About Stephen Haberman

Here at XBLAFans, the editors are just as crazy about their games as our readers.  To celebrate Brawler Week, our staff chimes in on their favorite titles from Xbox Live Arcade. Since we have a wide variety of personalities and tastes, we decided to allow each writer to choose one of their favorite brawler, rather than doing a Top 10 list. Read on to see if your favorite was chosen.

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The Sugar Killerz was developed by Fun Hazard and released on March 8, 2011 and costs 400 Microsoft Points. A copy was provided by the developer for review purposes.

It seems the twin-stick shooter is back and The Sugar Killerz is the most recent iteration of this recently rejuvenated genre. Playing as one of four gun-toting killerz out for some sweet justice, players shoot away calorie-heavy hooligans pouring onto the screen.

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The The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile releases on April 6, so we sat down with James Silva, Head Dishwasher of Ska Studios, to talk about the game, the road leading up to this point, and the road ahead.

James began serious work on game development in 2000. His first title was Zombie Smashers X , which was featured on the demo disc of a PCGamer magazine in 2000. He felt like he’d made it big then, but it still took some time before he really had some momentum. James really got noticed in 2007, when he won the Dream.Build.Play contest with The Dishwasher: Undead Samurai. By winning the contest, James received $10,000 prize and an Xbox Live Arcade publishing contract.

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The AAA titles are continuing to look for ways to make the player feel that they have an effect on the game world. We have seen the continued success of games that feature choice, as well as multiple endings. The only issue is that many games still contiue to tell the story through in-game movies, to help move along the narrative, as well as captivate the player. Most players do not like the feeling of losing control. They hold a controller for a reason. With Bastion, it is not the cutscenes or trailers that are capturing people’s attention, it’s the narration. This isn’t just some voice walking your through a tutorial. The dynamic narration in Bastion is telling the story that you are creating. The narration in this game is designed to react tho the actions of the player, and tell the story the player is creating. Having only seen a demo at PAX, I cannot say how well this is implemented throughout, but the experience certainly stuck with me.

I reached out to Greg Kasavin, Creative Director at  SuperGiant Games to delve a little deeper into the concept of dynamic narration; from how it came to be, to how it’s turning out. Read More

Want a cooperative game that has a similar feel and style to Shadow Complex, but the gunplay of Halo? Well then you want to play Fallen Frontier. The game is currently in development at Moonshot Games, a new studio which houses some ex-Bungie developers, and already it’s looking impressive.

Fallen Frontier is a 2D platformer that has a dark, cel-shaded art style. Moonshot also added a small bit of photographic art touches, like very subtle wall sections on the forefront. It adds something small, but it’s worth mentioning because it’s the little things that really sets this title apart from the others.

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Demiurge Studios wants players to have a say in what they’re destroying, by inviting them to submit their own robot creations to be included in their upcoming title, Shoot Many Robots. Read More