Reviews

AMY was developed by VectorCell and published by Lexis Numérique. It was released on January 11, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

AMY is a survival horror game much along the lines of the original Resident Evil or Silent Hill–at least that’s the plan. Unfortunately about the only things AMY and those games have in common are a good idea and some clunky controls. Apparently there’s some unwritten rule that to be a member of the survival-horror genre, your game must play like it was made in the mid to late 90’s. You are Lana, a seemingly big-hearted woman who has been infected. The task is simple, figure out what the hell is going on and keep Amy alive. Along the way you will meet several infected, a couple intriguing characters and few shady ones. Not much more to explain then that, now for the guts of this thing . . .

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Leedmees was developed and published by Konami. It was released on September 7, 2011 and retails for 800 MSP. A copy of the game was provided for review purposes.

Leedmees is the third game in a string of Xbox Live Arcade releases to utilize the Kinect sensor and given the lack of quality Kinect titles warranting a full release, this looks to be a good move by Microsoft. Developed by Konami, Leedmees is a puzzle game in which you take on the role of a giant who must help tiny creatures called Leedmees on to safety by using your body to form a bridge and avoiding deadly obstacles such as spikes, ghosts and beach balls.

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Bastion was developed by Supergiant Games and published by WB Games. It will be released on July 20, 2011 for 1200 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Bastion is kicking off the Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade on July 20, 2011. This game, the first developed by Supergiant Games, puts you in control of the kid as you make your way through the demolished landscape of the once flourishing city of Caelondia. The Calamity ripped the world apart, and the Bastion is all that’s left. The narrator tells the story of the kid as he works to gather the cores, place them into the monument, and bring more power back to the Bastion. So, is the Bastion worth re-building? Is the tale of the kid worth seeing? Is this the story worth be told?

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Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax was developed by Marvelous Entertainment, Inc. and Opus Studios, Inc., and retails for 800 MSP.

Half-Minute Hero arrives on XBLA after enjoying substantial success on the PSP. The game is what its name implies, more or less: a traditional Japanese RPG style hero, who saves the world in 30 seconds, give or take a reset from the Time Goddess, over and over again.

For the most part the game works like this: hero appears in an area, an evil lord announces that he will cast the spell of destruction, which will destroy the world. The spell takes 30 seconds to complete. A timer appears at the top of the page and our hero must rocket into action. Thanks to the Goddess, the timer can be paused while in towns or reset if enough cash is on hand (the goddess has to make a living, after all). In the time allotted, the player must advance to a level at which they can beat the local evil lord, and possibly solve a side quest or two.

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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.

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The original Duels of the Planeswalkers was perhaps the best bad game one could play on XBLA. It launched with numerous bugs, many of which remain unfixed today. A small number of cards didn’t work as described in their text, it was inordinately difficult to arrange blocking if there were too many attackers, and certain design decisions crippled the strategic calculus normally found in a Magic game. And in many ways the first Duels game played like a giant teaser advertisement for the rest of the Magic universe, rather than as a game whole and complete unto itself. It was still hugely fun to play, because Magic is a fun game with great art and clever mechanics, but the game lacked a certain richness, that attention to detail and the player experience that marks a great game.

Thank Wizards and Stainless, then, for making the bold decision to leave behind the old game, warts and all, and concentrate on creating the game that the first Duels could have been. The new Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 addresses many of the complaints about the first Duels, providing a smoother, faster game experience, a cleaner UI, vastly improved deck editing, a variety of online cooperative play formats, and a generally richer, better game experience.

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Here at XBLAFans it’s Rewind Review month for all of June. Every day this month, we will feature a new Rewind Review from one of our many staff writers. You can check back right here at this post each day for a link to our latest Rewind Review along with our current back catalog of Rewind Reviews from the past. If you’ve been holding back on some of the older XBLA titles because you weren’t quite sure if they were worth your hard earned money, make sure to check this post periodically and we might have a review for the game in question. Read More

Snoopy Flying Ace was developed by Smart Bomb Interactive and published by Xbox Live Arcade. It was released on June 2nd, 2010 for 800MS points.

Snoopy Flying Ace is an aerial combat game that focuses mainly on the online multiplayer aspects. A short single player campaign is included but this game truly shines in its many multiplayer modes. You take flight as either your Xbox Live avatar or one of the Peanuts characters with one basic goal; shoot down anyone around you. With 16-player online games, the pace of each game is hectic from start to finish. Turrets, power-ups, and environmental hazards add even more chaos to each game making Snoopy Flying Ace one of the most action packed games available today on XBLA.

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Outland was developed by Housemarque, and published by Ubisoft. It was released April 27, 2011 for 800 MSP.

Developer Housemarque has made a name for themselves with their previously PSN-exclusive titles Super Stardust HD and Dead Nation. It is nice to see them bring their next title, Outland over the the Xbox Live Arcade. The story focuses on the spirits of Chaos and Balance, who wage war with each other. A hero comes along to help protect the would against this universal divide. You play as that hero, and will need to skillfully maneuver through the changing world. So, is the adventure worth while or is it just a puzzling mess? Here’s our review.

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Are You Smart Enough? was developed by Latino Soul Studio and was released on Xbox Live March 4th, 2011 for 80MSP. A copy of this game was provided by the developer for reviewing purposes.

Are You Smart Enough is a puzzle game that makes you use your brain on multiple levels. The object is to move the boxes around by pushing them to the predesignated spots on the board. What makes this challenging is that you can only push the boxes to the destinations, there is no pulling and each stage has a different set of walls that you must maneuver around.

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