puzzle

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).

Read More

Update: The trading system does not actually involve ripping off faces of any sort. The Behemoth has clarified that rather there is a trading post in-game where players can view their other players’ inventories and select what they want and the other player can do the same.

The Behemoth, developers behind XBLA sensation Castle Crashers and upcoming title Battleblock Theater, were kind of enough to meet with me at San Diego Comic Con. During that fantastic interview with Dan Paladin he revealed and explained Battleblock Theater’s unlock and trading system. (Link to interview forthcoming)

Fans and players of Castle Crashers will recall the massive frogelope (antler laden frog, I don’t know) wherein all the weaponry was stored was sometimes more trophy case than armory as players without the unlocked weapons could not access them. To circumvent that players would take the weapons into levels, swap them for easy to find weapons and allow newer players to pickup the rarer weapons they didn’t have. Dan says Behemoth got get rid of all that convolution and put in a full-fledged trading system into Battleblock Theater. Read More

The idea of playing as the weather might sound strange to some but in Storm, it’s the only way to solve puzzles. You must grow trees by utilizing the weather and the climates in order to complete each level. Above, you’ll see the trailer for Spring which uses a lot of wind and after the break, be sure to catch the Summer trailer. It looks like Storm is shaping up to be an interesting puzzler, it was slated for Summer 2011 at 800 MSP so make sure to keep an eye on this storm later this year.
Read More

Spelunky debuted in 2008 with pixels aplenty promising prominently prospecting-prioritized gameplay for the PC. Well now it’s coming to XBLA and bringing it’s intuitive cavern adventure awesomeness with it. …
Read More

Gerbil Physics was developed by Beringela, now known as Pencel games. It was released on Xbox Live Marketplace December 7, 2009 and cost 80MSP.

Gerbil Physics is a simple block and physics puzzle game. The premise is simple: use a set amount of tools per level to get all blocks below the red line. With bombs, ropes and a disintegrators at your disposal, it’s your job to beat all 24 levels of gerbil mayhem.
Read More

IGN just recently put up a video for Storm, a new physics-based puzzler that combines the elements of storms with water, wind and lightning. It also won the IndiePub …
Read More

Bejeweled Blitz Live was developed and published by PopCap. It was released on February 23,2011 for 800 MSP. A copy of the game was provided for review purposes.

Bejeweled Blitz Live is the latest Popcap title to hit the scene, though some might make the argument that it was released on PC or Facebook a long time ago. In an attempt to change up the formula a bit, PopCap has offered a handful of modes and features that take advantage of Xbox Live’s multiplayer and matchmaking. The question on everyone’s mind is whether or not these additions make it stand out from these previous versions. Read More

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.

Dream Chronicles was developed by KatGames and published by Hudson Soft for XBLA on October 20th, 2010. Retails for 800 Microsoft Points. The publisher provided a copy of the game for reviewing purposes.

You’d be forgiven for having not heard of Dream Chronicles, a port of a 2007 PC game released with little fanfair on the same day as Super Meat Boy and Costume Quest. Dream Chronicles is a hidden object game for the most part with some puzzle and adventure elements thrown in for good measure, with a style very reminiscent of Myst and similar games.

You play as Faye an occupant of the Village of Wish which has had a spell cast over it causing all humans to fall asleep. Faye’s husband (Fidget who we discover is actually a fairy) managed to awaken Faye before being captured by the Fairy Queen of Dreams, Lilith. It is Lilith who is responsible for Wish’s current slumber. You must find your way to Fidget but Lilith uses her magic to slow you down at every opportunity. Read More

Fluid was released on XBLIG on October 22, 2010 for 80 Microsoft Points.

Fluid is a game that boggles the mind, and will keep you occupied for hours.   I call is a 2D puzzle racer, because the object of the game is to find the quickest line around the level without getting killed in the process.  I was calling it a 2D version of Super Meat Boy!  Click read more for everything about the game and what I thought of it.

Read More