Rewind Reviews

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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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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A little over 3 years ago, Poker Smash was released on Xbox Live Arcade. At first glance, one might write it off as just another generic match-three game. Sure, the game can be played by simply matching 3-of-a-kind, but the depth that Poker Smash brings to the action/puzzle genre is unlike any other game on the marketplace.  Inspired by the SNES cult hit; Tetris Attack, Poker Smash is truly one of the hardest puzzle games to master.  But the true beauty of the game is that any gamer of any skill level can find an enjoyable experience in Poker Smash. Read More

With Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 just around the corner we at XBLA Fans thought it was a good time to revisit the first XBLA game in the series. Itself a remake of the fondly remembered NES game the original Rearmed was hotly anticipated upon it’s announcement in January 08. Since XBLAFans was not around to review it at the time we take a look back for our first Rewind Review.

Bionic Commando Rearmed was released August 13, 2008 for 800MSP.  It was developed by the now-defunct GRIN, which would later have many of its employees transfer to Fatshark, who developed Rearmed 2.  It follows Nathan Spencer, an operative for the Federation who is equipped with a bionic left arm.  His mission: To rescue Federation hero Super Joe from the clutches of the evil Empire and assist him with destroying their experimental superweapon known as Albatros.

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