Scene It? Movie Night review (XBLA)
Scene It? Movie Night was developed by Sarbarkan Games and published by Screenlife LLC. It was released November 30, 2011 in the US only, for 800 MSP. A copy of the game was provided for review purposes.
Scene It? Movie Night is the latest iteration in the Scene It? movie trivia franchise. The ultimate party game and just in time for the holiday season too. Previously a board game, DVD game and Xbox retail game (complete with buzzer style controllers), but this is their first crack at the XBLA market. Fans of the series will recognize and be right at home with the tried and tested format which remains much the same across all formats: watch a clip then answer the following multiple choice questions. But how will it fair as budget XBLA release?
Joe Danger: Special Edition – Guide to Danger!
Jooooooooooeee D-D-D-Danger!!!
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XBLAFancast Special – A Virus Named Tom interview
We recently had the opportunity to play an early build of quirky action-puzzler A Virus Named Tom and were able to follow it up with an interview with Tim Keenan, creator of the game and founder of its development studio Misfits Attic. After a brief intro to the game and the company, we break into a discussion of the art, humor, influences, and focus on co-op/multiplayer that makes this game different from a lot of what’s out there on XBLA. Along the way we hit on a lot of development talk including what makes a good achievement and why working with non-gamers can be a good thing. It was a lot of fun to record and thanks go out to Tim for taking the time to talk.
We’re looking forward to hearing more about A Virus Named Tom as it draws closer to release. Check them out on Twitter at @Misfitsattic or at the links above. They do a lot of community interaction – including incorporating ideas generated by the community in the game – so head on over and let them know what you think! Stay tuned here as well for more information as we hear it.
Please subscribe, comment, review the podcast on iTunes and tell your friends! We appreciate it! Check us out on twitter (@XBLAFans) where you can win codes for games, give us feedback or just ask a question.
[podcast]https://xblafans.com/xblafancast/AVirusNamedTomInterview.mp3[/podcast]
Genre diversity on XBLA
Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade service has been running for over half a decade now seeing a major boost in content since the Summer of Arcade promotions began running and since last year House Party (previously Block Party) has joined it for Spring releases. A steady flow of releases during each month also bring a fair amount of titles to the downloadable market space. With a healthy mix of ports, original content, big and indie developers, it begs the question: how mixed is the genre offering?
Before examining what isn’t out there, it’s important to observe what is. Xbox.com has listings for the amount of games contained in each of their classifications, bringing up some pretty startling numbers. Leading the way (not surprisingly) are Action & Adventure games with 177 individual titles including Castle Crashers, Battlefield 1943, Geometry Wars and Shadow Complex. Puzzle & Trivia and Classics are the next highest below Action with 74 and 76 respectively. On the opposite side of the spectrum are some very niche genres including Kinect with 4, Music with 6, and Educational with 3. A genre expected to have plenty of titles would be fighting, but believe it or not only 13 titles are classified as fighting games on XBLA, while the nebulous Other category has 7. Above those are 23 Role Playing games, 20 Racing & Flying games and 33 Strategy & Simulation games. Also noteworthy you’d think there’s more than 38 platformers out there, but not according to Xbox.com. (as of October 2011) Read More
Radiant Silvergun review (XBLA)
Radiant Silvergun was developed by Treasure. It was released September 14, 2011 and retails for 1200 MSP. A copy of the game was provided for review purposes.
Way back in 1998 a little game called Radiant Silvergun was released in Japanese arcades. Shortly thereafter it was ported to the Sega Saturn, but again only in Japan. But a funny thing happened that really doesn’t happen all that often. Somehow through word of mouth and game magazine hype this little game developed a following in the rest of the world. People started importing the game so they could play it. The only problem was that RSG was a limited release even by Japanese standards. Prices skyrocketed. Even today a copy for the Saturn could fetch between $150 – $200. Out of the reach of most gamers, this game continued to have great word of mouth for the last decade. It was, in truth, one of the most popular games that no one had ever played. But that is all behind us now. Finally the rest of the world gets to see what Radiant Silvergun is all about.
Rewind Review: Wolfenstein 3D (XBLA)
Wolfenstein 3D was developed by id Software and released by Activision. It retails for 400 MSP and was released June 3, 2009.
Wolfenstein 3D is the great granddaddy of modern first person shooters. It essentially invented the genre and laid the groundwork for Doom to be released a year later. In 1992 it was a technical tour de force that became the fastest spreading shareware game of its time. You play as BJ Blazkowicz whose goal is to escape from Castle Wolfenstein and foil the Nazi plot. The action is bloody and brutal, but the real question is whether is stands up after almost 20 years.
Battleblock Theater hands-on preview
Two friends are on an adventure, one finds a gem and one finds a hat. But Hatty wants the gem, so his unnamed friend gives it to him and Hatty starts to cry. Everyone wonders why. The confusion is interrupted by giant cat guards that arrive to send the unnamed friend to prison. Oh, and we’re in a theater. On an island. That’s the setup for Behemoth’s upcoming game, Battleblock Theater.
Battleblock Theater will be a 2D platform puzzle action game, otherwise known as a plactuzzleformer, featuring four player couch and online co-op as well as an online arena for adversarial play. Players can also play solo, but the game is definitely intended as a co-op experience. Levels scale to fit the amount of players to ensure that the difficulty is always appropriate as you advance the story. On the multiplayer side, there will be plenty of different gametypes, ranging from the casual to the hardcore (five have been announced and there are more to come).
Rewind Review: Age of Booty (XBLA)
Age of Booty was developed by Certain Affinity. It was released October 15, 2008, and retails for 400 MSP.
Every once in a long while, a game comes from out of nowhere and surprises with such a vengeance that folks who play it can’t help but recommend the game to everyone they know. They play the game incessantly, altering strategic calculations, building a list of friends to play with, trading grudge matches against rivals and friendly competitions with friends. They marvel at how damn good that game is.
Age of Booty is one of these games. Sitting on the dusting e-shelves of the XBLA library, Age of Booty is not a title that most players would stumble upon and think “I bet this is a great game.” The graphics are rudimentary by today’s standards, the theme seems a bit cartoonish, and for those who have the patience or curiosity to test the demo and who try anything beyond the single player campaign, they may quickly find themselves sailing into battle without any bearings, and end up switching to a different game.
This is a mistake, but an understandable one.
What is XBLA?
The simple answer is that it is an acronym that stands for Xbox Live Arcade. But that answer in itself just brings the inevitable question of what is Xbox Live Arcade? I’ve always known that XBLA was a niche sector of the games market, and numerous friends and family members had never heard of it until we started this site just over a year ago. The constant prodding by our team to our friends asking them to like us on facebook, brought an abundance of questions and a hunger to learn more we couldn’t satiate fast enough. And it was for them I initially intended to write this post. However, believe it or not over the past week while at E3, numerous industry professionals have asked me these same two questions. They too are unaware of the hundreds of quality titles under the Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) platform.
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes Review (XBLA)
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes was developed by Capybara Games, published by Ubisoft and released on April 14, 2011 for 1200MSP.
Clash of Heroes stems from the Might & Magic franchise but takes it into a completely different direction with puzzle/strategy-based gameplay and a fairly self-contained storyline from the rest of the series’s continuity. With roots in the familiar match-three mechanics of games like Bejeweled, Clash of Heroes may appear to be quite generic at first glance. However, the game’s critical success in its 2009 Nintendo DS release suggests otherwise. Does Capybara’s latest XBLA release manage to carry over a winning formula that can capture the love of a different gaming audience? Read More