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Babel Rising was developed by Mando Productions and published by Ubisoft. It was released June 13, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

We’ve all been there. You move into a nice area with a great view and some jumped up Babylonian builds a ruddy big tower…well maybe not. Babel Rising is the latest Kinect centric game released on XBLA. The game aims to give players the “hands of god” to smite tiny Babylonians who persist in building a large tower. Players utilize the elements of fire, water, earth and air to create bolts of lightning and gigantic floods that reign down punishment. The game plays out much like your standard Tower Defense affair, except here we’re trying to halt the creation of a tower rather than the destruction of one. The motion controls are designed to give players a unique sense of power, but does flapping your arms around in your front room yelling “ultimate power” really provide a god-like experience?

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Some of you may have signed on to Xbox Live recently and received a prompt for an update. This is a behind-the-scenes update, containing improvements on existing features and foundations …
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Gamers are used to titles launching on a different date than originally announced – it’s just part of the game (so to speak).
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There are a myriad of reasons — some massive, others minuscule — for wars throughout history. Wars ranging from the disagreement you had with your mother to World War II to the intergalactic alien space combat we’re likely to experience in the near future. No wars have been particularly fun until video games came along, removing the consequences and the guilt of war. Yet still wars are brutal, sad, scary sort of affairs, no matter what your role is in them — and then there’s Happy Wars.

Happy Wars’ pseudo cell-shaded art style (mixed with a bit of watercolor, perhaps) hearkens back to the days of Cel Damage and Jet Set Radio. The zany visuals and overall lighthearted presentation prove war isn’t always depressing and vile. White is pit against black in this 15 vs. 15 multiplayer action game in an effort to capture towers and destroy the enemy team’s castle. Players can pick from a warrior, mage or cleric class and acquire new skills as they level up and attempt to out-maneuver the enemy team.

Our demo was cut into thirds, with a tutorial and gameplay rundown to start, an explanation of the deeper features of the game following that, and lastly a match played to completion on the game’s desert themed level. Read More

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Do you feel like playing as a god to not let people build towers? We have that exact (and only) game for you on this week’s XBLA Wednesday. Babel …
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They’re crowding the front of the room on the 54th floor of a Los Angeles hotel, cameras flashing in rapid succession. A small group of men are before them, footage of their last work playing on a large screen. It’s difficult to get a good view of the promo vid that is running while all of the members of the Korean gaming press are nearly tripping over each other to secure the best possible angle from which to grab the perfect shot for their readers back home. The level of excitement among this crowd is palpable, if not completely understandable.

After all, what’s being shown at this point is nothing new, the footage is of 2010’s Dungeon Fighter Online (released in 2005 in Nexon’s home country of Korea). The speakers have thus far provided a nice little history lesson for the uninitiated, but those in attendance have hardly been treated to breaking news or exclusive footage at this point. With more exciting photo ops and demos of this fall’s hottest games vying for attention during E3 week than any one journalist can possibly tackle, why is the foreign press causing such a hullabaloo over a PC game that released seven years ago in their country?

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JAM Live Music Arcade was developed by Zivix and published by Reverb Publishing and 505 Games. It was released May16, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

It’s been quiet in the world of music games recently, leaving our plastic guitars and drums to collect dust for over a year. JAM set out to deliver a brand new music experience, hoping to gamers a new reason to break out the fake six string. JAM lets players get creative with the game’s 32 tracks, allowing elaborate mixing and recording through the game’s soundboard. It may sound good, but it could have been so much better. There was potential, but it was crushed under the weight of trying to make it a game.

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Beyond a couple screenshots, we haven’t seen much in motion for Blossom Mind’s Walter but that all changes today. They released their first …
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Swedish developer Might and Delight announced this week it has paired with publisher D3Publisher (or D3P) to publish Might and Delight’s platformer Pid on XBLA. The partnership comes at the tail end of the game’s production, according to a news release, so “the vision has been entirely that of Might and Delight, while (D3P’s) years of publishing expertise will solidify Pid as a stunning success.”

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