of them but it helps a lot with discovery.
 
[quote name='dirtyvu']I like your updates. disagree with a number of them but it helps a lot with discovery.[/QUOTE]

Fair enough, I don't have the same taste as everyone, but as they say I know what I like. ;)

Will resume hopefully this weekend, but still would like to hear some back and forth on updates and about some games that others found I know nothing about. Which is a big reason I'm looking for feedback. :)

[quote name='MrNinjaSquirrel']I'm just finding that most of the XBLIG that interest me, are all turning up for Humble and Groupees bundles. Hard to drop $1-$5 on a game when you can get 5 or so for the same price[/QUOTE]

Agreed, but many of these are XBLIG exclusives, so...

Also I do agree, but Wizorb for instance, I already have on Humble Bundle and was still interested in dropping $1 to get the X360 version just cause it was more convenient. Getting harder for me to play on PC, not sure why.
 
I like "A Voxel Action" but the game to play is "Vorpal". I can't believe you uncle, only for completionists. Give me a break, "Vorpal" is 80 points and a steal at that. It's a great bullet hell shmup. Period.
I do agree with you on "Prismatic Solid" though. Loving that game, there's just something about it.

For the educational stuff "Let's Learn Japanese" isn't bad but some things definitely need fixing. Besides just the meaning of the Kanji some need clarification as they look redundant but it might be dependent on one being polite or not. There's also something to be said for having certain readings show up and displaying the appropriate on and kunyomi for them.
 
[quote name='MrNinjaSquirrel']I'd recommend Miner Dig Deep. It's a lot like Terraria, with a little less depth (pun not intended). If you ever found yourself trying to mine the whole screen in DigDug, you'll probably like it:)[/QUOTE]

I came here to post this. It's the 1 XBLIG I always wholeheartedly recommend whenever they get brought up.

I was really, really hooked into this game years ago before the whole Minecraft explosion.
 
[quote name='Sarang01']I like "A Voxel Action" but the game to play is "Vorpal". I can't believe you uncle, only for completionists. Give me a break, "Vorpal" is 80 points and a steal at that. It's a great bullet hell shmup. Period.
I do agree with you on "Prismatic Solid" though. Loving that game, there's just something about it.

For the educational stuff "Let's Learn Japanese" isn't bad but some things definitely need fixing. Besides just the meaning of the Kanji some need clarification as they look redundant but it might be dependent on one being polite or not. There's also something to be said for having certain readings show up and displaying the appropriate on and kunyomi for them.[/QUOTE]

I call'em like I see'em, Vorpal was cheap looking and not much fun to me. There are much better alternatives (Snops Attack for instance) on XBLIG which is why I said only for Shmup completionists (or apologists more accurately) (which I don't consider myself one, even though I love the genre) Since those people will play anything the scrolls and even if it sucks will have good things to say about it.

I'm all about quality over quantity. ;)

Prismatic Solid is unique was developed by veteran game developer, which is why it has the polished feel to it.

Apparently they developed 4 XBLIG games (check the website for links)

http://www.heloli.com/

Interview with developer found here.
http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2010/...-winner-yoichi-hayashi-talks-prismatic-solid/

(impressive resume, if I do say myself)

And lastly about the Japanese learning games, I know they aren't perfect, since they cost all of $1, it was more about getting the word out for those people that might be interested then look into better sources to learn if they found that useful. ;)
 
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