Featured Reviews

Charlie Murder was developed by Ska Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released August 14, 2013 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Charlie murders. Charlie — in concert with the other members of the band of his namesake — brutally, bloodily murders undead and demonic foes by the score. Oh, he also skateboards, puts on concerts, drops acid, flies on a broomstick and does a whole bunch of other crazy crap. Mostly, though, Charlie murders. He makes a point of stomping on downed adversaries’ defenseless faces, sending their eyeballs and somehow-still-intact brains flying out of the noggins that contained them only a second earlier. He shoots, he slashes, he bludgeons, he punches — he murders. Such wanton destruction might prompt another round of those discussions as to whether or not those damn video games the kids play really have gotten too violent, whether or not they really are rotting gamers’ brains (at least they have the good courtesy to leave them in their respective noggins). It might do that, but it shouldn’t. It shouldn’t do that because the death and dismemberment is all so outrageous, so ridiculous, so…hilarious, that no one should take any of it seriously.

Absurdity is never in short supply in Charlie Murder. The two-person team of James Silva and Michelle Juett-Silva have distributed it with liberally enough here that Charlie Murder crashes right through genre convention, and, for the most part, keeps on rockin’. Silva once commented to XBLAFans that he had no need for a design document. It wasn’t entirely clear at the time how serious he was about that statement, but it’s obvious now that there was at least some truth to his words. It’s impossible to believe that anyone at Microsoft told the Silvas what they could and could not do when designing their game. In fact, it’s hard to believe that they themselves were even capable of as much. Yes, the tried-and-true brawler staples are all here, but so are myriad off-the-wall ideas that somehow come together in a way that (usually) works. Charlie Murder isn’t the first brawler to load up on crazy — but it is one of the best.

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Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons was developed by Starbreeze Studios and published by 505 Games. It was released August 7, 2013 for 1200 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Known for its extensive portfolio of dark and gritty shooters, this humble offering from Starbreeze Studios is a sharp left turn into delicate territory. Framed in vibrant fantasy, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons follows two boys whose father has suddenly fallen ill. The only known cure for his elusive illness exists far away, and so they embark on a perilous journey through dungeons, caves, and forests in desperate pursuit to save his life.

At the core of Brothers is an unprecedented mechanic. You have simultaneous control of both siblings—each one delegated to a control stick and its corresponding trigger as their context-sensitive action button. As you explore the gorgeous vistas of the fairytale land, you must control both brothers cooperatively to solve puzzles, climb mountains, and occasionally outsmart the beasts to reach your mystic destination together.

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Thunder Wolves was developed by Most Wanted Entertainment and published by bitComposer Entertainment. It was released June 12, 2013 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Thunder Wolves is about one thing, and one thing only: blowing stuff up. There’s not so much a plot, as a collection of directives loosely stringing one over-the-top level to another, always boiling down to the same principle. Everything painted with red gets blasted to smithereens. There are softer moments, though whether Thunder Wolves is legitimately reaching for depth or just parodying cheeseball melodrama doesn’t really matter. At the end of the day, you’ll likely foster stronger emotional bonds with your arsenal of helicopters than the sensational stereotypes piloting them.

Across the game’s thirteen levels you’ll pilot as many choppers, ranging from attack to recon, all loaded for bear with a variety of ordinance. In rare cases, you’ll swap out of the pilot seat to perform an on-rail shooting segment, lob bombs from a circling gunship or drive a dump truck. These instances mix up the gameplay but are never more engaging than the core experience, annihilating enemy bases and stemming the flow of oncoming waves. That’s really what Thunder Wolves has to offer – a simple, straightforward exercise in lighting things up from your volitant chariot.

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Spartacus Legends was developed by Kung Fu Factory and published by Ubisoft. It was released June 26, 2013 for free.

Despite being made as a tie-in to a television series on Starz, Spartacus Legends is a free-to-play fighting game that doesn’t require any previous knowledge of the show. The game puts you in the role of battle-hardened slaves rising up the ranks to become legendary gladiators. Buckets upon buckets of blood will be shed as you fight your way through Roman arenas. There was a lot of potential here for this to be a fun, mature fighting game. In the end, the game’s bright ideas were murdered by a slew of technical problems.

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Pacific Rim was developed and published by Yuke’s. It was released on July 12, 2013 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

The Pacific Rim film has been praised for being big budget new IP that isn’t quite perfect, but is a lot of fun to watch. With Giant robots (aka Jaegers) versus giant alien monsters (aka Kaijus), could you ask for anything more in a summer blockbuster? A fighting game tie-in, perhaps? Well that’s what Yuke’s has developed for the XBLA and we check it out to see if it is worth your time.

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Magic 2014: Duels of the Planeswalkers was developed by Stainless Games and Wizards of the Coast and published by Microsoft Studios. It retails for 800 MSP and was released on June 26, 2013. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Magic 2014: Duels of the Planeswalkers (Magic 2014) is the fourth edition of the popular series to grace the Xbox 360 and unsurprisingly, it delivers new cards, new features (including a sealed play mode) and an all new campaign mode. Like any annual release such as FIFA or Madden, your decision to buy (or not to buy) Magic 2014 will largely depend upon factors related to whether or not you actually enjoy the core experience and what value the new features provide over previous iterations.

The Duels of the Planeswalkers series (DOTPW) is designed to provide a fun and cost effective gateway for new players to enter the Magic The Gathering (MTG) arena, and Magic 2014 carries on that tradition admirably. MTG is a complicated card game which features a basic set of rules for placing cards (spells) onto an imaginary battlefield. Each spell costs a set amount of mana, which is in turn generated from the placement of land cards. The real skill of MTG is found in building a deck of cards which complement each other well enough to overcome the opposing deck and reduce your enemy’s health from twenty to zero. Magic 2014 explains these complex mechanics through a series of simple tutorials positioned before the main campaign, and then with helpful text boxes from then on.

For veterans of the DOTPW series or those who have strong knowledge of MTG in general, Magic 2014 provides the most feature rich installment to date and we are pleased to report that all of the new features enhance the overall experience without detracting in any way from the core gameplay.

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State of Decay was developed by Undead Labs and published by Microsoft Studios. It was released June 5, 2013 for 1600 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

When a collection of zombie-obsessed game industry veterans formed Undead Labs, their sole passion was to play in the ashes of fallen society. They would craft an open sandbox world and fill it with extinction-level contagion. They’d insist upon hard decisions and scraping by one day at a time, and in return, you’d be afforded the opportunity to live out your fantasies in a simulated zombie apocalypse. Now, so many years after that kernel of an idea was born, State of Decay narrowly misses the mark, drooped under its own weighty ambition.

Yet, despite its flaws, State of Decay aims so high that it achieves something many games never aspire to reach. Like the apocalypse it portrays: once the shock and awe begins to wane, once we accept the imperfections of the world, there’s joy to be found and a story to write. As you ponder the layout of your temporary shelter, tally up your resources and balance the fragility of your flock, it becomes clear there’s something special about State of Decay residing around its rough edges. It’s an experience unlike many other, and uncovering it is well worth the investment.

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Call of Juarez: Gunslinger was developed by Techland and published by Ubisoft. It was released May 22, 2013 for 1200 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

There’s a revered mysticism to the myths and legends of the Old West – larger-than-life characters carving out their own niche in American history through gritty living and frontier justice. No one can say for certain how much of it is true, and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger acknowledges that, embraces it and delivers one of the best examples of storytelling you’ll find west of the Mississippi. Its modern approach in form and function elevates the material rather than overshadowing it, and in the process creates a wholly unique experience that’s not to be missed.

Here’s what we liked:

How the West was won, sort of – Gunslinger weaves the tale of famed bounty hunter Silas Greaves as he recounts his murderous exploits to a handful of saloon patrons over the course of an afternoon and too many whiskies. You’ll play through a series of flashbacks as Silas, all the while his narration and foggy recollection frame and change each level like an evolving campfire story that plays off the audience. When he backs himself into a corner or spins a yarn too ridiculous to believe, he’ll slyly conjure up an escape route, parting the mountainside to reveal a new path or remembering things a little differently and going back to reveal how it really happened. It’s this light-hearted, self-aware delivery that makes Gunslinger so effective. Though the story itself is quite good – especially in those moments Silas grapples with personal demons – the banter between Silas and his audience and the way it transforms the game world mid-mission is the creative and endearing draw of the campaign.

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CastleStorm was developed by Zen Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released May 29, 2013 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

In CastleStorm you’ll sometimes shoot sheep. Out of a ballista. Into a castle. It’s made possible by a unique propulsion technique: rainbow excrement. Zen Studios’ CastleStorm is obviously not a game that takes itself seriously. It has a story, but it’s intentionally dumb. There are blue guys. There are red guys. The red guys steal a shiny object of immense power from the blue guys, and the blue guys, somewhat reluctantly, go to war in an attempt to retrieve it. Cutscenes filled with overtly cheesy and occasionally humorous jokes frequently interrupt the tower-defense-meets-Angry-Birds gameplay, but the joy of launching projectiles, which are only occasionally weaponized beasts, out of your ballista and towards enemy castles and opposing forces marching on your own castle will keep you coming back for more.

Here’s what we liked:

Plenty of options — At first, CastleStorm will seem simple to a fault. You have a castle. The enemy has a castle. You have a ballista. The enemy has a ballista. You have soldiers. The enemy has soldiers. It’s a feeling that quickly evaporates as you progress through the campaign and unlock an impressive variety of unit types, ballista projectiles, magic spells, castles — including those you build yourself — and upgrades. Though you will encounter the occasional mission objective that changes things up a bit, most levels involve you defending your castle and flag while electing to either capture the enemy’s flag or tear their castle down to its foundation. Thanks to the numerous tools of destruction at your disposal and those employed by the enemy, this formula never gets old. It’s challenging and satisfying to implant arrows in troops’ heads, crash down gates with flying quadrupeds and blow castle rooms to smithereens with bombs. Good thing, too, because success in later levels is achieved only by nimbly managing your war assets. Fail to do so, and you’ll be overwhelmed as the no man’s land between the safety of the opposing castle gates quickly becomes the enemy’s land.

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Sacred Citadel was developed by Southend Interactive and published by Deep Silver. It was released April 17, 2013 for 1200 MSP. A copy, including the Jungle Hunt downloadable content, was provided for review purposes.

The recently independent studio Southend Interactive is no stranger to XBLA. Previous games include the cute puzzler ilomilo—a favorite among many players—along with new takes on old classics like R-Type Dimensions and Tecmo Bowl Throwback. Southend’s newest game, Sacred Citadel, puts a twist on the RPG franchise Sacred, trading in the point-and-click action for side-scrolling brawling reminiscent of Golden Axe and the great Dungeons & Dragons: Shadows Over Mystara. While it may not have the lasting impact of those titles, it’s more than capable of hanging with that crowd.

In Sacred Citadel, the world of Ancaria is threatened by Lord Zane’s quest to destroy the peaceful Seraphim. Players will stand against Zane’s evil Grimmoc army by taking control of one of four heroes: the Seraphim Mage, Safiri Warrior, Ancarian Ranger or the Khukuri Shaman. Throughout four acts (five with the Jungle Hunt DLC), the heroes will gain experience, level up and find new weapons and armor to further their quest towards victory. Players can experience all of this through a single player or three player co-op campaign. Get your button-mashing thumb ready because Sacred Citadel is going to put it to the test. Read More