Reviews

Rotor was released February 20, 2011 via Xbox Live Indie Games.  It was developed by Pocket Starship and sells for 80MSP.  A copy of the game was given for review purposes.  All of the game’s aspects were explored.

Indie developers Pocket Starship have hit the XBLIG scene with their freshman release, Rotor. In the game players pilot a helicopter in a stylized open world and complete minigames which involve things such as collecting orbs or attempting to accurately fly down a specified path. Does it stand up to the basement price of 80MSP? Hit the jump to find out.

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Stacking was developed by Double Fine and published by THQ. It was released on XBLA on February 9th for 1200MS points.

Stacking is an adventure/puzzle game that places you in control of Charlie Blackmore, who is the smallest member in a family of Russian stacking dolls. The Blackmore family is being forced to work for a rich industrialists know as “The Baron” and it is up to Charlie to free them. Charlie must stack inside other dolls and use their special abilities in order to make his way through 4 areas and defeat the evil Baron.

Riding high on their October release of Costume Quest, Double Fine has found room for success on the XBLA platform. With that said, expectations for Stacking were extremely high considering it was from the minds of Tim Schafer and the team of hit-makers at Double Fine.  Luckily, Stacking surpassed most expectations and stands out as an early favorite for 2011 XBLA Game of the Year. Read More

Indie games often get a bad reputation; they’re viewed as poorly designed, as clones of existing games, or both.  The Indie Games section of the Xbox 360 dashboard has plenty of twin stick shooters and role playing games.  What they don’t have a lot of are 2.5D motorcycle games, and that’s where Toy Stunt Bike excels.

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Blocks: The Devilish Delivery Game is a casual puzzle game that was released by Darkwind Media January 29, 2011 for 240 Microsoft Points.  The object of the game is to deliver a box to the floating island. It sounds easy enough, but the delivery platform can only fire rockets on one side of the platform at a time.  Also, players must beat the clock to get it there through a maze of twists and turns.

The control scheme for the game is simple, right trigger or bumper controls the right side rockets, and the left trigger of bumper controls the left side rockets.   As stated players can only fire one set of rockets at a time.  The whole idea is to move the platform with the box to the island and keep things as balanced as possible.

The problem with Xbox Live Indie Games is that they often go overlooked.  Like the iTunes store, games are released so often that players can often miss the hidden gems in the crowd of releases.  Some games such as I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1 get media attention, but most slip away into obscurity, often without even a review from an indie gaming site.   Is Avatar Karting a game that should be overlooked, or a game that players just can’t pass up?  Find out after the jump.

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In May 1998 Luxoflux and Activision teamed up to create a major competitor to the Twisted Metal games;  Vigilante 8.  Set in an alternate 1970’s during an oil crisis, the game pitted the criminal Coyotes against the Vigilantes, a team of civilians who take the law into their own hands.  The game was a commercial success and sprouted a sequel, Vigilante 8: Second Offense.  The series sat dormant for eight years until Isopod Labs, a group of developers consisting of three members of the Vigilante 8 team, brought the series back to the forefront with Vigilante 8 Arcade.  But could this revival to the series live up to the fond memories players have of the original games?  Found out in today’s Rewind Review.

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Pixelbit Snooker and Pool is an Xbox Live Indie Game that was released on January 10, 2011 for 240 Microsoft Points.   It’s Pixelbit’s first offering and it doesn’t include avatars!  But how does the game fair as a pool simulator?  How does it stand up on it own?  How does it compare to other similar titles?  Find out after the jump.  Read More

Microbot was developed by Naked Sky Entertainment and published by EA.  It was released on XBLA on December 29th for 800MS points ($10).

Microbot is a dual-stick shooter, which is fairly common genre on the XBLA platform.  With games like Geometry Wars and Assault Heroes already on the marketplace, it’s tough for a newcomer to stand out.  Microbot offers the same dual-stick gameplay gamers have become accustomed to with a few new additions.  Even though some of the new additions are a welcomed change among the dual-stick audience, there are simply too many issues with Microbot to make it an enjoyable experience. Read More

With Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 just around the corner we at XBLA Fans thought it was a good time to revisit the first XBLA game in the series. Itself a remake of the fondly remembered NES game the original Rearmed was hotly anticipated upon it’s announcement in January 08. Since XBLAFans was not around to review it at the time we take a look back for our first Rewind Review.

Bionic Commando Rearmed was released August 13, 2008 for 800MSP.  It was developed by the now-defunct GRIN, which would later have many of its employees transfer to Fatshark, who developed Rearmed 2.  It follows Nathan Spencer, an operative for the Federation who is equipped with a bionic left arm.  His mission: To rescue Federation hero Super Joe from the clutches of the evil Empire and assist him with destroying their experimental superweapon known as Albatros.

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Breach is a first person shooter developed by Atomic Games. It’s available on the XBLA for 1200 Microsoft points. The publisher provided us with a copy of the game for reviewing purposes.

There’s a moment ever-so-often in any shooter experience when know your enemy is behind a wall, and you’re at that wall, and there’s just one entrance. Death lies in the doorway, but victory lies beyond it, so what do you do? Well, if you’re playing Breach, you just blow up the whole darn wall! Breach brings total brick-by-brick destruction, active cover and authentic tactics all being played in 16 player team modes to the Xbox LIVE Arcade in a powerful way. Read More