Dead Rising is a series that is much more about the journey than the destination. Yeah, the game may list your current goal as getting to Point X by a certain time, but that’s just an excuse to let you run through a mall in a banana hammock, disemboweling zombies with a chainsaw. Unfortunately, Case West misses this point and while the underlying formula will still satisfy Dead Rising fans it definitely feels like a weak link in the series.
It’s been a great year for the Xbox Live Arcade. Limbo, Scott Pilgrim, and Comic Jumper represent some of the great titles we got this year. Now Halfbrick wishes to jump in, and make Raskulls part of the list. However can Raskulls fit in the shoes of it’s peers?
Pinball was one of the staples of the late, great American arcade. The intricacies of the machines, the flashing lights, and the feedback from hitting the flippers are hard to match. Zen studios has picked up where the defunct arcades left off, offering virtual pinball through its Pinball FX series and more recently in the release of the add-on pack Marvel Pinball.
Marvel Pinball fits right into the framework of the Pinball FX interface, allowing you to switch between the classic tables you may already have as well as introducing four Marvel character themed tables to play. The pack consists of tables featuring the like of Wolverine, Blade, Spiderman, and Ironman. The goal is, of course, to get as high of a score as possible. You can accomplish this by completing a variety of character specific missions within each table.
What can you say about a game that refuses to be like any other you’ve played? With A World of Keflings, developer Ninja Bee has concocted a very unique game that will undoubtedly find a niche but will certainly leave a lot of gamers scratching their heads in confusion.
A World for Keflings follows a similar premise to its 2008 predecessor, A Kingdom For Keflings. You play as a giant version of your Xbox avatar and help a bunch of wee folk – the titular Keflings – build houses, factories, academies and ultimately castles. It plays like a simplified version of an RTS or Civilization game, with your giant able to collect and gather resources, such as wood and ore, or sending the Keflings to do so by placing them next to resources for them to harvest. Having your giant seize Keflings and drop them next to their intended task is a clever substitution for using a keyboard and mouse to select units, though trekking on foot across your ever increasing kingdom makes you yearn for some sort of mini-map.
The sounds of quarters dropping, buzzers and lights flashing, sweaty strangers huddled around arcade machines. That was the arcade scene of the early 90’s. For those of you too young to remember, arcades were once a place where complete strangers would have to stand uncomfortably close to each other to play games. Not only that, but we had to pay per play of a game. If you died, it would cost you another quarter and if you didn’t have one another guy would totally steal your spot while you dug in your pockets. This was when X-men Arcade hit the scene and became an instant classic.
Death is quite possibly the most concise title of all time. The entire game revolves around the concept of your character struggling to avoid dying. As you grasp for life, your objective is to basically press buttons as they appear on the screen. Correct button presses will keep you further away from “the light” and incorrect button presses will send you closer to the ever-present light. As you continue on you will have to contend with the on-screen commands changing colors, moving position, and even removing the button symbol. Death is a very simple experience that quickly becomes very difficult, but not unconquerable with a little practice.
Do you remember a PC game from back in the day named Liero? That experience has just come to the Indie Games section of Xbox Live in the form of Snailien Invasion from Manly Games. Remember the good ole days when it was acceptable for a game to be multiplayer or single player only, and no attempt was made to shoehorn in extra modes. That is the camp that Snailien Invasion comes from, focusing on the multiplayer aspect almost exclusively and in that respect it as absolute success.
In the gaming community there is a checklist of sorts that gamers go through in their mind to determine if a game is worth their while. This list is quite different for everybody, but there are a few universal expectations when one frees a shiny new game from its plastic wrapper prison. Usually this boils down to the game being fun, having intuitive controls, and having an interesting premise. Somehow this second entry in the Deadliest Catch franchise fails on every level. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy a game about catching crabs?
When I received my copy of Nail’d in the mail I had no expectations for the game, partially because I had no idea what type of game it was. Before I ripped open the packaging I expected some new extreme carpentry simulator or perhaps even an innuendo laced romp similar to the Leisure Suit Larry series. Instead of those equally interesting choices, I got a questionably named arcade racing title. Needless to say, I was underwhelmed.
Majin and the
