mommy’s best games

We’ve just seen the release of Serious Sam Double D XXL, a game we recommended for its classic shooting action rebuilt into two dimensions. Behind all its artistic style, crazy weapons and even more crazy enemies is one man: Nathan Fouts, owner of indie development studio Mommy’s Best Games. We caught up with him to ask about how he put together Serious Sam Double D XXL, starting from its inception on PC to its massive expansion on Xbox Live Arcade.  When we asked how it feels to have the game out and finished, he joked, “I think I’m still ready to go back to sleep!”

Serious Sam’s jump to 2D

Serious Sam is a beloved franchise known for its old-school Doom-esque shooting that relies heavily on strafing and jumping while making players fight off swarms of aliens, monsters and headless kamikaze bombers. Leveraging his PC popularity, Serious Sam has gone on to make numerous cameos on Xbox Live Arcade in both new and classic games. However, they have all been 3-dimensional first-person shooters. How did Fouts score a gig that involved smashing it into two dimensions? As it turns out, “Devolver came to us and said that they were interested in this prospect and that it involved Croteam [the creators] and the Serious Sam franchise,” he explained. “I just about flipped my lid. I couldn’t believe it. [They told me] they liked our stuff and they’d like us to do this indie version.”

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The time is upon us! Just say NO to cheesy massage simulators and poorly done clones in the indie games section of the market place, and hello to gaming goodness! The uprising is here, and all of us gamers are going to benefit from it!

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First they get moved from the games and demos page, then they get moved back.  And now, they are planning to fight back to prove that there is a lot of worth within their store. You need to click read more to hear their story. Read More

Explosionade, while causing a stir within the XBLIG developers community, is another release from Mommy’s Best Games.   See if I keep reviewing Mommy’s Best Games, or schmups, you are going to start things that I either A. work for Mommy’s Best Games (I don’t) and B. Play nothing but schmups.  Though, I am playing this XBLIG title until my xbox screams for me to stop, I might as well tell you why it’s worth the 80 Microsoft Points ($1).

All your friends are storming the Horronym Fortress but Colonel Bouche left you to guard the supply depot.  Disregarding orders to clean the toilets, you open the depot to find a gigantic, prototype mech!  You jump into the mech, and you head down into the sewers for a little fun shooting things, only to find the Horrornym right at your back door.

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Shoot 1Up is an XBLIG title by Mommy’s Best Games that I think many people might have missed, because it is an XBLIG title.  Mommy’s Best Games are known for their retro style sticking more to 2D style games.   Shoot 1Up is a shoot’em up that has that great retro feel with some added bonuses that make the genre feel fresh and new.

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Explosionade, developed by Mommy’s Best Games, has been delayed once more after a previous delay for a near release bug. However, this time the delay doesn’t arise from their internal code glitches or bugs, rather more Xbox Live Marketplace issues. Nathan Fouls, the studio head of Mommy’s Best Games, has posted on the studio’s development log that the Top Downloads portion of Xbox Live Marketplace can be “stuck for days, sometimes over a week.” Fouls claims that their games could lose a potential revenue boost from this feature and it hurts the players as well. By not updating accurately, many gamers may miss popular titles and think that nothing currently popular is worthwhile. Explosionade has been delayed indefinitely until Microsoft has responded to this issue. Quite a shame as the game was looking quite good and fun, but now we may never get it or at least have to wait a while longer.

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