Indie Game: Aban Hawkins & the 1000 SPIKES (80 MSP)

From the Dev:

"Aban Hawkins & the 1000 SPIKES" is an 8-bit retro style Hardest Extremest Craziest Platform Action Puzzle Adventure. Simple & intuitive rules. Elaborate level design. Various fierce traps, traps, traps! Return to the Golden Years of Video Game. No one can BEAT this game...except YOU!! "

Lately I have fallen in love with the indie games on Xbox Live. I had so much fun with this one I thought I would spread the word on how great it is. Finally was able to beat it last night without any level skips. I felt great after conquering the final boss. Such a great sense of accomplishment.

Aban Hawkins is the second game from the indie dev 8Bits Fanatics. It is a sadistic retro platformer. You start the game out with 1000 lives and you are going to need all of them.

The level design is great. The graphics are 8 bit retro bliss. The controls are tight. The deaths are plentiful. All in all, the game is GREAT!

There are 4 worlds with 5 stages each (6 if you count the treasure stages) and then a final boss. Took me about 3-4 hours to beat this one on my first runthru.

If you grew up in the NES era of gaming then you owe it to yourself to pick up this gem.

Like the title says... 80 MSP ($1)! Support the devs and pick this one up... I can't wait to see what these guys come up with next.

Buy it from the marketplace:

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/P...0-SPIKES/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550780

Armless Octopus Review:

http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/01/24/xbox-indie-review-aban-hawkins-the-1000-spikes/

Let me know if any of you guys are having as much fun with this one as I am

8Bits Fanatics first game "Tempura of the Dead" is a little pricier at 240 MSP ($3), but definitely worth the purchase for retro fans. If killing zombies and juggling their heads sounds fun to you... Check it out!

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/P...acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585506d0?cid=search

Bump... No love for indie games?

You would think a bunch of CAGs would be into these $1 masterpieces...

What are some of the reasons you guys don't play/buy XBLIGs?

I know there is a lot of crap on the channel which drags it down... but if you look thru them there are a lot of great and extremely affordable games.

The main gripe I have about indie games is the lack of ability to play them offline. I hope MS fixes this soon. Also I believe achievements would really help boost XBLIG sales.

I have 420 MSP sitting in my account right now. It's a given that I am going to pick up Pinball FX 2's newest DLC table, Fantastic 4, for 240 MSP. That leaves me with the option to buy two 80 point indie games.

If I had another 80 MSP to add I would definitely be buying Blocks That Matter for 240 MSP. It looks fantastic. I tried the trial and loved it. I'm very interested to see how tough it gets thru its 50 plus levels. I have always been a fan of puzzle platformers. I loved both of the Johnny Platform games .

So back to the two $1 games I am thinking about picking up...

Explosive Gas will be added to my collection shortly as I am a big fan of Bomerman for the classic systems. This seems to be a well done Bomberman clone with its own little twists. Apparently this game has been out for PC and DS for years now, but it gets an update for XBLIG.

I tried the trial and it played really well. The sounds could be a little better. Some of them are funny, but I bet I will turn them off sooner than later. The retro graphics look great and the controls are tight (or as tight as they can be on the 360 pad)*. I want to look a little more in depth into the game customizing options though. I think you can pretty much control every aspect of the game along with the map due to the included level editor. The main selling point on this game is it has XBL support for up to 8 players. The trial won't let you play online, and I doubt there is much of a online community, but the devs have set up Thursday nights via their website to play and try to form a community.

The second game I am thinking about grabbing is Starzzle. I love puzzle games and this one looks pretty challenging. Total of 80+ levels and future free DLC levels are promised. I don't know if it has done well on XBLIG (most games don't). It was released on iPad/iPhone shortly after and I think it has sold a lot better on that platform. Generally very positive reviews on both platforms. Let me know if any of have picked this one up and have any thoughts...


*Rant start* I wish the 360 d-pad wasn't so shitty. How the hell did MS go from the original Xbox S controller's d-pad, which IMHO was awesome, to the 360's d-pad? The only thing I can think of is they tried to make it more pleasing to the eye, but then they completely disregarded the actually usability of it. "Piece of monkey BEEP!" *Rant End*

I spent a while debating over Tempura of the Dead. If it were 80 MSP I would've bought it no question, but I never went for the $3 price. I can buy a decent NES cart on eBay for $3.

This game, however, looks more my style and for a buck, I prob won't pass it up. Will demo first of course. Thanks for posting this.

Oh and as far as indie games go, I find they often lack polish and support, and just don't impress me enough to even spend a dollar on. I'll give everything that interests me a chance though!

Welp, played the demo and this was an insta-buy. Highly recommended!

[quote name='bsmiff']Welp, played the demo and this was an insta-buy. Highly recommended![/QUOTE]

Awesome. Glad I got at least one person to try it out.

Come on CAGs... give this game a shot

couldn't agree more about adding achievements to XBLIG. Arcade titles have 200-250 achievement points, why not make it so indie games have 100 total points? that's enough to not add too much achievement points for $1 games, but still have a few achievements for the games to be more enjoyable.

I doubt Indie games will ever get achievements. It's by design. A motivator for you to pay more for XBLA games and for devs to pay for access to XBLA.